2020 has indeed been a year of reckoning. With the pandemic and a gamut of racial injustice issues, we, as a society, have reached beyond the tipping point. Over the last few years, we have seen demonstrations across the country for many social injustice and violence issues, but this year is just different. As we, Americans, organized in groups to push for change, brands have also stepped up to the plate. Rather than releasing generic statements condemning racial injustice and violence to “check the box,” companies are outlining plans of action to improve their diversity and inclusion initiatives and to actively supporting organizations and the movements.
At Noetic, we use our values as a guiding light for everything we do. As with the rest of the country, after Breonna Taylor’s murder in March and George Floyd’s murder in May, we knew we needed to do more. We leaned into our values of Help First, Curious Spirit, Growth-Minded, and Setting the Bar High to explore how we could further our efforts and impact. As a company, we decided to focus on supporting Embrace Race, an organization dedicated to educating children and adults of all colors to be inclusive. Their four goals are:
- Nurture resilience in children of color
- Nurture inclusive, empathetic children of all stripes
- Raise kids who think critically about racial inequity
- Support a movement of kid and adult racial justice advocates for all children
Aligning with our values, we decided to partner with Embrace Race to help amplify their message and do our part to educate ourselves to be better advocates. In an interview with CNN, Embrace Race’s founders Melissa Giraud and Andrew Grant-Thomas discuss how “racial bias and inequity is systemic and not simply about interpersonal interaction; we also create the systems. If you want to create better systems, you need to nurture better agents.” Racism isn’t something you’re born with; it’s something you learn from those around you consciously and unconsciously, intentionally and unintentionally.
As part of our commitment to Embrace Race and the Black Lives Matter movement, Noetic has chosen to support its pursuit of “ensuring our next generation is brave, informed, and thoughtful about Race.” By becoming active volunteers and further educating ourselves around this vital work, we hope to further the dialog and progress both at Noetic and on behalf of our trusted partners.
Whether it’s reading a book, attending a webinar, listening to and learning from someone’s experiences, donating, volunteering, or opening a dialogue with our colleagues, friends, and families, we can each make an impact. We, at Noetic, look forward to continuing to learn more about this important cause as we work together to Topple Over too many years of injustice, inequity and, bias.