Aerodei’s Post

We have come far - but we have a very long way to go. Juneteenth is not about a brown bag lunch talk on slavery, a day your company posts about Juneteenth on social media, a day where organizations take photo opps with Black employees (yes I saw this), and so forth. It's about remembering what happened in the past, and planning for the now, and the future. An actionable plan that helps to move the needle on racism. See below. Other actions in the workplace include: 1) the racial pay gap is real. If your company will not be transparent about salaries, be an ally and share how much you earn 2) sponsor (vs mentor) 3) disaggregate your diversity data - meaning decouple from the data you have on women, other POC's and so forth to see the impact of your diversity efforts for Black professionals 4) be transparent about the specific criteria you use to promote and hire Feel free to share what you or your companies are doing to move that needle to encourage inspiration!

As you honor Juneteenth, please consider the reflections of Netta Jenkins CEO, Aerodei. How will you (and your company?) reference the realities of this harsh history and current challenges? What words will you speak and actions will you take to support ongoing liberation, freedom, and human rights?

"Happy Juneteenth..." they said to me, In an email, words so carelessly free. But "Happy Juneteenth" is complicated, With a history that's not so easily celebrated. Black workers still fight in the labor fray, Promotion, pay, opportunity—kept at bay. The erosion of rights, voting suppressed, Dreams of equity, persistently pressed. Circuit Court’s blow to the Fearless Fund, Black women’s hopes, under the gun. Supreme Court's ruling, a backward stride, Affirmative action, now pushed aside. 131 scholarships in Texas, no more, DEI banned, closing the door. "Happy Juneteenth," they said to me, A stab in the heart, invisibility. Should I let it be or make them see? The pain, the struggle, the history. "Happy Juneteenth..." they said to me, Yet freedom’s shadow is all I see. Policies backlash, inequities stand, A nation's 2020 progress, slipping through our hands. "Happy Juneteenth," is complicated, Injustice and pain, not yet abated. Hurt, and sadness deep, For promises broken, and progress steep. Should I share this, make it clear? Or let silence hold what I fear? For "Happy Juneteenth," they said to me, Is more than words, it's our history. Actions: 1. Donate to fearless fund: https://lnkd.in/eYSjZwdV 2. https://lnkd.in/ewcpvzA2 3. Follow Aerodei and share info with your HR leader and executive team. 4. Support Voting Rights Brennan Center for Justice (https://lnkd.in/ekpJrWuz 5. Request a pay equity audit from your organization. #juneteenth #happyjuneteenthiscomplicated #inclusion

This post is part of a series of posts where I will share one thing I’ve done in hopes that this one thing will help you see your power in dismantling the system of w hite supremacy and how you can do something, big or small, too. Today, I read the ARD newsletter on Juneteenth. You can, too. https://lnkd.in/g-6tyYru "Juneteenth didn't officially end slavery for everyone. That didn't happen until the 13th Amendment went into effect in December 1865, which stated that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (National Archives). See those words "except as a punishment for crime"? If you reflect back on our conversations on cash bail and defunding the police, you may notice how our criminal legal system is still unfairly placing Black people in involuntary servitude. Beyond that, free does not mean equal. Enslaved people were no longer enslaved. It did NOT mean we had a right to bear arms, or vote, to work, go to school, marry someone outside our race, or own land. It gave us our freedom but none of our rights. Remember that Juneteenth only happened 158 years ago, and we're still a far way away from racial equity." Take Action: • Tell your company to make Juneteenth a paid holiday. If your company already has, upload their information here. • Reflect: Who was alive in your family when Juneteenth happened? How many generations ago was that? • If you’re a nonblack person, use today and every day to support the Black community—organizations, businesses, and people. If you can, donate your PTO to help Black mothers and women impacted by gun violence heal from systemic harm. What’s #youronething today? #deconstructingwhiteness #antiracism Saira Rao Regina Jackson Carly Goldberg Susie Berg Annette Blum Pearson (MBA)

The San Francisco Black community is in a state of emergency in 2024, and we need to get our house and priorities in order. We are 5/6% of the City's census population, and we have both established and self-proclaimed Black "community leaders" who are using outdated methods, dogma, rote and rhetoric to continue the cycle of gentrification, poverty pimping, and manipulating the paperwork for nonprofit programs that produce ZERO long-term outcomes/upward mobility. There are some serious questions we need to be asking political incumbents and candidates (and each other) before we head to the polls on November 5th, 2024. Do you support cash reparations for Black San Franciscans who were born here and/or have lived here long-term? Do you have a budget for Black-led/Black-serving organizations and churches, that can be included as a permanent line item in the Mayor's annual budget? Do you have a system of checks & balances in place, to prevent fraud, nepotism and illegal bookkeeping practices for Black-led/Black-serving nonprofits that receive City funding/contracts? Do you have a fast-track process that can help increase Black homeownership in historically-Black neighborhoods of San Francisco? Do you have a pipeline to help increase contracts and jobs for Black general contractors and housing developers in San Francisco? Do you have a multi-layered plan to eradicate homelessness and sidewalk encampments in the Civic Center, Tenderloin and SOMA neighborhoods, and address the fentanyl crisis affecting and killing Black residents in the Tenderloin? https://lnkd.in/gu24ZBD7

Juneteenth is a day of remembering that on June 19th, 1865, enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas were told that slavery had ended 2 years prior. Having no land, no mules, no money that was promised by the government in the form of reparations, and hardly considered American by the very people who enslaved them and their families for centuries, these now-formerly enslaved Black Americans in Galveston (and the rest of the US) had to find a way on their own with no systems in place to help them - the only systems in place were to hurt them. What was born from the Reconstruction Era was the KKK, Jim Crow, and the prison pipeline geared towards keeping Black men enslaved - among other things. Black people in America have always had to be each other's Community, because the Systems in place in America made it clear only White cis-gendered men were created equally. Today is not the day for White folx to host bbq's or speaking events - seriously, no. Rather, it's a day (as it is every other day) for learning and for giving directly to Black people. The Decolonized Community Care Fund is a perfect start, because it has been created by a Black Queer Woman who knows the disempowerment of broken systems and the power around Community built by other Black women. Clicking on the link to our DCCF spreadsheet below, you will find two Black women who have never second-guessed being there for everyone else, and they need an effing break. They need our support every day, but today is a perfect day to start if you haven't already. Dedicate $5 a month or week, at the very least. Have more? Commit to contributing to more. Community Care cannot be truly for the Community until you begin to reprioritize who your money and support goes to. How many of you can say you support Black businesses on a daily basis, much less Black women you know on social media platforms? Today, truly is a perfect day to start. Details are below 👇 [Image: Canva] #Juneteenth #Reparations #DecolonizedCommunityCare #CommunityCare

Need a safety net of support to help you with basic needs, emergencies or a request of care that adds softness to your life? Or, do you have resources to share but don’t know where to contribute direct aid? Check out post below to learn more about the Decolonized Community Care Fund. We’ve got us. 🌱 #MutualAid #CommunityCare #RedistributeTheWealth

I am disgusted, but not surprised, by the decision from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the American Alliance for Equal Rights versus Fearless court case. This ruling means that the Fearless Fund, a grant developed by Black women to support Black women owned businesses, can no longer support these businesses. We are told to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. To reach around to help each other. To work hard. To believe in the dream of upward mobility. But how is this anything other than gaslighting when something as fundamentally positive as a fund created by Black people to support other Black people is met with widespread vitriol before quickly being put to an end? The reality is that simply existing as a Black person is political, whether we want it to be or not. Being Black means that someone can, and will, take offense by anything we do—and there are systems in place to both lead and support any effort meant to oppress us. From enslavement, to reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to rolled back venture capitalist funds—the process continues. As a Black woman who has fought hard for my success (and benefitted from the unwavering support of my community), I’m using this day to remind myself and others of our ongoing duty to dismantle local, domestic, and global systems of oppression. To other marginalized people, this is not our fight alone. Those in dominant, privileged positions need to be doing everything they can to suppress the rising tide against equity and freedom. I am also using this day to unwind. Just as resistance is political, so is rest. When your existence is political, rest is a revolutionary act. Indulge as needed. Here’s to fighting the good fight. #fearlessfund #equity #DEI #systemicoppression #grants

Any morally lacking individual can watch Black folks being hurt, dehumanized, humiliated, killed, and go back to their lives and say, "OH WELL, THAT'S WRONG, but I'm not going to do anything to ensure that not another Black person has to suffer.  These same folks declare that they DON'T believe African Americans deserve reparations. No matter how much other peoples of color see our suffering, they're not willing to go to Congress and demand that blacks receive reparations and request that their humanity is as essential as any other person is born in the U.S. Folks will watch inequalities shown on our T.V.s every day, talk a minute or two about the injustices of each killing, and decide there isn't a thing they can do or, better yet, nothing they're willing to do. These same Americans will donate thousands/millions of money to these NON-PROFIT organizations that are supposed to help folks in other countries but refuse to picket march and demand the U.S. GOVERNMENT to stop the violence against black folks, period. I don't get this; after at least fifty years, we complain that the government helps to fund, and somehow, the CEOs receive the biggest yearly bonus and have yet to work much. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THERE ARE STILL COMMERCIALS THAT ADVERTISE; The countless drinking water wells still need to be constructed in AFRCA. Twenty-five years ago, they should've built a drinking water infrastructure to deliver clean, cheap water to every part of the content.

The Fearless Fund Now Movement is not only today but it appears to be necessary for it to be top of mind for many more days to come. The lawsuit staged against the Fearless Fund by Ed Blum is a cautionary tale that any marginalized group and their friendlys/advocates should take seriously. Today, it's yet another targeting tactic against Black people/Black women trying to level the playing field in making financial resources available for other Black women to succeed in business, but tomorrow it will be you. Don't sleep on the highly focused erosion directed toward the hard-won rights, advances and successes that have been happening among BIPOC despite the hurdles faced. "In 2018, U.S. companies raised a total of $130B in VC funding, yet only 2.2% of that total went to female-founded companies and less that 1% of total funding was allocated toward businesses founded by woman of color." -Fearless Fund/FORTUNE, 2018 & GIRLBOSS, 2019 What can you do to get involved (on the ground floor) in the meantime? Be intentional about shopping with Black women-owned businesses and Black service providers. BIPOC are willing and more than able to compete. Moving the goal posts have always been a worried and poor competitor's strategy. Support the Fearless Fund.