After some moments of quiet to listen and allow black voices to be heard, the conversation around race is ever-present in our minds as we continue to listen and learn.
First and foremost, racism has never and will never be welcome in our storefront, nor in how we run our business.
We are a small business, but a business built on aspirations to affect change. While our primary mission is to lift up and celebrate American made, with that we also stand for diversifying the economy, fixing the planet, and much more. We stand in solidarity with black lives, and recognize that we can do more to help amplify the voices of black, indigenous, and people of color.
For starters, we pledge to better communicate the diversity that exists within our family of makers and our community. While we don't always post the photo of the maker behind a product, we realize that we haven’t made enough of an effort to ensure that our feed is diverse and inclusive...and that isn’t right. Moving forward, we will do the work to make our virtual spaces more welcoming and inclusive to all. Additionally, we have begun the work of expanding BIPOC representation within our family of makers. We are incredibly thankful to those that have reached out with makers they’d love to see us buy from. The resources that have been shared with us within the last week are outstanding, and it has been wildly exciting to discover new talent to bring into the Common Deer family. We look forward to sharing these new makers with you. The limited funds we have right now we feel are best used spending directly on re-orders and new orders with our BIPOC makers to help their businesses grow.
Additionally, we are working to find ways to better support our BIPOC makers, tell their stories, help them grow, and better allow their voices to be heard. We are bringing race along with us forward in the conversation, and hope to share new ways we have found of helping to amplify BIPOC maker voices.
We are committed to listening and remaining teachable as our nation faces the reality of systemic social injustice.
We make these commitments long term.
All that being said, we remain a small business, without PR firms on retainer, unlimited donation capacities, photography budgets, huge employee training protocols, and more. The pandemic has left the future of our business uncertain. We're working hard to keep it going so we can continue to help our family of makers, customers, and community, and will be bringing consciousness around race with us as we move forward. So while our efforts and interests are very much seated in positivity and a desire to help, we may misstep. If we falter, please help us find a better foothold to lift others up the mountain. We are committed to making the changes within.
We will get there, but only together. Thank you to everyone that continues to support our business, our family of makers, our team, and our hard work.
Sincerely,
Sarah and Sharon