Where We Stand

The Marcy Lab School is founded, led, and governed by Black people. Our mission is grounded in economic development for Black people and other people of color.

Here is what we believe…

Our outrage is not only justified but productive toward our aims.
Acknowledging the sanctity and value of Black lives, we are justifiably outraged by the murders of unarmed Black civilians at the hands of law enforcement. The thinkers whose words laid the foundation for the creation of this country converged on the idea that any society is grounded in a “Social Contract” — an implicit agreement between the people and their government. It requires that citizens, in exchange for protection and fair mediation, should surrender certain individual rights in pursuit of the collective good. In doing so, we confer upon the state the right to “a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force.”

When the state abuses its power of monopoly to inflict undue violence upon its citizens, it is in breach of contract. Acts that so blatantly represent a failure of the state to uphold its most basic responsibilities to society necessitate demonstrations by the people that communicate the impact of citizens failing to uphold their own.

George Floyd’s death was a symptom of systemic racism.
George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin — a veteran police officer with 18 prior complaints, in a city where Black residents are 9 times more likely to be arrested for a low-level crime and 6 times more likely to be rendered unconscious during that arrest when compared with their white peers. George Floyd’s life was taken in the rapidly gentrifying, previously redlined, South Minneapolis neighborhood of Powderhorn; a community bearing all the signs and scars of decades of resource deprivation, disenfranchisement and wealth disparity. The police were called in response to George’s alleged counterfeit $20 bill because the corner store where he dropped in for a pack of cigarettes doubles as a check cashing business, a staple in Black communities like Powderhorn, where access to banking is limited. The factors that placed George Floyd facedown on an intersection of an under-resourced, over-policed community are all decades in the making.

George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin but his killing was a symptom of a larger, more pervasive problem that we must contend with: systemic racism — the codification of racial prejudice into policies and procedures. It’s the type of racism that outlasts the racists. Our healthcare, housing, criminal justice, banking, and education systems are all made up of institutions whose policies and practices were created during a time when Black Americans were not viewed as fully human. This is not a problem that fixes itself with time. On the contrary, like a fly caught in amber, each decade that passes without aggressive course correction, leads to further entrenchment of policies and practices that threaten the livelihood and well-being of Black communities.

Systemic racism can be dismantled. And we all have a role to play in it.
Racist people enacted these racist policies and practices. Thus, we know that anti-racist people can dismantle and replace them with anti-racist policies and practices. There are countless organizations actively promoting economic mobility, legal support, political access, education, health equity, and self-defense within Black communities. Supporting the movement to improve Black lives means mobilizing your wealth, influence, and access in support of these organizations, especially if they are Black-led. It means examining the ways in which your own organizations may be perpetuating racism and working with those directly affected to identify and correct the root causes. It means seeking out and centering the voices of Black people in the fight for racial justice.

Beliefs are nothing without action. We will continue to do the work. And we hope that you will continue to stand with us.

In solidarity,

Reuben Ogbonna
Executive Director
The Marcy Lab School