"In late May, 2020, we learned that Breonna Taylor had been killed by police in her apartment in the middle of the night. The same day, we heard that George Floyd had been murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis. Like many people, we were sickened and outraged and felt the need to do something. Like many white people, we didn’t really know what. But we thought we should gather others with us and at least unite in a demand for justice. We wrote 50 of our white women friends, saying, “If you want to join us, just answer yes to this email.” By the next morning, we had received over a hundred emails that simply said, Yes! We knew a nerve had been touched. We’re not experts in racism or justice issues. We just wanted to find ways to help and, most of all, do it without bringing any more harm to the Black community. From those first 100 responders, we created an email list and a Facebook page with the mission of learning from the Black community, speaking out against racism, and ending white silence. We began reading and listening and sharing information with that group which has grown to over 2400.
Through the years, this journey has taken many unforeseen turns and our understanding has deepened 10-fold. What began as an emotional response to wrong-doing by police has opened our hearts and minds to layers upon layers of white supremacy in every aspect of American life, not just policing. We’ve begun to see how fundamentally wrong we got it right from birth. Wrong from our education. Wrong from our history. Wrong from our culture. With each new level, like the peeling of an onion, we continue to identify the ways in which our country’s policies and systems have created the inequities that are embedded in our society today.