Complacency is Complicity: Committed To Change
As individuals and as an organization we are equally saddened and outraged by the recent horrific murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless other hate-filled atrocities the black community has suffered for too long. Structural racism continues to infect society, and we’re currently at a boiling point. Complacency is complicity; we must clearly stand against any semblance of prejudice or racism in no uncertain terms.
These protests are forcing the entire country to confront and acknowledge generations of inequality. We need zero tolerance for the systemic racism that led us here, and that has been living in this country for centuries. Hopefully, this is the turning point that no one will ever forget.
Admittedly, it’s sad that it has taken so much suffering and tragedy for us to speak out and act. For that we apologize and hold ourselves accountable. We are committed to using our platform and privilege to affect change, with a clear path to building a society we are proud of, and to ensure we never ignore the bias, injustice and ugly racism that persists in this world. We have a responsibility to do our part in calling out hatred and breaking down barriers to help level the playing field. Empathy requires abandonment of our own perspective, and we are listening.
To that end, these are our commitments to take action:
- Voting at the federal, state and local level is an obvious action that needs to be taken. We will use our resources to help (in the small and humble way we can) elect leaders who lead with equality, compassion and decency. Moreover, we will do our part to share resources and encourage high voter turnout to make sure every voice is heard.
- We will work to expand our partnerships, network and reach to ensure black founders and executive teams have an equal opportunity in our deal flow funnel, and ultimately in our portfolio. And we will be more cognizant of having our portfolio founders and executive teams look more representative of the world we want.
- We will work with partners, many of whom we already support, and leverage our resources to improve access for the next generation of black entrepreneurs and leaders and help close the opportunity gap. You can only dream as far as your imagination takes you, and without big dreams and the right access to achieve those dreams, the word underrepresented will continue to be used. We recognize that we have a duty to leverage our unique experiences to help address systemic inequality. We acknowledge the privilege we’ve held and the power of access to information that has contributed to our success. It is incumbent upon us to work towards closing the opportunity gap to unlock access to tools, network and information for the next generation of leaders and black founders. We will work with our team, portfolio companies, venture partners and extended network to create a sustainable plan for access. More details to follow.
- Lastly, we will make financial contributions to relevant organizations leading the charge to address this systemic inequality, though this is the easy part. We have been committed to philanthropy since entering the professional world and each have aligned ourselves with causes that we are personally passionate about. But we realize our responsibility extends beyond this.
These are just a few things we can do to leverage our platform in order to not just take a singular stand at a moment in time, but to change the way we operate and do whatever we can to implement permanent change.
The Indicator Ventures Team
