RACIAL JUSTICE & ENVIRONMENTALISM
We’ve been quiet for a minute. As our eyes were opened to the wide-spread racism that still exists in our country, we were (and still are) deeply disturbed at these harsh realities. It is the biggest sign of our privilege. While our team consists of women from multiple ethnicities, none of us are black and as such had not even begun to understand the struggles of our brothers and sisters of color. The truth is that we still don’t and never will, but we have started to listen in a way we never have before. At first, we chose to remain silent in order to leave space for the black community to speak their minds and educate us. Next, we began to amplify their voices through our instagram stories. Now, we feel the time has come for us to break our silence in order to continue this ever-so-important conversation.
Last month, I was invited to join the team of contributors at Magnetic Magazine. It was an exciting opportunity for me to write for the sustainability section of a long-established and respected dance music industry publication. I planned for my first piece to be an interview with Eli Goldstein, a well-known environmental activist and DJ within the dance music community. We would discuss his efforts with DJs 4 Climate Action, how the scene can help fight climate change and a new initiative Eli’s DJ Duo, Soul Clap is launching around voting. If it were anything like my usual writing, the piece would have been written through an entirely optimistic lens, with a lot of education and a sprinkle of inspiration.
Lo and behold, the day our interview was scheduled for became #blackouttuesday, a day when there was absolutely ZERO room for optimism. It had become a day of reverence and reflection for the entire world to acknowledge the deep, dark issues present in our country. There was no way we could talk about anything else. It was challenging for me to even have the conversation. It was even more difficult for me to write the piece. I fought with my tendency to state things in a positive light, I edited over and over… and now it’s finally here.
The finished piece contains the full video of my interview with Eli, key takeaways, loads of links to carefully selected resources, and details on how you can help. This might be the most important piece I’ve ever written. I invite you to read it and keep this conversation going with me and everyone else in your world until we see real change in this country.
Moving forward, we might be reverting to more of our “regularly scheduled programming”, but you have my word that we will not close our eyes to what has been revealed to us. These issues will remain present in our hearts, minds, and most importantly, our actions. We are committed to continue amplifying black voices, developing ourselves as allies to the black community and finding ways to participate in the movement every way we know how. We hope you will join us.
-Ascendance Founder, Vivian Belzaguy