Black Lives Matter — This is a long one.

If you follow us on instagram (@blackcrowstudios) then it is not a surprise to see this post.

You know where I stand and where this company stands. I am, and BCS is, firmly anti-racist and in full support of Black Lives Matter. This shouldn’t even have to be said - it is fucking 2020 - this shouldn’t be a topic up for discussion. 

I am not posting this to prove that I am woke. I am posting this because I know I have a platform and it is my responsibility to use it to effect change. 

I know that we, as a society, have left racism up to black people and all POC in our country to fix with justifications of, I’m not involved - it doesn’t happen to me so how can I speak about it?  It is such a big problem systemically how can I help, etc.?

It hit me recently that this is not their fight to fight - this is our responsibility to fix. The system is built for us - we need to TEAR IT THE FUCK DOWN, BURN IT TO THE GROUND AND REBUILD IT SO IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE EQUALLY!

Written by @banksy on IG

The power of my platform hit me on Black Out Tuesday - a day when we were posting a black square to show solidarity with the Black Community and to allow black voices to be seen and not lost in the sea of posts. Well as I scrolled through my feed I saw almost nothing but black squares and all of us liking each others black squares - like good job - a self congratulatory “look at what we can do! We aren’t the problem!” {eye roll}. It was, in one sense, nice to see pretty much everyone participating and stating their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but on the other hand it was sad to see that there were no black voices in my feed, or none that I saw that day. Most of that lack of diversity is directly from our industry, but also based on the stupid algorithms. Seeing that so clearly in my feed I used my platform to share posts from people of color so they would be seen by the people in my feed who probably, just like me, were not seeing them. I had that plan already in place, but it wasn’t so blatantly clear how much that was needed until I was scrolling through my feed. Wasn’t that the point? To use our platforms to lift other people and voices up. This is how we can use the privilege we were born with to be real allies in this battle and to lift others up.

I have to say I was really disappointed in a lot of what I saw on IG. I looked at my fellow wallcovering companies and saw a huge lack of support, or a lack of speaking out, acknowledgment and amplification of other voices. A single post, a basic simple supportive caption. We have gotten away with that for far too long. There is one in particular that has a huge social media platform - far bigger than mine - and yet they basically said nothing of significance. They have people looking to them and listening and they chose not to say anything and to not use that platform to lift others - which was really shocking to me.  They will have the excuse to say “I was staying silent so others could be heard”, but as I have stated, not using your platform to help the cause is hurting the cause, because we need to use our privilege and platform to AMPLIFY those voices we are not seeing and hearing in our daily lives. Instead they are choosing to not get involved. They are choosing to leave it on others to deal with. I don’t think that is acceptable at this time and especially not with this issue. I believe if you have a platform and you support the cause, then you use that platform - who cares who it pisses off. 

WE HAVE TO DO BETTER!! WE HAVE TO SPEAK UP AND DEMAND MORE DIVERSITY IN THIS INDUSTRY!

I have always struggled with the fact that this industry as a whole (generalizing) doesn’t really stand up for much. It feels like people only want to look at “pretty” and not the ugliness of the world - we don’t acknowledge it and sure as hell don’t comment on it, especially not through our business platforms. It has always sat poorly with me. 

I don’t expect everyone to speak out as much as I have, but I expect more than what I saw from many companies. This goes for many brands, one single post and back to business as usual, some didn’t acknowledge any of this at all - NOTHING. I don’t understand how it is possible to stay silent on these issues. We should all be outraged - and I think we all are - but have a fucking spine and stand up for this shit publicly.

Every single time I posted about Black Lives Matter I lost followers on IG. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. That is fine - they can go - I am not going to be afraid of using my voice to speak out on things I deeply care about and believe in. I use the platform of my business because it has the real reach that I do not individually. If this pisses people off or makes them uncomfortable, so be it. What I hope with my outspokenness and using the reach of my business does, is to show other people and brands that it is ok to speak out. I hope it inspires others be open and real about what they believe in and fight for it - using whatever means they have. 

It is no longer acceptable for businesses to stay silent when they have the power to effect change, in our industry, and as a whole.

Take care of yourselves and BURN THE SYSTEM DOWN AND KEEP FUCKING FIGHTING!!

BLACK LIVES MATTER.