Over the past weeks, protests throughout the US and around the world have been calling out systemic, anti-Black racism and calling for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others. Our country is facing a reckoning and we need to take individual and collective action to fight for justice and anti-racism.
I have been slow to speak out, focused on listening and learning and understanding my role in systemic anti-Black racism, including in academia and environmental science and data science. And trying to figure out what I can do to support ongoing efforts for racial justice and true change. I have been quiet, worried that I’ll say the wrong thing. But silence is part of the problem. We all need to be deliberately and actively and tirelessly anti-racist. We need to listen, act as supportive allies, and fight for Black lives. So I commit to speaking up and doing better. And Openscapes will do better, to show up for racial justice and for true change.
