Thoughts on recent events

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the very justified anger and frustration our country is dealing with that was recently reached a boiling point with the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. 

A friend shared with me something that I hadn’t read in a long time, but is incredibly, and unfortunately, applicable to the recent events, MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Please take a moment and read it when you have time.

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

One of my favorite passages from MLK’s letter really struck a cord with me this time reading through:

"Such an attitude stems from a misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively...Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

57 years of time has not solved this problem.

One of the biggest mistakes white people, like me, make with our children is simply telling them, “everyone is the same and we should all treat each other the same/there’s only one race and it’s human/etc” and immediately ending the conversation right there at the hypothetical happy-ever-after without having honest discussion of who we as a nation actually are and where we’ve actually been. All people are created equal, but it is naive to ignore the headwinds that many people still face today. I will be raising my children to understand the role that history and institutions continue to play in our society.

As for Hopjump, we have always held diversity and inclusion as a core tenant of our culture and we take pride in our constant pursuit to be better. Even with this focus, there is always room for improvement so please let me, or anyone on our executive staff, know if you have ideas on how we can lead the way.

We also understand that many of you are experiencing anger, frustration, and anxiety around everything that has been going on so we will be having more discussions over the next few weeks with our licensed clinician. Please join our #wellness channel in slack for more information.

Starting this week, Hopjump will also be supporting organizations which are focused on making an improvement right now.  We would like this money to go where our employees feel it will be best used and can make the largest impact in our community. To that end, we will be matching all employee contributions to the charity of their choice in the amount of $5,000. 

The time for action is now, and I urge everyone to please take action today to make sure another 57 years doesn’t pass us by.