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March 2021
We wrote this last summer. When the “right now” we mentioned referred to the murders of Black Americans. When many were trying to process, address and defeat the longstanding racial injustices in our country, particularly those faced by the Black community.
“Right now” is still right now. The needle is stuck in a groove that’s playing an ugly refrain, and today it’s our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities that are being targeted. As we said before, racism is unacceptable: full stop.
We will continue on our path, calling out and doing our best to hear and listen, to address what we believe—what we know—is wrong. And humbly trying to change what we can, where we can, never turning a deaf ear to the ugly refrain that keeps playing.
July 2020
Racism is unacceptable: full stop. The opposite of racism is being actively anti-racist. In our 24 years of business, that has never been more clear than right now. The Castle Group has long supported Boston-area organizations directly focused on equity, with a particular focus on racial equity. We felt like we “got it,” and were doing all we could. Wrong: we can do more.
As communicators, we know all too well the implications words can have. But actions are more important. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many other Black citizens are appalling crimes. It should not take acts of murder for all of us to be appalled, ashamed and mobilized against the systemic racism that has led to those acts. As we help many of our clients confront racism through words and deeds, and support our mission-driven clients who have long been part of the solution, we are going deeper in our own commitment to fight racism.
Black Lives Matter. The pain many of us are just becoming aware of has existed for many generations, throughout friends’ and colleagues’ lifetimes, and is part of their lived experience every single day. Racism is a chronic affliction that requires constant vigilance and must be eliminated.
As a small business, we vow to be an example to other small businesses, and to our industry, of walking the talk, and to actively encourage others to be decisive, bold and confident in using their voices, wallets and skills. We also are proactively creating avenues to equity that will have lasting effects, through internal training, mentoring, financial support, hiring practices, vendor relations and more. We are driving an effort in our global PR network to combat racism and diversify our 50+ firms. We are volunteering our time to organizations whose important work can be amplified with our efforts, and discounting our work with nonprofit clients whose causes we can advance. We vow to continue to use our words and voices to combat the evil of racism, to immediately address racism and racist acts when we see them, and to listen and hear and learn.
