We refuse to be broken. Instead, we build.

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An activist in Charlotte, NC on May 30, 2020, following the killing of George Floyd.
Photography by Clay Banks ([link removed]) .


** "While we like to believe that the system is merely ‘broken,’ now is the time we finally acknowledge that the system was purposely designed to break black people. But we refuse to break, and here we stand, unbroken and undeterred."
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— The system was built to break black people ([link removed]) by Rodney Foxworth

As we mourn the tragic loss of black life from police brutality, we must recognize that the injustices affecting black people are innumerable. Police brutality isn’t the only injustice, it is the one that can be more easily captured to go viral.

Other injustices to black people, like lack of access to quality education and healthcare, limited business and home ownership opportunities, cannot be captured so easily for quick public consumption. These injustices are insidious drivers of inequity that give police brutality an excuse, they work seamlessly together. We need to break them up.

To work against these numerous injustices, we need to invest in black leadership now. Investment in black leaders strengthens our ability as a society to create a future that works for all of us. Black leaders have been doing the work to build a better society all along, long before nation-wide protests this week. They need more resources and long-term support, a new system, and they’ve already created it ([link removed]) for all of us.

To support black leaders, Common Future is committing more than $750,000 to black-led organizations in our network that have demonstrated a commitment to supporting, investing in, and uplifting black communities impacted by economic injustice. We will share more details and impacts of this one of more-commitments-to-come later this year.

The opportunity to shift capital to shift power is in front of us. Our request is simple: be an ally and fund people of color now.

Read on about the resilience and brilliance of black people in our latest piece, The system was built to break black people ([link removed]) .

— The Common Future Team

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