Racial Justice

June 2020

The board and staff of the Lawson Valentine Foundation join in solidarity with those pressing for a long-overdue repudiation of white supremacy and recognition that Black lives matter.  We recognize that police brutality is just one intolerable manifestation of the centuries-old institutionalized racism that has benefitted white people while creating the myriad racialized inequities that violate Black humanity each and every day.  While the movement for social justice has been a centuries-long calling, this current moment has to be a turning point; we cannot go back to normal. We stand with those who are pulling the moral arc of history toward justice. Justice for those living in unsafe, polluted communities of disempowered people. Justice for those harvesting our food and those inside the warehouses and factories, long exploited and ignored, but suddenly recognized as “essential.” Justice for those at the front lines of protest. Justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

For many decades, the Lawson Valentine Foundation has provided general operating support for organizing and advocacy by those most directly affected by environmental injustice and a toxic industrial food system, including the organizing of alternatives.  Today, we remain committed to that mission while seeking to increase our impact and to amplify racial justice. As a staff and board, we commit to deepen our analysis of white privilege and structural racism, to integrate a racial justice lens in all we do, and to use our deepened understanding to take effective action. We pledge to use our full range of resources, joining with others to bend that arc toward justice.