Standing together for racial equity and community

The outrage continues to grow and with good reason. 

The horror of watching one Black man’s life being choked off requires outrage. The violence and inhumanity that killed George Floyd, minute by awful minute, is a prism for the callous force of structural racism. Every screen is witness to its brutal contempt for human life. 

The resulting fury — first locally, now nationally and internationally — expresses our collective grief in a moment of solidarity. 

Because when no version of “the talk” can keep a person of color safe, when leaders fail to lead and systems don’t protect, fury only rises. That’s why the crowds are growing and filled with people of every color and age. They voice a common humanity crying for leadership and resolve. 

We stand with them today, as we have for decades. 

The communities where we work intensively, and our grantees and partners, recognize the root cause in this moment. People of color, immigrants, Native Americans, people in jails and prisons, the poor — the ones suffering and dying in greater numbers — bear the brunt of racial inequity in every system. Their work, our shared work on behalf of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is to address the structural racism behind inequities — to expose it, undo it and help communities heal from its wounds. 

At this point in time, when COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 100,000 lives lost and the effects of structural racism are exposed on every screen, we stand with our grantees and partners and call upon leaders in every circle, large or small, to raise their voices on behalf of our common humanity. 

Now is our opportunity to commit to building the equitable systems that will safeguard children, their families and communities everywhere.