Our Commitment to Anti-Racism

Hey friends and followers, we spent some time defining our commitments as a company recently. We are at a critical crossroads for human rights and perhaps closer than we’ll ever be to making systemic change in this country. Social media is more powerful than ever and so is our ability to stay connected, get informed, and mobilize. This moment demands every effort to create the paradigm shift we need. Our goal is to leverage our assets to effectively serve this moment. The method is to be transparent about our thought process and provide tools for critical thinking. Many people are asking ‘What should I do?’ or ‘Where should I donate?’ We don’t know all the answers but still want to help you answer those questions for yourself. Fundamental change can only occur when you think for yourself. We also have a lot of learning to do, so let’s do it together. 

We want to make this formal commitment so it is a pillar of our company, not just a fleeting effort while we’re under the spotlight. We’re striving for ongoing dedication to anti-racism and we ask that you hold us accountable. One of our biggest assets is you: our audience and community. So we asked ourselves, ‘What privileges does our audience hold that can serve marginalized communities?’ One is purchasing power.  The other is dissent. So we divided our commitments into financial and educational initiatives.

There’s several financial initiatives we’re planning, including 100% profit donations for the rest of this week. Other models we’ll implement are donation matching and donation raffles. We also call for divestment from athletes, organizations, and companies who continue to be racist. These campaigns will be ongoing so we can make long term contributions and evolve with a movement that requires solidarity, not just charity. 

Indeed, it takes more than donations to create fundamental change. In an effort to take on the necessary work of educating ourselves and our community, we’re hoping for an engaging and coherent education initiative. While we will strive for common understanding, we recognize this growth comes through struggle and dissent. Bikes are one of our common threads and they have always been a powerful tool for self determination. But bikes are also imbued with exclusivity and exclusion. If you like bikes, you probably like being outdoors too and we’d like to stem from that common thread. To that end, the path we charted over the next couple months is rooted in the intersection of climate justice and racial justice and will examine our past, present, and future. We’ll start with civil rights history as a foundation, and build from there. This space will amplify underrepresented BIPOC voices so tell us if you would like to use our platform.

We don’t want to get completely off topic though! Engagement is critical to success, so we’ll try and make it relatable to our common threads. Some accounts that already do so are @cyclista_zine @pedal2thepeople and @wtfbikexplorers follow them! We know everyone is being bombarded with information and inflammatory media. It’s overwhelming, so we want to make our campaign structured and accessible. Aggression is definitely valid, but let’s try and use it to our advantage, not misplace it. We are allies in the fight to end systemic racism in this country. There is power in solidarity. There is hope. This is the tipping point.