Let me begin by stating, unequivocally, that all Black lives matter.
Grantmakers of Girls of Color (G4GC) joins in solidarity with the movement to affirm the value of Black lives. We join in solidarity with protestors who uplift the need to #SayHerName in these movements for our collective freedom and liberation.
Black people were already grappling with the disproportionately fatal impact of COVID-19, when we were reminded that, alongside the global pandemic, is the suffocating reality that racist and excessive police force is another significant threat to our safety. As the nation rises up with outrage over the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and George Floyd, we must also rise against the violence inflicted upon transwomen like Iyanna Dior, who are subjected to unique and egregious harms in our communities. Grantmakers for Girls of Color uplifts that the U.S.’s history of flagrant disregard for Black lives extends to men, women, girls, boys, and gender expansive people in our communities. Indeed, while police killings of Black girls, including Tyisha Miller (age 19), Darnisha Harris (age 16), and Aiyana Stanley-Jones (age 7), have not produced the widespread outrage that their male counterparts receive, we understand that this violence negatively impacts all of us. We stand in support of Gianna, George Floyd’s six-year-old daughter. We stand in support of Darnella Frazier, the teenaged girl who witnessed and recorded the now viral video of George Floyd’s killing.
G4GC remains committed to serving as an organizing space for philanthropy to engage in the urgent and necessary investments that will help to transform narratives, structures, and cultures that impact the lives of girls, fem(mes) and gender expansive youth of Black/African, Native/Indigenous, Latinx, Muslim, and Asian Pacific American descent. As we affirm our commitment to support in the resourcing of the movement, we are dedicated to supporting philanthropic efforts and organizations that are working with girls of color to both radically transform racist systems and lovingly increase our capacity to build and sustain vibrant communities of justice and wellbeing.
Black girls and other girls of color deserve a future where their breath and that of their mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers, and beloved folx is not snatched away by the injustice of excessive police force, structural violence, and policies that sustain a status of quo of inequality.
We will breathe. And we will prioritize healing as an essential modality in this opportunity to radically transform our collective consciousness, articulations, and responses to the vestiges of slavery that perpetuate the dehumanization of Black people, Native/Indigenous people, and other people of color.
Black lives matter—now and always.
Monique W. Morris, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Grantmakers for Girls of Color
