#ICantBreathe and Racial Justice: GenderSmart Response

1 June, 2020

Last update: 9 June

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The events this past week—starting with the continued police brutality and murder of George Floyd—expose deep, pervasive, toxic, and systemic racism around the world. Structural racism and abuse of power are two forces that stand to undermine our efforts as individuals and as a community. 

We believe that we have an urgent imperative to listen to and amplify the voices of those with something to say, to give space to those who want to learn, to grieve, to act in solidarity with those who are both on the front lines and working behind the lines, and to challenge one another to confront structural racism and abuse of privilege and power. We believe that effective convening is central to the goal of achieving justice; it helps to sharpen our focus and to inspire collective action by joining human and capital resources for greater influence. It is what we have been doing, in response to COVID, and now we are expanding the focus of the conversation. 

GenderSmart commits to:

  • Amplifying black and POC voices within the gender lens and impact investing community - we can and will do better here

  • Reviewing all planned programming with an intersectional lens, and improving where necessary

  • Sharing resources and ideas to help investors use finance as a tool for racial equity

  • Identifying and sharing grantmaking and philanthropic opportunities to support the field of investing with a racial justice lens

  • Creating a space for investors to hold each other accountable and be transparent about what they are doing to help move the needle

GenderSmart is a global community of leaders, and the world will look to us to highlight pathways forward, resources necessary for progress, and thoughtful, strategic responses to current events at the level of every person, organisation, and network. We need every ounce of that leadership fully deployed.

Now is our time to show up.

In Solidarity,

Suzanne, Darian, and the GenderSmart Team

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

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