Taking a Stand for an Anti-Racist Nation

We at Family Values @ Work are devastated as we mourn the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many Black lives taken by police and vigilantes. Ours is a mourning in action: We stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, and we commit to bolder work to transform society into one that values the lives of people of color and guarantees economic, social, and civil justice for all. 

This is personal for FV@W staff and network leaders, as Black people, as people of color, as white people, as queer people, as moms of Black children, as caregivers and as workers. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national uprising for Black lives is another stark reminder of how deeply connected we are and how we are dependent on each other for our collective liberation. None of us is safe or free until all of us are. Establishing the conditions that make Black lives matter is the only way to guarantee liberty and justice for all. 

George Floyd’s killing is a symptom of a historically racist and authoritarian society that is only growing more so. We can see evidence of the systemic nature of the problem in the cavalier conduct of George Floyd’s murderer. He had confidence he would escape accountability, as he had so many times before, so he continued to press his knee into George Floyd’s neck, even as he knew someone was recording the scene on video and numerous witnesses called for him to stop. The immunity white police officers expect must come to an end.  

We’re committed to uprooting and replacing racist and authoritarian systems that permit and encourage violence against Black people. Our work for economic justice for caregivers is part of a radical revaluing of communities of color and of care, confronting this nation’s historic and ongoing dependence on coerced or underpaid labor and the racist marginalization of Black people—including immigrants, indigenous and enslaved people and their descendants. We know we must also confront head on the ways in which authoritarian structures—like militarized local police forces and ongoing police brutality against Black people—are used to uphold this racist economy. 

We demand a new economy that respects Black lives and honors Black workers. We demand that local, state, and federal funds be redirected from systems and programs that encourage discrimination, violence, and persecution against Black people toward systems and programs that ensure everyone is included in our nation’s prosperity and every person’s contribution to that prosperity is given due respect and properly valued.

We have so much work to do. As a national staff supporting grassroots coalitions in 27 states, we will be investing in political education and healing among the members of our network, so we collectively have the resources to understand, survive, and overcome these historic and continuing systems of oppression. We call on all our allies in the paid leave and child care movements to do the same.

And our work cannot wait. As teacher Norma Wong points out, we have a habit of adjusting our pace to move at the speed of those slowest to change. We know we must break that habit. We hear the call for collective acceleration toward justice and rise up.