Dear friends,
We are mourning with you. We are so deeply saddened and angered by the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. And we know it's not new. We haven't forgotten or forgiven the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and the far too many others who've lost their lives to police violence.
These tragedies continue to rock us to the core, to serve as an assault on our collective humanity- though we're no longer surprised, there's a grief that grows deeper with each new name. Communities of color, the black community especially, are unfairly burdened with the task of navigating a system that was designed to exclude and oppress them, a system that constantly takes and has nothing to give. We stand in solidarity with those all over the country who are fighting to dismantle this systemic racial oppression. Black lives matter.
We consider the building of community to be an essential tenet in creating civic spaces for public discourse, so we'd like to take this opportunity to be in conversation with our community. We are committed to listening, to hearing the ways in which we can be better allies, to having hard conversations, to finding opportunities to more fully practice inclusivity and representation.
We are hopeful that the deep pain and unrest that our nation is feeling will be translated to compassion, to change, to progress but we know it won't happen easily or without the help and support of everyone who would like to see a different future.
We encourage you to research and donate to organizations that support this important activism. Here are some other ways to help, and articles that we've found useful:
Our hearts are heavy with deep sadness and anger, but full of hope for progress and willingness to do the work.
Standing together in love,
We Players