PULP Is In Solidarity With Black Lives Matter
Dear Pulpistes,
Here at PULP Magazine we’re outraged and saddened by the continued murders and the brutal policing of Black people in the United States. We stand with the victims, their families, and our community of activists, artists, writers, and educators, and those who seek justice through protest in our country.
We are, like so many in our community, un-apologetically angry about this continued, brutal injustice.
The United States was founded on the systemic oppression of Black and Brown people, and it continues to function with the systems of white supremacy that keep people of color marginalized, silenced, incarcerated, and murdered indiscriminately with little consequence.
Media tends to follow the patterns of systemic racism by highlighting only stories that service privileged voices, especially when it comes to the conversation about the body itself: physical and mental health, sexuality, sex work, disability, gender, and identity. PULP Magazine is committed to upholding the voices of Black communities, to listening deeply, and serving as a platform for their voices and stories, and to redistributing whatever resources we gain back into social and racial justice.
Concrete steps we are continuing to take as an organization, especially as we pivot from Medium to our own, independent website:
- Offering fair wages for stories, art, illustrations, workshops, and educational materials for Black folks and other POC
- Raising funds for bail relief for protestors, for Black organizations (including, and especially, Black sex worker orgs and ones that service Black trans folks), for Black folks within the PULP community, and for Black folks in the cities we all live in — as well as anyone else who expresses a need
- Continuing to build a media landscape that makes space for Black and POC voices, who are often underrepresented exploited, and/or appropriated from
- Working to dismantle white supremacy within our systems and business models
- Educating folks in the community on allyship, wealth redistribution, and community-centric models of care
One of the primary characteristics of working in media — especially digital media — is that you’re ever- ready for the beauty, rage, and revolt of the real-time world to come and interrupt your plans; this has never been more salient than this present moment. As many of you know, we had just launched a Kickstarter to help us reach our goal of pivoting off of Medium, and into a new life for ourselves as a site that offers our publication, digital content, and a bevy of community classes (called PULP Public School). We are still dedicated to raising funds to make that dream a reality.
This last week, we paused our fundraiser in order to center redistribution of resources to Black communities and organizations. Now we ask you for a favor: if you, or someone you know, is able to continue contributing to Black communities and also to help support our fundraiser to build a more socially just media landscape, please do/tell them about us.
We need your help to continue fighting the good fight. Please see our social media for a list of places to direct money to BLM orgs, and please go here to help fund our Kickstarter.
Yours,
July + Katie
