Say their names. 

 

Our country and world grapples with systemic, unapologetic racism every single day. Our brothers and sisters of color are the targets of unrelenting challenges, and this moment has long been overdue. Police brutality is quantifiable and staggering. Countless lives have been lost. As a society, we have been too silent and complacent. This makes us all complicit, and we can and must do something. 

 

At AgilePDX, while we have always promoted a culture of welcomeness and inclusivity, but we owe it to our community and our stakeholders to approach this moment with humility and boldness. We self-assemble together in this community to learn to create innovative solutions to complex problems. This moment should be no different. We must curate our voices, our philanthropy, our minds, and our hearts to better this country and world full of evil and injustice. We must think critically how we can amplify impact for our Black/Indigenous/People of Color (BIPOC) communities. 

 

More importantly, we must all look inside ourselves for improvements we can make. Every person reading this statement knows that agile teams require retrospection — a critical time of asking the tough questions, being vulnerable, and building empathy. We implore our AgilePDX community to do just that: be retrospective about this moment, where you stand in it, and what we can do in this next sprint.