Being in Beloved Community

In the summer of 2020, we are grieving once again for the trauma and loss experienced by our brothers and sisters of color in our unjust world. While these moments might bring the injustice into focus, we recognize that systemic racism and oppression are alive in every moment. We stand in solidarity with front line activists doing the difficult work of advocating for social justice and looking to bring structural change in their own communities. And we, as an organization, through our programs and through the ways that we make decisions, hire, and communicate, commit to supporting this front line work. We believe that mindfulness and compassion have a powerful role to play in strengthening social justice activism and in transforming deep underlying structures of mind and heart that make oppression, violence, and dehumanization possible.

In our 10-year history, we have learned a lot about what it means for an organization whose primary decision makers are from dominant identity groups (white, able-bodied, middle-class) to engage in equity work, and we continue to figure out how to navigate this process. We share here the work we have done and are doing to address injustice in our organization and in our own hearts and minds.