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As some of you know, we're big fans of the Equal Justice Initiative, a top-rated non-profit organization dedicated to rectifying the vast inequities still rampant in the United States' criminal justice system.
We contributed $10,000 to the EJI's urgent work in 2014, and raised an additional $23,000 for the organization alongside our friends at Instyleshoes and Cap City in 2015.
We're truly grateful for the ongoing support of our community members, which makes contributions like these possible. As anyone with even a vague awareness of US society knows, however, organizations like the Equal Justice Initiative could use all the support we can muster in the face of institutional injustice.
At a time when politicians seeking the nation's highest office have proposed racial profiling and demonstrators across the country protest the killing of unarmed people of color at the hands of law enforcement, we cannot afford to be silent.
Last week, NikeTalk issued a new $10,000 contribution to the Equal Justice Initiative. Our friends @INSTYLESHOES matched this effort with a $10,000 donation of their own.
View media item 2187880[h1]consider joining us, and make a contribution of your own: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/eji[/h1]
As Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, explains, "this support is crucial to the success of our expanding programs to reform the administration of criminal justice, protect the rights of children who are sentenced and jailed as adults, educate the public, and create hope in marginalized communities. We also continue to expand and intensify our work on race and poverty in America, and to bring increased knowledge and awareness of the connections between our nation's history of racial injustice and the current era of mass incarceration, disproportionate education and economic opportunity, and police abuse of minorities."
We know that different people have made different choices in deciding which groups to support in light of recent events. Michael Jordan gave $1 million each to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The Weeknd gave $250,000 to Black Lives Matter. I wouldn't claim that there is one "correct" action to take, as this is something that we must confront on all fronts.
I've tried to explain our recent contribution to the EJI as follows:
Why EJI? Imagine if someone like Terence Crutcher hadn't been killed - but was instead imprisoned for dubious reasons. People lose their freedom, their futures, and their very lives due to biases in the criminal justice system - and it is presumed, because of those biases, that they are uniformly deserving of whatever penalties that system metes out.
For that reason, we support the Equal Justice Initiative. They work to help those whose mistreatment (whether prejudiced by race, class, sexuality, or religion) at the hands of the criminal justice system might otherwise be ignored. Theirs are the lives we can still save.
There are indeed many organizations devoted to addressing institutional racism in general and racial inequities in the criminal justice system in particular, and you are welcome to share those you feel strongly about it with the community and utilize the platform for a constructive discussion.
When it came to our own organization's contribution, we wanted to call attention to the extraordinary work the EJI is doing on behalf of all those whose names we may never know - whether their lives are ended abruptly by a gun, or bled from them one day at a time following the bang of a different sort of hammer.
Thanks again to our community members for your consideration and support, and of course to everyone working and sacrificing to make a difference in the name of true justice and equality.
We contributed $10,000 to the EJI's urgent work in 2014, and raised an additional $23,000 for the organization alongside our friends at Instyleshoes and Cap City in 2015.
We're truly grateful for the ongoing support of our community members, which makes contributions like these possible. As anyone with even a vague awareness of US society knows, however, organizations like the Equal Justice Initiative could use all the support we can muster in the face of institutional injustice.
At a time when politicians seeking the nation's highest office have proposed racial profiling and demonstrators across the country protest the killing of unarmed people of color at the hands of law enforcement, we cannot afford to be silent.
Last week, NikeTalk issued a new $10,000 contribution to the Equal Justice Initiative. Our friends @INSTYLESHOES matched this effort with a $10,000 donation of their own.
View media item 2187880[h1]consider joining us, and make a contribution of your own: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/eji[/h1]
As Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, explains, "this support is crucial to the success of our expanding programs to reform the administration of criminal justice, protect the rights of children who are sentenced and jailed as adults, educate the public, and create hope in marginalized communities. We also continue to expand and intensify our work on race and poverty in America, and to bring increased knowledge and awareness of the connections between our nation's history of racial injustice and the current era of mass incarceration, disproportionate education and economic opportunity, and police abuse of minorities."
We know that different people have made different choices in deciding which groups to support in light of recent events. Michael Jordan gave $1 million each to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The Weeknd gave $250,000 to Black Lives Matter. I wouldn't claim that there is one "correct" action to take, as this is something that we must confront on all fronts.
I've tried to explain our recent contribution to the EJI as follows:
Why EJI? Imagine if someone like Terence Crutcher hadn't been killed - but was instead imprisoned for dubious reasons. People lose their freedom, their futures, and their very lives due to biases in the criminal justice system - and it is presumed, because of those biases, that they are uniformly deserving of whatever penalties that system metes out.
For that reason, we support the Equal Justice Initiative. They work to help those whose mistreatment (whether prejudiced by race, class, sexuality, or religion) at the hands of the criminal justice system might otherwise be ignored. Theirs are the lives we can still save.
There are indeed many organizations devoted to addressing institutional racism in general and racial inequities in the criminal justice system in particular, and you are welcome to share those you feel strongly about it with the community and utilize the platform for a constructive discussion.
When it came to our own organization's contribution, we wanted to call attention to the extraordinary work the EJI is doing on behalf of all those whose names we may never know - whether their lives are ended abruptly by a gun, or bled from them one day at a time following the bang of a different sort of hammer.
Thanks again to our community members for your consideration and support, and of course to everyone working and sacrificing to make a difference in the name of true justice and equality.
