Dear Y of Metropolitan Los Angeles Community:
It has been painful to watch the tragedies that have occurred to unarmed Black Americans. Most recently, we witnessed the senseless death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright at the hands of police during a traffic stop. Black Americans and White Americans have profoundly different experiences with law enforcement. To our Black American Y-staff, we feel your pain, we understand your frustration, and we stand with you in solidarity.
Black lives matter, and to be silent about the violence to the lives of Black people is to be complicit in that violence.
At the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, we are committed to becoming an antiracist organization. We seek to become an epicenter of knowledge and transformative outcomes to break down racial, educational, and economic barriers for socially marginalized groups and peoples. We continue to envision the Y’s long-held, ultimate objective of creating a society of truly equal opportunity and truly equal justice across Los Angeles.
While this is just a statement, the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles is committed to truly being an antiracist organization and we recognize and value the actions of our African American Resource Network as we work together to support our Black/African American Staff and communities. This includes preparing for the results of the Derek Chauvin trial and mobilizing and supporting our communities based on the verdict, healing spaces for staff and teens who would like to talk about the events happening, and uplifting black voices; like Precious Alagba, our Teens & Government’s Delegate of Color Co-Chair, and the poem she created.
Visit the African American Resource Network at ymcaLA.org/AARN to listen to Precious Alagba's full poem, "America, I Am", and to get involved.
In Solidarity,
Alan Hostrup, Jenny Chan, Victor Dominguez & Mark Dengler
Your Y Leadership Council
YMCA OF METROPOLITAN LOS ANGELES
