At MaeBright we are personally aware that nobody can work in the LGBTQ+ community without acknowledging that the experience of oppression is different for Black and Brown bodies, immigrants, non-Christians, and anyone affected by the idea that whiteness is better, also known as white supremacy. White supremacy is the ideology that white culture, norms, and people are inherently better than non-white culutre, norms, and people. We also know that racial neutrality means support for a racist status quo; therefore, all of our training addresses racism as an LGBTQ+ issue. We know that for LGBTQ+ people of color, oppression is compounded. We hold that white LGBTQ+ people (and all white people) have an ethical duty to work to end white supremacy.
We recognize that anti-Blackness is an issue within all of our communities, including communities of color, and that those of us who are not Black are morally obligated to address it in our work and personal lives. One main characteristic of racism is that individual actions are not all that is needed to maintain it; the system of white supremacy depends on a collective racial hierarchy. Our decisive and concerted actions are needed to dismantle systems built to disenfranchise Black people (because that was the intention behind those systems, even if that is no longer remembered or was purposely erased from history books).
At MaeBright, we continually work to reach equitable outcomes, be anti-racist, and look at our work from a racial justice standpoint. We do not believe in empty statements or empty promises. We believe that our commitment to racial justice should show through our work. This commitment sometimes means losing business and we are more than okay with that. We are always doing self-reflection around our own participation in white supremacy and anti-Blackness in effort to be accountable to ourselves and our communities. We also welcome feedback on how we can do better.
In short, we commit ourselves to continuously work so one day we can live in a fair, just, and equitable society.