A personal story from an attendee of BelPres since 2014

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. - Arthur Ashe

During this time of collective reckoning with the racism so prevalent in our society, this quote (which I recently came across thanks to this wonderful wall-hanging by Rayo & Honey) made me reflect on two very important aspects of my work for justice:

• Start where I am. I have so much to learn and unlearn about the systems I am a part of, and my role in them. I've been on a multi-year path of self-reflection and re-orienting my own life. As a family on this road, we've made small changes, and changes as large as having a family live with us in our home.
• Start where I am. Having identified what systems I am a part of, and what needs to change to bring about more justice, I begin to create change where I live, work, play, and learn.

This story is about where I work, and I hope it inspires others to pursue justice where they are, too.

For the better part of our small startup's existence (about 5 years), I've been thinking about how to shape our company's culture, and (if we're successful) help shape tech culture on the whole to actively pursue right-relationship and justice, instead of just trying to avoid obvious injustice. Seeds that were planted way back in 2015 have now shot up into fruit-bearing trees so quickly that I'm admittedly scratching my head (and thanking God!).

Even though I have a great relationship with our founders (CEO/CTO), I encountered a lot of opposition when I tried to propose justice-oriented policies, especially when trying to make racism something that we could address with our company's work. The most common critiques were that we were too small to slow down for this stuff, and it was too political to talk about.

But recently a radical transformation took place and the fruit is truly amazing. Our CEO started talking about his reactions to George Floyd's death, and it encouraged me to ask for some big things:

1. I asked our CEO if we could start a gift match to social-justice organizations made up of personal funds from leadership (including my own). He quickly agreed and said our CTO had been wondering the same thing (!!). He made a public statement about it to the company.
2. Encouraged, I asked if he would go one step further and ask our investors if they would match our company's donations. Of course this was risky (we did not know their thoughts on justice issues), but our CEO agreed to ask, and now several of them have joined the matching. The Equal Justice Initiative had a match at 6X the value of the donation by the end!
3. When Black Lives Matter (BLM) King County announced their call for a state-wide strike/march, I asked our CEO and CTO if we could offer the day off to either do reading/learning, join a march/vigil, take a mental health day for those affected by recent events, etc. I put very little effort into the request compared to all of the work I'd do in the past for a request smaller than this, but they both agreed easily.

So what fruit has this borne?

• As a company of 11 people, we raised over $35,000 across the 6 social justice organizations.
• We've had several people in our company (predominantly people of color) say that they are thankful to work for our company at a time like this. One quote: "Thank you for validating my decision to join this company. I'm so proud to work at a place that values its employees and community in this way."
• Here are some things people did with their day off:
  • Put together a video for their church (in Cantonese) about George Floyd's death and how we should respond as Christians. One part (English-translated :)) that spoke to me personally: Instead of asking: "How can I keep myself safe from the world?" Ask: "Why do the black people feel so much pain, anger, sadness, oppression, and hopelessness?"
  • Took a mental health day.
  • Wrote down their personal journey of starting to believe that systemic racism is a real problem so they could talk with their friends who still don't think it is.
  • Had a video-chat conversation with their long-time friend with whom they disagreed about things like whether George Floyd's criminal record should matter.
  • Advocated for more churches (including their own) to make a public statement about racism and George Floyd's death.
  • Made signs with their kids, had a family conversation about racial injustice, and joined a local march.

At a time when many of our employees could have been left feeling helpless, and even uncared for, instead we have come together as a company to do something meaningful.

I share all of this to encourage other seed-planters to take heart! Seeds that I planted in my own life and now those planted at work are yielding fruit. Sometimes the seeds take several years, but big changes are happening right now.

I can see a future where companies actively pursue justice and incorporate community and social costs into the way they do business. I can imagine that more beautiful world, and we can all advocate to bring that closer to reality.

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