Letter to the Fletcher Women’s Network
| June 8, 2020 Dear Fletcher Women, As members of the leadership team for Fletcher Women’s Network, we reach out to all of you to express both our anger and horror at the killing of George Floyd and our call to action in light of this human rights crisis of systemic racism and injustice in the US. We note that this comes on the heels of the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many more before. As an international group, we acknowledge the need to fight racism and intolerance across the globe as we watch protests erupting on the world stage. We commend Dean Kyte for her letter to the Fletcher Community in which she both expresses the anguish and grief of the Fletcher community and speaks to necessary changes at The Fletcher School. In our role as leaders in FWN, we pledge to use our voice to help hold The Fletcher School accountable for these and other changes that are necessary. Our strategic plan expresses our support for a diverse and inclusive Fletcher School and worldwide community, but we need to go further. We pledge to develop a clear plan and present it to our members. With our privilege of a Fletcher degree comes the responsibility to act in moments such as this. We ask you, too, to find the strength and determination to act on your beliefs. More specifically, we encourage you to hold us accountable for our plans by giving us your input and support. We represent you and want to hear from you. Finally, we urge you to donate to one or more of the organizations that address racism, bigotry and inequality. Some suggestions follow. In partnership and respect, Kari Sides Suva F11, President Cacilda Teixeira F15, Vice-President/Operations Dulce Carrillo F01 Rebecca Sholes F91 Sophie Pouget F09 Silva Kantareva F10 Ally Friedman F21 Claudia Cunha F85 Valerie Hamilton F19 Palak Khanna F20 Ally Hawkins F17 Tori Okner F14 There are numerous organizations working hard to help change policy in the US, both on the front lines and behind the scenes. The list below includes some of those, but there are many more. If you want to learn more, you can find aggregate lists (which are not exhaustive) here and here. Know Your Rights Camp https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/ NAACP Legal Defense Fund https://www.naacpldf.org/ Campaign Zero https://www.joincampaignzero.org/ Black Lives Matter https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019 The Bail Project https://bailproject.org/ Color of Change https://colorofchange.org/ Showing Up For Racial Justice https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/ Equal Justice Initiative https://eji.org/ National Bail Out https://secure.actblue.com/donate/freeblackmamas2020 Black Voters Matter https://www.blackvotersmatterfund.org/ Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/ American Civil Liberties Union https://www.aclu.org/ |