Juneteenth
JUNE 19, 2020From the AlphaGroup leadership team to all our employees
Juneteenth is a day seeped in meaning and history for heinous reasons. For centuries, pure evil was wreaked upon black people. Finally, this day in 1865, the state of Texas was the last state to outlaw slavery. But the enslavement, be it legal or cultural, has continued. Today black people suffer significantly greater disease, earlier mortality, lower income, poorer living conditions, are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people, are disproportionately incarcerated, and are more likely to die by gunshots than white people. The vast majority of black people are born disadvantaged and live in that struggle for their entire lives. We may have abolished slave labor 150 years ago, but enslavement didn’t stop with the Thirteenth Amendment.
Juneteenth is a day when everyone should reflect upon the evil that was and continues to be wreaked upon a community because of the color of their skin. For those with the privilege of being born white it is incumbent upon us to listen, understand, and learn what that privilege means, and it is our responsibility to enact change. It is our moral, ethical, and divine responsibility to change the society in which we live. One person, one comment, one action, one life at a time.
As business leaders, there is much we can do to help change the world for black people. We have not done anything close to enough, and for that, we are truly sorry. We can and will do more.
Please join us on Juneteenth to reflect on what each one of us can do and commit to do to change the tragedy we have created for people of color.
Think about what we can do to change the world for black people.
Stephen Douthwaite, Meryl Gersh, Laura LeGower, Ed Shifflett, Mike Smith
The AlphaGroup of medical communications