A Note from our CEO on the Past 400+ Years
Every Monday, our team logs on to our SCP-up--a quick space to share updates, needs, and requests across our greater team. Today, business couldn’t go on as usual. George Floyd was murdered a week ago in Minneapolis by a police officer who intentionally and carelessly held his neck to Floyd’s throat for 9 minutes. Today’s space our team held was not only for George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Tony McDade--or Michael Brown, Jr. or John Crawford III or Sandra Bland. Today’s space was held because Black lives--men, women, and our trans brothers and sisters--have been intentionally treated without regard and with hatred for hundreds of years.
As a Black woman, a Black parent, and a Black CEO--the emotional rollercoaster of being Black is all too real...and yet again I’m experiencing it as I type these words. The feelings of heaviness, sorrow, rage, helplessness, and rage all over again…and yet I know that emotions will only get my community so far; and I also still must lead my team.
I’ve spent the past several days--as I have had to all too often--checking-in on my Black friends, colleagues, and family. Many of us spent half the weekend in bed...rotated with doses of protesting and organizing and serving our community (because we still are trying to live amidst all of this)...up and down the emotional rollercoaster.
This morning, I checked-in with my team. (If SCP is the organization we say we are, we cannot go on with business as usual.) A little can go a long way--especially in a world where Black voices and opinions aren’t included, work and productivity is revered over people, and emotions are viewed as weak. Leaders, check-in with your people. By simply asking, “How are you?” I heard the most raw, deep, powerful reflections from my team--and I believe that is both living leadership and cathartic release and support. As a leader, I demanded that they take the time they need, do what they need to do to fill some remnant of normal and whole, and let me and our greater team know how to support them. Self-care is not a notion or an option right now--it’s a requirement. I also shared that I, too, would continue to take time (something I often struggle with).
I committed to my team that as an organization, while there is much we do that is antiracist and actively working to dismantle power, influence, and resources--we must do better, we must do more. Not necessarily more in terms of work outputs, but pushing ourselves to be even more antiracist, equity-forward, and strategic and radical as an organization. We’re sharing and actively curating resources to individually and collectively do more to learn, support, and engage--and we invite you to do the same (and share with us)! Our current list is here.
SCP was founded because of this very reality that we happen to see as more salient today or this past week. The reality that Black people know all too well is that this is not new--and, unfortunately, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg because of a newer medium (social media). SCP unapologetically exists to ensure Black people have influence, power, resources, and opportunities. We work every day to shift the power dynamic--in short- and long-term ways, with overt and covert actions.
I will continue to check on my friends, colleagues, family, and my team. I will also be accountable to my community; deeply grateful for those leading and taking antiracist, equitable stands every day; and encourage more people, organizations, and communities to do the same.
We are still processing as a team and this list is bound to (and should) evolve and grow. Today, at SCP:
We will continue to:
Hold a vision of leadership in our organization committed to a majority Black staff.
Ensure Black-owned and Black-led organizations, as well as Black sole proprietors, have access and representation across our consultant and vendor teams.
Ensure our investments (RFPs, projects, and small- and large-scale vendor needs) are pipelined to local and Black-owned and -led companies--accurately representing populations and communities where we serve.
Invite and lift up Black voices in spaces, conversations, convenings, and other opportunities.
Host our Community Conversation series which engages those across our neighborhood who are typically not invited to the table--to determine topics, action, and engage in dialogue around topics that matter to our community.
Engage and assess partnerships through a lens of equity and antiracist actions of our partners.
We will do better at:
Engaging and assessing partnerships through a lens of equity and antiracist actions of our partners.
Telling the stories of equity and antiracism in clear, unapologetic ways.
Reaching out to Black leaders and organizations across the country to support, engage, learn, collaborate, and be in community.
Doubting that our voices and small(er) acts of antiracism, justice, and equity do not contribute to the short- and long-term plays of dismantling racist systems and structures (also known as imposter syndrome).
We will begin to (some of which we’ve been working on and recognize even more urgency to strongly launch):
Launch our capacity building fellowship and incubator with an unapologetic lens toward Black professionals and organizations--getting more Black leaders to the table and leading charges (in progress--announcements coming soon).
Systematize our giving--launching an annual fund that provides resources to youth, community members, and community-based organizations with a commitment to righting the wrong of disproportionate resources to non-Black people and spaces, despite the inequitable distribution of wealth to those who profit off of Black bodies (historically and presently) (in progress--announcements coming soon).
Partner with additional Black-led organizations and Black leaders in positions to uniquely support, build the capacity, and empower Black-led organizations leading antiracist equitable work.
Internally launch a year-round antiracist curriculum for our staff--inclusive and beneficial to those who identify as Black and those who do not (prior we have not framed our year-round internal curriculum, learning, and experiences around solely antiracism; in addition to other focuses, a year-round antiracist curriculum will be implemented).
I’ve seen powerful and transformative change come from one individual, a small group of people, and organizations--including SCP. Yet, we are scratching the surface. With the foresight, discipline, commitment, and long-eye of those who organized the Civil Rights Movement of the United States, the Apartheid Movement of South Africa, and countless other uprisings that forever changed the lift trajectory of those fighting and those to come...we continue to fight the good fight, we commit to fight better, and we commit to beginning to fight on new fronts.
I stand in solidarity with all of my Black brothers and sisters--sending love and strength--and I welcome non-Black brothers and sisters to actively use your privilege to fight a good fight, an antiracist fight, an equitable fight that all of our children and children’s children will be proud of.
Chanel Hampton, MA, M.Ed.
Founder & Chief Executive Officer