Dear Grace Farms Foundation Community:
As an organization deeply committed to ending modern-day slavery and gender-based violence, we stand together against systemic racism and white supremacy in all its forms, and we bear witness to those giving testimony that Black Lives Matter. With our community, we are committed to remain active in the struggle and to fight this injustice together.
Among us are essential workers, small business owners, artists, survivors of human trafficking, theologians, architects, stay-at-home parents, environmentalists, scholars, teachers, students, business and non-profit professionals, military veterans, law enforcement, volunteers, government officials, and representatives of many other sectors. We are inextricably linked.
As we search for solutions and prepare to take action, what has been revealed more clearly than ever is that it is through community, with grace, love and humility, that we will persevere in our efforts to dismantle systemic racism. We stand in solidarity with those fighting for their very right to live, and to be free citizens. We decry the loss of precious human lives and share in the grief of all who are mourning Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and too many others, as well as the countless acts of racist violence against black people.
Historically, we recognize that for more than 400 years, a system of legal subjugation and economic exploitation of African peoples and their descendants has been built up, resulting not only in centuries of bondage and the ongoing legacies of gross inequality, but concurrently contributing to the wealth and prosperity of this nation.
Grace Farms, by design and with intention, brings together a diverse range of people who are committed to advancing good in the world. Our mission, and challenge, is to promote flourishing life and initiate more grace and peace in the world by addressing pressing humanitarian issues. We cannot imagine such a vision without also endeavoring to continue to address and dismantle systemic racism.
Through our Justice Initiative, we work to stamp out the persistence of modern manifestations of involuntary servitude. We are mindful of the many women and men—Black Americans and their allies—who fought for freedom and equality, and the right to vote, often to see the gains of a generation undercut by evasion, backlash, and terror. The struggle continues.
One year after we opened in 2015, we began a Race & American Memory series to examine ways in which Americans comprehend and recall national history, with various touch points related to race, its construction, and its sustained impact on American identity. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi during a presentation at Grace Farms in 2017 reminded us that “the true source of racist ideas are racist policies… [and] if we get rid of the racist policies, we will get rid of the racist ideas.” We encourage you to access the complete lecture, which is available on our website as well as a list of resources for those seeking to understand the histories of racism in the United States.
We are also a place that brings together the public, private and government sectors to advance good. We commit to helping government and law enforcement be more sensitized to the issues of race through training and public advocacy.
We invite you as a community to join us as we strengthen our commitment to work on eradicating systemic racism, to work towards mutuality, peace and justice. And — when we are able to reopen Grace Farms and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic — to continue to be a hopeful, restorative place of grace and peace.
In Solidarity,
Sharon Prince, CEO and Founder
and the Grace Farms Foundation team
