Act Now.

[This note was originally published for my team at AkitaBox which is why references are made to what that team will do.]

George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks are just the most recent Black Americans to be murdered due to the color of their skin. And we in American society continue to pretend to not understand why. But really we do. The data is not ambiguous. The stories have been told for centuries. They were documented before we had social media. They were recorded in black and white during the civil rights movement. We all watched Rodney King. We knew Trayvon. We saw Michael Brown’s dead black body. We heard Eric Garner say he could not breath eleven times. We watched 16 shots end Laquan McDonald. We saw Sandra Bland hang after a traffic stop. And we stayed silent. I can’t do that anymore.

The system that led to these murders is disguised as a system of justice. And it can be, if you have resources, or you happen to be white. As I was raised, if I needed help I could get a cop. As I grew older and got pulled over, I could ask to see his badge. If he knocked on my door I would feel comfortable demanding a warrant. But my black friends were taught young to never do those things. Always comply. Always keep their hands visible. Always move slowly. And never talk back. Or their names would be next on the list above. This system must be dismantled and built again. And no-one can silently watch the next event unfold.

Many of you will feel this pull of obligation to rebuild the system the right way. But how? You have day jobs. You have families. You feel powerless. But you are far from it. At the town hall today we will discuss ideas that we, as a small community, can start to rebuild this country in small but effective ways. The time for talking, or thoughts and prayers, are beyond us now.  We must act now! We must heal quickly and rebuild a system that will now be built upon our better angels. It is my commitment to give you the freedom to help in any way you can to do just that. Instead of talking about a new world, we will try in our little ways, to build it. Because that is what we do at AkitaBox. We are builders.

I have tried to stick to digestible principles that we can choose to be active with. Is it connected to our business roles (economic development)? Does it take advantage of resources we have readily available (office space and technical know how)? Will we enable personal change in a way that will become habitual for everyone (automate new forms of information)? And will our efforts build a community for EVERYONE and heal wounds that are currently wide open?

I would like to talk to people about the following actions we can take:

1. Become active in economic development in black communities. There are active Black Chambers of Commerce in Wisconsin. We have relationships at some of them and will work with organizations such as the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin to be able to help Black owned enterprises in Wisconsin reach their full potential. We have also identified The Milky Way Tech Hub in Milwaukee which was started last year as an incubator to ensure a vibrant startup community in Milwaukee that could also be created in a diverse and inclusive way. We can help in multiple ways to ensure that their effort and ours are aligned to help build economic opportunity in impacted communities. I want to hear your thoughts on other ways we can help create economic opportunity in cooperation with black community leaders.
2. Partner with local activists through a virtual and then actual AkitaBox Academy. We have multiple skills that are in demand in communities of color around Madison. One group that is very active in this battle is a group called the Progressive Center for Black Women. In their call for partners they identify multiple things that we have expertise in. I would suggest we set up a cooperative program with them to help provide regular trainings in the areas that they have asked for help. This includes graphic design, marketing, website development, finance, fundraising and others. We can provide these trainings online during the pandemic and then we can offer regular trainings at night in the new AkitaBox offices or at their location. Our office can also serve as an evening conference center and meeting place for the organization as their facilities are rather small right now. Very open to other ideas to bring our talents to bear on local communities as they grow.
3. Listen to alternative views on race purposefully. On a personal level it is always important to ensure that you hear multiple points of view in order to fully understand issues and come to a more accurate conclusion. Our social media feeds have unfortunately been structured in such a way as to create a bit of an echo chamber. The impact of this is to further divide us from each other and create misunderstanding and mistrust. Hearing about the black experience in America is not as difficult as it once was for folks outside of that community. And simply following a few highly diverse folks will bring information to you in a way that you are accustomed to and the ideas become easier to consume and internalize. @opalayo, @aliciagarza, @bellhooks, @Luvvie, @mharrisperry, @VanJones68, @ava, @thenewjimcrow, @Lavernecox, @deray, @thedididelgado, @TaNehisiCoats, Ally Henny on Facebook, and Lace on Race on Facebook, Blavity, Madame Noir, The Root, and The Grio. What others do you think folks should follow?
4. Embrace those who disagree with this effort. While there are certainly hard core racists in society that have no place in my world, none of them work here. But there are people with significantly different views on how to make the country optimal. This is in no way an effort to create one world for folks who want to move forward in this particular way and another world for others. We want to build one world where each of us can become the best version of ourselves. So as we build new structures, we will consciously build bridges. We will embrace those with different ideas, sometimes it can help us all grow. Respect between AkitaBox family members is the coin of the realm and the only way forward.
5. Clean up our own house. We are not immune to the systemic nature of the challenge we are trying to address. We will be starting up a comprehensive Diversity and Inclusion process that will help us at AkitaBox improve. It will be a grassroots effort as all of our efforts are, will have radically open discourse and will result in concrete actions to face up to our reality and affect change.

There are a ton of other things that need to be done to rebalance our society in a way that allows each of us to become who we are meant to be. While we, as a small startup, cannot carry the burden for changing all of them, if each startup in Wisconsin were to embrace these kinds of small changes, we can start to move the needle. And as long as we also reach out to all of our brothers and sisters, we will start to see the new system of justice embraced.  

I look forward to taking this journey together.