New America Statement on Systemic Racism

As the leaders of an institution committed to renewing the promise of America, we recognize that America has not come close to living up to its highest ideals. We are outraged at the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony Mcdade, and too many others. But as many others have pointed out, it is the systemic racism that Black communities have lived with day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century that has laid the foundation for these events and stops us from becoming the America we believe we can be.

We condemn, in the strongest terms, racism, bigotry, and injustice. But we also commit not to stop at this statement. As Tyra wrote to our staff last week:

“It is so taxing, and tiring, to see the communities you love under constant assault. It is taxing, and tiring, to witness our humanity ignored. It is taxing, and tiring, to witness people treated differently because of the color of their skin. We compartmentalize to cope and survive so that we can do the work to make this a better world and so our current realities might shift, yet sometimes it is a struggle to compartmentalize the deep hurt and anger from the injustices witnessed by the racism which pervades our everyday lives.”

We commit to fight racism and bigotry not just “out there,” but “in here,” in our everyday lives, including our interactions with one another. A commitment to learn, to challenge ourselves and each other to dismantle racist systems wherever we see them, expose bigotry and hold ourselves and New America accountable to making positive and proactive change. We commit to sharing our progress in the coming months.

Only with radical honesty about what is, can we hope to change what will be.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO

Tyra Mariani, President and COO