The intergenerational and collective trauma of racism has exploded in our city.

Mr. George Floyd is dead and he should be alive. We are grieving and we are outraged. Every black and brown person has a right to live, a right to breathe, and a right to be in community without fear of violence and bigotry. People of color are exhausted, angry, and terrified, and they have every right to be.

The Twin Cities are often ranked as one of the “best places to live,” but that is not the whole truth. It may be for white people, but it’s one of the worst for Indigenous peoples and people of color. Our racial violence is part of the systems that define and control every part of our lives: education, healthcare, housing, work, public service, businesses, nonprofits, and even our parks. The history of systemic, structural, and individual racism is here in Minnesota just as it is everywhere in this country.

I know that all of us are trying to process what is happening in this time and these places right now, and that we are impacted deeply. Please make the space, take the time to grieve and process this tragedy.

I feel anxious, rage, and deep sorrow. I think about Judeah, the nine-year-old girl who was a witness to Mr. George Floyd’s murder and how I can turn my feelings into action that will positively impact girls of color and the communities we call home.

I am grateful for my Girl Scout family. I know that we are committed to working together to dismantle white supremacy culture and embrace our vision to be an anti-racist organization. Our mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place requires us to be our best selves. To accomplish our mission, we all must be our best selves over the long haul because that’s where our hope lies.

To all our Girl Scouts adults, staff, and volunteers–I know that you are juggling so many things and I know it can be hard to make yourself a priority. But you must for all the people you love, and that love you, and for us to make the world a better place. We will do it for Judeah.

Families of color deserve to raise their children in a world that does not traffic in inequality, cruelty, and inhumanity, and that does not force them to bear the burden of confronting it. That is the work of those of us in white bodies. We must act to make a difference by actively dismantling racism.

Tish Bolger
Chief Executive Officer
Girl Scouts River Valleys

Quoted:
That’d be the last time my daughter(s) were in Girl Scouts.

It’s sad. Not every organization needs to be political.