2020 has been extreme chaos and as much as I wish there was no racism, pandemic, or political downfall- it is what is happening. In true SI fashion I couldn't do nothing during the BLM movement protests. I have committed to use my platform to encourage, share, and uplift black owned businesses during these times. I know how hard running an online business is and I understand that I will never understand how even more difficult it would be to be black and running one with even more cards stacked against you, but I stand with the community. I know how much it can mean to the person doing and so I have reached out to several black-owned businesses after purchasing from their site and offered to do a free digital portrait for them or their products and then I share on our SI instagram as well(you will notice this is the only content I will be posting for a few weeks). I personally have donated to some charities, but I truly felt communicating and sharing specific businesses was more impactful and hands on. I understand my privilege as a white woman and I have been doing my best to personally learn and educate others as I go. The violence the media has shown and cases that were swept under the rug has made me sick. I realize it may be unconventional to write about this from a business page, but I don't care. I am human and so are you on the other side of the screen and it should make you uncomfortable, because it is wrong. IF YOU ARE NEUTRAL IN SITUATIONS OF I JUSTICE YOU ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSOR. I believe in good humans but if there 10 bad ones and 100 good ones and the 100 good ones don’t turn in the 10 bad ones there are 110 bad ones. Something that really helped me understand the perspective was this analogy I saw on tiktok (@574whitegirl) and here I typed it summarized: "A woman says to me "I cannot support BLM... ALL lives matter"..." I said, "You're right Karen all lives DO matter but listen to this..Let's say we all sit down to eat and everyone get's a plate of food except for Bob, Bob says "I am hungry, I want a plate of food," Karen says "we are ALL hungry Bob." Bob says "But I don't have any food, I deserve food." Karen says "we ALL deserve food Bob" with her full plate and continues to eat..Do we all deserve food? of course, but saying it doesn't change the fact that Bob doesn't have any...do all lives matter? yes, but saying it doesn't change the fact that black lives haven't mattered in many ways for years. Don't be mad you don't have a movement, be happy you don't need one."
I want to be VERY clear when I say this: BLACK LIVES MATTER, SI supports you, loves you, and you are welcome in this small business space. If the idea of this is radical to you, I don't think you belong in this group of amazing people.
Please check out our IG for posts of awesome kick ass black owned businesses and consider purchasing small during these times.