Racial Justice Film Screening and Fundraiser

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth." - Bahá’u’lláh

On September 12, we held an intimate documentary screening of the 13th followed by an important conversation about how we as a community could do our part. The group cultivated a safe space where we shared personal experiences and looked at hard data presented by the New York Times. 

We brain stormed ways to keep educating ourselves: 
Books: The New Jim Crow, How to be an Antiracist, The Warmth of Other Suns. 
Articles: NY Times Economic Inequality 
​Documentaries: The House I Live In, Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice, TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, Women Behind Bars

We're proud to announce we raised $205 for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is a non-profit organization that provides legal assistance and is dedicated to defending and preserving the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this fundraiser. And a very special thank you to International Service Chair Landon Fortenberry and Fellowship Chair Ta-Sha Watkins for taking the lead on this event, and to Acting Vice President Austin McComb for authoring our BLM Statement. 

Dear Rotaract family and friends,
 
We are living in a historic time. While the Covid-19 pandemic has been challenging and pushed us to take digital measures to keep in touch, people are taking to the streets worldwide. The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer was a terrible abdication of justice. However, his death is one in a long train of abuses that has been perpetrated against Black Americans dating back for centuries. His name has now been added to a growing list of those lives tragically cut short by unnecessary violence like Emmett Till, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and so many others. Our club condemns all forms of racial injustice and commits itself and its members to anti-racism work, such as forming intercultural friendships and taking the time to understand the histories and cultures of humanity. We proudly stand with the Black community in proclaiming: Black Lives Matter.
 
Although evidence of overt racism does not always exist in the actions of an individual, we further recognize that racism also exists subversively and systemically. While the tendrils of discrimination manifest in countless studies throughout many areas of our society, we believe that silence is complicity. After all, as noted philosopher Dr. Cornel West said, “Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private.” Our love now compels us to show solidarity with our Black friends, neighbors, and loved ones in our shared pursuit to achieve not only an equitable system that provides tools so that all may succeed, but also a just system that affords all an equal opportunity to achieve the fruits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But we acknowledge that love is still not enough, and it is up to each one of us to dismantle systemic racism.
 
As the Rotaract Club of Washington, DC, we must band together behind the banner of the common good for all. As Rotaractors, we are called to be leaders in our communities and our workplaces. Our members are international and diverse. It is our duty to join together and stand with each other as a community, united in our club membership and our humanity. Rotaract has been a place of happiness and joy for us over the years, and while some may feel that “politics” has no place in the Rotaract world, we ask those who might feel that way to reflect upon the Four-Way Test. Let us be unequivocally clear:
Black Lives Matter.
 
In Solidarity,
The Rotaract Club of Washington, DC 
Board of 2020-2021
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by Michelle Ramos, President of the Rotaract Club of Washington, DC​

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