COVID week 12 w/b 1st June
John Hitchin, Renaisi’s CEO writes week notes to capture and reflect on the realities of running a social enterprise.
This week has only really been about one thing, and I’m going to keep this short. I have thought about George Floyd and the issues that his killing re-surface in the US, here, and globally, all week. I finished the week talking about it in my weekly video to our team too.
I won’t be doing a black square or talking about how we stand in solidarity, and I won’t be trying to dress up Renaisi’s work as a way to demonstrate our credentials.
There’s plenty more that we at Renaisi can and should be doing about racism, and so I am going to start with internal conversations about how we do that.
Words are easy. Now’s the time to change.
There is plenty that individuals who are employees of Renaisi can and are doing on this issue, and as a company, we’re going to do the work of trying to get our own house in order.
Reading, listening and watching
Four things that I took a lot from this week:
- Natsayi Sithole at Save the Children UK post about practical solidarity, which has influenced my response.
- Killer Mike’s speech, which I thought was heroic.
- Gary Younge’s long article that I thought was excellent on the UK/US links.
- Musa Okwonga’s monologue at the start of the Stadio podcast. It is suitably angry, brilliant and heart-breaking on why Musa (and so many black people) have to spend so much of their lives doing the work of anti-racism or being seen as the person who talks about race, rather than what they want to be doing. Check out Musa’s poetry and sport-writing once you’ve listened to this: https://stadio.football/latest/twofriends
