[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]I’m the voice of a tiny start-up run by a white man selling luxury products. If I want to stand for what’s right, I can’t stay silent on the sidelines during our current unrest.

Some might say I shouldn’t wade into the racial unrest as a “company” and not just as an individual. But silence means complicity with injustice. So for what it’s worth, I want to declare that this company will always be devoted to and stand for human rights, love, compassion, self-expression.

And that includes stating unequivocally: Black Lives Matter.

My company is the only public platform through which I can make a broader statement (however tiny it may be in 2020 terms of social media influence).

I hope to cultivate a parenting community with this company, and the mission of that community is always to raise good kids.

Included in being good is to be vehemently anti-racist.

As a white man, there’s not a lot for me to say except to listen and learn – but also not stay silent when I see injustice.

I also recognize that ECKnox is a luxury brand catering to people with disposable income – and in the course of American history that has usually meant white people thanks to socio-economic inequality, nepotism, preferential treatment, societal organization, injustice in the courts and government, education gaps, lack of opportunity, unfair practices, dated laws, and endemic inequality programmed into capitalism.

Further, we support the rights, dignity, opinions of all people of color. And we always have.

ECKnox will always stand for the respect of all lives and people and expressions. The knee-jerk response that “all lives matter” as a counter to Black Lives Matter negates our institutional racism endemic throughout American society and history. Of course, all life is precious. But at this time, we need to change our justice system so that BIPOC are safe and treated equally to their white fellow Americans. That is the battle we currently wage by declaring Black Lives Matter.

Because all lives cannot matter until Black Lives Matter.

And it’s a tiny step in the right direction for that as-yet-unrealized American dream: opportunity for all.

Current unrest isn’t about all segments of society mattering, it’s about helping a certain segment of society to be treated the same way all segments of society deserve to be treated.

Black Lives Matter
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