This past week has been the latest round of violence based explicitly on race in our country. Members of our community are angry, frustrated, and in pain.
To the Black members of our community; we see you. We are looking to move from compassion to action. Silence is not an option. It is our responsibility and honor to stand loudly with our community. To stand proudly with you.
To our employees; we continue our program for matching all donations. We encourage you to support organizations including those fighting against systemic racism in our criminal justice system, helping people get access to housing, fighting voter suppression, among others. LaunchDarkly is making $10,000 donations to both Black Lives Matter and Campaign Zero.
To our customers; we appreciate your business and value you all as members of our community. As members of that community, we invite you to share our code of conduct around harassment based on “gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.” We can—and need to be—better as a society. Our companies can help lead that by holding one another accountable, starting with a code of conduct.
To Oakland; we are not here to simply have an office space. We are here to be a part of the community. We chose to be in Oakland because our founders wanted to build a company that would be tied back to their community. We have tried to lead with compassion and implement practices to check ourselves on our progress. We have tried to create a space where all individuals are able to bring their whole selves to work. And while we have worked hard to create a company that is inclusive and diverse, we acknowledge that there is a lot more work to do.
We will continue to engage with organizations and programs that are driving change within Oakland, including Citizen Schools, CODE2040, Code Nation, /dev/color, and FlockJay. We recognize that while these initiatives are helping, we can do more. We have identified other Oakland-focused community organizations that are making a difference in helping bridge the gap. We are not done, or even close to it. Once we have more information to share on this, we look forward to putting more action to our words.
We recognize that these are small actions. They are unlikely to move the needle even in Oakland, let alone the national stage. But, this is a start. We want to hear from you, hear what else you need as a community, and hear what can we be doing better to support you. Please write to us at together@launchdarkly.com. We look forward to continuing a dialogue with the community. As we listen, we will look for additional actions we can take and work to make progress together. Silence = Violence.
Thank you, and stay safe.
