Click here to view the original announcement.
“We’ve asked the question before – If not us, who?
Who will stand with and for our youth:
when they are made homeless
when they are criminalized
when they are failed by the systems intended to support them
We’ve said they face relentless racism and that they need us to have their back.
We’re saying it louder now.
No matter what we do, how hard our youth work, how many books we sell, we can’t achieve our mission if the status quo of white supremacy and oppression stands.
If you support our mission read that again.
We will say what shouldn’t have to be said:
that Black lives matter
that we stand with those who protest against white supremacy and police brutality
that Black lives cannot be replaced
that police brutality is owned by all who are silent
We will voice up, show up, be where our youth, staff, and community are.
We will work to raise the age on the juvenile justice system and end the child welfare cliff that thrusts so many of our Black and brown youth into homelessness and incarceration.
We will educate our partners and lift up youth voices as agents of change.
We will fight to defund and dismantle the structures that oppress, and to and invest in people and communities, not over-policing.
We are also asking you, our community, to act:
act by donating to those at the forefront of this movement like Black Lives Matter and the NAACP
act by supporting bail funds, like the Massachusetts Bail Fund
act by educating yourself, especially if you are white. Read and think: a racial equity glossary, an anti-racist reading list
Don’t look away.
Don’t stand by.
Silence and neutrality perpetuate racism.
We can’t tell you how to act, but ask that you do.
In solidarity,
More Than Words”