Black Lives Matter. Black Voices Matter.
Dear Morpho Community,
The past few months we’ve weathered the heart-wrenching news of loved ones lost to a global virus disproportionately affecting Communities of Color in the U.S. and our friends in Iquitos, Peru. In the past few weeks we’ve grappled with outrage at the brutal murders of innocent Black lives – Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, then David McAtee, and countless others before them. We witnessed deeply embedded systemic racism surface when birder Christian Cooper was confronted by a woman threatening him with the police. And on, and on, it goes…this deep history of racial oppression, violence, injustice.
We don’t have words to add. We do have firm commitment to listen, learn, collaborate, and act. With education and conservation partners in the U.S. and Peru, we continue to dedicate our attention toward building a more equitable, just, and sustainable future in which brutality and repression are replaced with a system that values compassion and care.
We are committed to learning and acting together. Below are a few resources that we are digging into to learn more. Please join us in this journey.
In solidarity,
Kelly Keena, Nancy Trautmann, and Christa Dillabaugh
Morpho Institute Board of Directors
Web Resources
- Outdoor Afro: https://outdoorafro.com/
- Black Birders Week: https://www.audubon.org/news/black-birders-week-promotes-diversity-and-takes-racism-outdoors
- Center for Diversity & the Environment: https://www.cdeinspires.org/
- 5 Ways to Make the Outdoors More Inclusive: https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/rei-2018/five-ways-to-make-the-outdoors-more-inclusive/3019/
Books:
- Black faces, white spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans in the great outdoors (2014) by Carolyn Finney
- Trace: Memory, history, race, and the American landscape (2015) by Lauret Savoy
- The adventure gap: Changing the face of the outdoors (2014) by James Edward Mills
