Reflections on Racial Injustice

I’ve been silent trying to digest the gravity of recent events, looking at myself in the mirror and reflecting while attempting to find the right words and considering what actions to take. I’m still searching and looking for answers but made some progress.

Reflection:

1. I’ve been naive and ignorant to the true suffering and pain the black community and my friends have been living through every day.
2. Racism and white supremacy looms in the shadows but I’ve been blind.
3. I have privileges and advantages as a white man and it’s important for me to say that out loud.
4. I’ve never had to fear the police and can’t pretend to understand what it could be like to be looking over your shoulder all the time.
5. I’ve not worked hard enough to try and understand today’s challenges with race or asked enough questions.

General Thoughts and Observations:

1. The fears, concerns, sadness and anxiety of COVID19 can’t hold a candle to uprooting racisms from the country. Maybe that will be the silver lining of the pandemic.
2. Trump is a disgusting human and has to be pulled out of the White House in November. Period. There is no question he has divided the country deeper than we could imagine.
3. If you don’t VOTE and take action to vote and push your friends to vote in November you are comfortable. No more excuses this is not a game.
4. After listening to President Obama yesterday, I am also hopeful that in these darkest days we turn an important corner as a nation and come out the other side in 2021 battle-scarred and beat up but stronger.

Actions:

1. Speaking with, and more importantly, listening to my black friends so they know I’m here for them and united with them. It’s been emotional and beautiful.
2. Donating to organizations that understand how to invest inequality and a larger plan in motion at C2V.
3. Support and invest more time and energy in black founders from a professional standpoint, helping friends find jobs.
4. While our kids don’t see skin color as they have been taught to love everyone and be kind, we can do more. I will spend more time on hard conversations so they always do the right thing.
5. I will not let these events fade away. I will think about how to track actions for myself and my friends so we stay accountable and responsible. This will be hard but necessary.
6. Speak to my friends who really understand how to best mobilize around the November elections and get this ignorant President out of the White House.

What My Company C2 Ventures is Doing

As I said, it’s time to take action, and this extends to C2 Ventures. Of course, before taking action, it’s important to do your due diligence to make sure you are taking the right actions.

I recommend reading the full post, but I’ll lay out the basic gist of it here. We’re donating to an organization called Campaign Zero and are calling on our entire network to put their support behind this organization as well.

Why did we choose them? Campaign Zero has taken a very smart and thoughtful approach to end police killings, using data to identify the key reforms that their statistical models indicate will have the greatest impact, and sharing this data and their recommendations with the municipalities who have the power to enact these reforms. Again, I encourage you to head over to the C2V post to learn more about their research.

And this is simply our first step. We’ll continue to actively seek out ways, ideate on an ultimately execute on ways we can make the tech, startup and venture capital ecosystems more inclusive for all. Stay tuned for a lot more from us.

I’m past the point of caring if I said the right thing or the wrong thing with this post, but had to say something. Most importantly, I want to make it clear that I stand with all black people.

You can listen to more of my thoughts on the topic on my IGTV.