Black Lives Matter

Published June 1, 2020

While there are many corporations and businesses out there posting a vague sentiment about the events going on right now, we wanted to be thoughtful and honest about our stance. Black Lives Matter. Period.

Civic Roasters was founded by three friends who believe this truth through and through, and we created Civic in order to see imaginative avenues of supporting our neighborhoods and elevating the people in our cities toward greater equity and justice for all people.

Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.

This was one of our inspirations, not because we think of our cities as in ruins but to remind ourselves to be continually inspired towards renewal and restoration, and to re-imagine the spaces that in their own right have always been beautiful. As a business, we want to use our platform and privilege to help build our communities. Whether that's through collaboration, organizing, or donating to direct services, we built our business on the values of transparency, open-mindedness, being teachable, and always choosing the side of more ethical. Black Lives Matter, but not just in death let alone violent and state-sanctioned murder. Without concrete action steps, these words could end as quickly as the cycles of the trending hashtags. As Civic, we are committed to acting on these values, and we wanted to invite our customers into what we're doing, behind all the roasting and distributing of coffee beans.

Here is a list of resources we put together:

learning: https://www.dismantlecollective.org/resources/
mental health resources supporting black folk: 
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/virtual-mental-health-resources
next steps: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
more steps: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

We donate monthly to community efforts that provide services to the most marginalized, including rent help, utility assistance, and aid for communities most devastated by COVID-19. We are also now giving to:
- the Seattle and Portland freedom funds to help with bail assistance for protestors
- BLM fund
- our local NAACP chapters

We commit to buying from POC- and black-owned businesses whenever we can.
We commit to putting people over profits at every decision point.
And we commit to listening to voices in our networks, our communities, and in our cities. We are with you, and we see you. 

In solidarity,
Benita, Marissa, and Michael

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2020