"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Dear Rising Sun Community,
The world is demonstrating that racism and injustice shall not be tolerated. Around the globe, thousands of people have taken to the streets in protests to stand up for the human rights of the Black community. We at LAJF and Camp Rising Sun stand in unwavering solidarity with those who are protesting and those who are taking action against a system that perpetuates violence against Black Lives, against white supremacy and racial discrimination. We condemn the racist policies, systemic racism, and police brutality that led to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and countless others. It is the consequences of a racist system that oppresses people of color and minorities and the immoral inaction of those in positions of privilege, standing idly by for too long.
This movement though is not just about the big systems of oppression. It is also about the day to day, micro and macro-level discrimination, bias, and apathy we participate in. We understand that our solidarity is empty without a commitment to deeply examine our own organization. We are grateful for the CRS community members who have, throughout the decades, pushed this organization to be more anti-racist. We are indebted to them for shining a light on every and all ways that we are contributing to a global society that is racially unjust. We are committed to listening, to learning, and most importantly, to change. We acknowledge that we must do better.
Here are some steps we are taking on what we hope is the road to making positive change:
We will offer a discussion space facilitated by and exclusively for our black alumni to communicate.
We will offer a series of allyship workshops and disperse reading materials to continue learning and discussion on racial injustice.
We continue to be committed to and will work diligently to recruit and nominate a more racially diverse board of directors, committee membership, and staff team.
We will review our curriculum guide, camper orientation, and staff training materials to ensure that our pedagogical approach is anti-racist and seeks to dismantle systems of oppression so that our program truly lives by the words of our mission.
We will review our vendors and ask them to stand in solidarity with us and work towards investing in companies that share our values.
We hope our collective efforts as the Camp Rising Sun community will lead to positive change. We are steadfast in our commitment to continue dismantling racism within our organization and to ensuring that we hold ourselves accountable in the process. We encourage you to look inward and in your immediate community to do your own work on what it means to be anti-racist. We have shared a few resources here that our team has found helpful:
Resources to Address Racial Inequality
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
Our community spans decades of alumni spread across the globe. We call upon our supporters to stand ironbound with us in the fight against racial injustice, not only in the United States but across the world. Investing in the change that Camp Rising Sun inspires is a long term plan. In the short term, we further call upon our global supporters to direct their financial support and time to the fight for racial justice. These are two starting points in thinking about how to make an impact with your donations and get more involved at a local level:
With hope,
The LAJF Team