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Black Lives Matter

May 2020 - We are angry, frustrated, and in pain because of the violence and murder of Black people by the police because of racism. We are in the fight AGAINST RACISM.

George Floyd was murdered, his life stolen.

Rodney King. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. Sean Bell. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Laquan McDonald. Freddie Gray. Antwon Rose Jr. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. John Crawford III. Michael Brown. Ezell Ford. Dante Parker.  Michelle Cusseaux. Laquan McDonald.  George Mann.  Tanisha Anderson.  Akai Gurley.  Tamir Rice. Rumain Brisbon. Jerame Reid.  Matthew Ajibade. Frank Smart. Natasha McKenna. Tony Robinson. Anthony Hill. Mya Hall. Phillip White. Eric Harris.  Walter Scott.  William Chapman II. Alexia Christian.  Brendon Glenn.  Victor Manuel Larosa.  Jonathan Sanders. Freddie Blue.  Joseph Mann.  Salvado Ellswood.  Sandra Bland.  Albert Joseph Davis.  Darrius Stewart.  Billy Ray Davis.  Samuel Dubose. Michael Sabbie.  Brian Keith Day.  Christian Taylor. Troy Robinson.  Asshams Pharoah Manley.  Felix Kumi.  Keith Harrison McLeod. Junior Prosper. Lamontez Jones. Paterson Brown.  Dominic Hutchinson.  Anthony Ashford.  Alonzo Smith.  Tyree Crawford.  India Kager.  La’Vante Biggs.   Michael Lee Marshall.  Jamar Clark.  Richard Perkins. Nathaniel Harris Pickett.  Bennie Lee Tignor.  Miguel Espinal. Michael Noel.  Kevin Matthews.  Bettie Jones.  Quintonio Legrier.  Keith Childress Jr.  Janet Wilson.  Randy Nelson.  Antronie Scott.  Wendell Celestine.  David Joseph. Calin Roquemore. Dyzhawn Perkins. Christoper Davis. Marco Loud. Peter Gaines. Torrey Robinson.  Darius Robinson.  Kevin Hicks.  Mary Truxillo.  Demarcus Semer. Willie Tillman.  Terrill Thomas.  Sylville Smith.  Sean Reed. Alton Sterling.  Philando Castile.  Terence Crutcher.  Paul O’Neal.  Alteria Woods.  Jordan Edwards.  Aaron Bailey.  Ronell Foster.  Stephon Clark.  Antwon Rose II.   Botham Jean.  Pamela Turner.  Dominique Clayton.  Atatiana Jefferson.  Christopher Whitfield. Christopher McCorvey. Eric Reason.  Michael Lorenzo Dean.  Tony McDade. David McAtee. Rayshard Brooks. George Floyd. Countless others.

The Adafruit teams have specific actions we've done, are doing, and will do together as a company and culture. We are asking the Adafruit community to get involved and share what you are doing.

Making our voices heard

Contact the District Attorney and Minneapolis Mayor, demanding the 4 officers including Derek Chauvin are arrested for the murder of George Floyd. 

Update: 6/3/2020 5:04pm ET. A charge of second-degree murder was added. Former officers - J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are now charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Minneapolis Mayors Office, Jacob Frey.
(612) 673-2100

Minneapolis District Attorney, Mike Freeman.
(612) 348-5550
[email protected]

Minneapolis Police:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Internal Affairs
(612) 673-3074

Additional info.

Day of mourning

George Floyd Memorial Service, Minneapolis
Thursday, June 4th, 2020

The Adafruit team is mourning George Floyd on Thursday, June 4th, 2020, team members are using the time to reflect and plan action.

George Floyd Memorial Service, North Carolina
Saturday, June 6th, 2020

George Floyd Funeral Service, Houston
Monday, June 8th, 2020 (Viewing)
Tuesday, June 9th, 2020 (Funeral)

Breonna Taylor

Call to action (6/5/2020): Breonna Taylor, it would have been a happy 27th birthday. Breonna was murdered by the Louisville Metro police - Complete as many items on the list as and share the link to this campaign so that others can complete it too.

Breonna Taylor : 97 days later … Calls to action and updates (6/18/2020). Update - Mayor Greg Fischer has announced that Louisville Metro Police is firing officer Brett Hankison - (6/19/2020). Louisville detective fired for murdering Breonna Taylor – More action is required (6/23/2020).

Accountability & Justice in NYC and NYS

  • Repeal 50-A: Make disciplinary records public - 6/8/2020 (Repealed, now signed).
  • Mayor and Police Commissioner accountability & commitment to Black Lives Matter.
  • Effective immediately, the NYPD's 24,000 body cameras now have a mandatory 30 day release policy - 6/16/2020.
  • New York Budget Justice (see 6/11/2020 post).
  • New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the recently passed bills on police reform into law 6/12/2020. It consists of 10 police reform bills that passed both the New York State Senate and New York State assembly this week — will ban the use of chokeholds by police officers, among other reforms. It also allows for disciplinary records for individual police officers, firefighters or corrections officers to be released without their written consent, repeals the 1976 statute known as 50-A, and criminalizes false race-based 911 calls.  NYS Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative. NY Local governments and police must enact reform plan by April 1, 2021.
  • Comptroller Stringer Calls on City to Require Disclosure of Police Disciplinary Records - making all law enforcement disciplinary records available to the public in searchable, online database - 6/13/2020.
  • Corporate Leadership & Accountability.

Actions, contacts, and more.

Petitions

End qualified immunity - Warriors in the Garden (6/2020)

Vote

Voting is paid time off at Adafruit. Many congressional primaries are taking place June 23rd here in NYC.

Request an absentee ballot so you can vote by mail: https://nycabsentee.com/ If outside NYC: https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot/

Look up which district you are in to watch any debates and read up on the candidates so you can be informed when you vote via mail, enter your Zip code on this site to find out what district you reside in as well as who your current congressperson is - https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

How to vote in the June 23 primaries – President, Congress, and state and local races - Adafruit post.

Voting resources and paid day off for voting

Adafruit's resource page for voting, poll worker volunteering and more - adafruit.com/vote

House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Police Brutality & Racial Profiling

6/10/2020 - Not sure of your congressional district or who your member is? This site will assist you by matching your ZIP code to your congressional district, with links to your member’s website and contact page - house.gov/htbin/findrep

Reallocating police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality

Crowd-source made tools for emailing government officials to reallocate police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality. Source code available for each site/effort … 6/20.

Recognizing Black History

Celebrate Juneteenth 2020, 155th Anniversary

Juneteenth also known as Freedom Day , Jubilee Day, Cel-Liberation Day or the Black Fourth of July, is an American holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865. On this day, after almost two and half years since the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved African Americans were informed of their liberation from the slavery present in the former Confederate States of America.

Our teams have put together resources, celebrations, calls to action, and more together for all of us and with our community: blog.adafruit.com/tag/juneteenth

Juneteenth is now an official City and School holiday in New York City (6/19/2020).

Juneteenth is now an official NY State holiday (10/15/2020).

Adafruit company holidays, paid charity work, paid time for voting

  • Paid time off for charity, 501(c)(3)
  • New Year's Day
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • Memorial Day
  • June 4th, 2020 (George Floyd memorial)
  • Juneteenth
  • Independence Day / 4th of July
  • Labor Day
  • Election Day - Paid time off for voting
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Christmas Day

Adafruit Library reads & Anti-racism reading resources

Books for staff in the Adafruit lending library via independent Black owned bookshops around the country. Supporting the writers, publishers and booksellers who have been doing the work for a long time.

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  • White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
  • The Fire Next Time
  • Black Against The Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
  • Are Prisons Obsolete?
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
  • Why We Can't Wait
  • How To Be An Antiracist
  • Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
  • The History of White People
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  • And more  - Updated frequently (Google Sheet) ... Anti-Racist Audio & Video resources which we hope you'll find useful. This includes podcasts, lectures and interviews on topics like prison abolition, history, indigenous rights, civil rights, parenting, the workplace, pop culture and more - 6/2020.

Black History Library & Critical Reading.

A New Knapsack: Unpacking Your Anti-Blackness, solidarity worksheet. Anti-Racism — How to Engage in the Fight.

Adafruit team online / virtual events

Raising Antiracist Kids: Ibram X. Kendi with Derecka Purnell

Adafruit is going to the movies, join us! John Lewis: Good Trouble

John Lewis: Good Trouble movie poster

John Lewis: Good Trouble – is the chronicle of the life of the legendary civil rights activist and Democratic Representative from Georgia. Thousands of protests. 45 arrests. 33 years in Congress. Sometimes change calls for a little trouble. In theaters and on demand 7/3. As a team we’ve all gone out to the movies before at Adafruit, that’s not possible at this time, so we’re going to watch on demand, and you can watch on demand too with Adafruit! Check out the trailer here – YouTube.

Adafruit is purchasing over 100+ on-demand tickets for our team to watch on demand 7/3. Why are we doing that? Magnolia pictures joined with Adafruit and HUNDREDS of companies for the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. That means Magnolia, like Adafruit, is not advertising on Facebook. Businesses are standing in solidarity for our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice, and we are not advertising on Facebook in July. But it does not end there, we’re going to help and work with companies that are not advertising on Facebook and show it’s possible to succeed without Facebook.

Adafruit contacted the Magnolia Pictures team and asked what we could do to help, so far we’re purchasing 100+ on-demand tickets for our entire team and we’re going to get the word out on our platforms about the movie John Lewis: Good Trouble. The ​official film website​ will list all platforms on which the film is available to rent at home starting on July 3rd – want to help out, check out the post! adafruit.com/goodtrouble

Celebrating the lives of Black creators

Art, film, music, charities, community events, business to support - celebrating Black voices.

June is Pride Month

Adafruit Pride 2020 post series
Post series
on Stonewall and highlighting the key role of Black transgender women in the riots.

Adafruit Joins the Stop Hate for Profit campaign

Stop Hate for Profit campaign poster

Adafruit joined
the Stop Hate for Profit campaign by pulling ads on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook spreads disinformation, hatred, white supremacy, bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and violence. Facebook specifically has ignored the requests from users, companies, and social justice groups to take meaningful action. The stakes have never been higher, we will ALL need access to free and fair elections this fall – Facebook has a chance to listen and make changes. Large companies like North Face, REI, Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Eddie Bauer, Magnolia Pictures, (and more!) are pulling ads, companies like Adafruit have as well. We are supporting the efforts with: The Anti-Defamation LeagueColor of ChangeCommon Sense MediaFree PressNAACP, and Sleeping Giants - adafruit.com/stophateforprofit (frequently updated list of companies here).

Partnerships, sponsorships and more

Black Girls Code logo

Black Lives Matter of Greater NY

1,000+ masks delivered to Black Lives Matter of Greater NY.

Black Lives Matter interactive electronics learning kit

Public domain electronic learning (Python, coding, and more) for workshops - github.com/adafruit/BLM-Badge-PCB

Digital privacy and security measures for staying safe while protesting

Digital privacy and security measures for staying safe while protesting may feel like a confusing, moving target. That’s because your adversaries in this scenario are a combination of greedy companies, broken and corrupt authorities, and people who simply don’t know how to do their own privacy and security - Team guide. And - staying safe strategies while protesting.

Updating technical documents and more

Removing language like "Master/Slave" / "Blacklist/White list" on technical documents and more. Example, changing to:  "Microcontroller Out / Sensor In". GitHub to replace "master" with alternative term to avoid slavery references. Adafruit is part of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) resolution for changing the way SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) pins are labelled on hardware and in datasheets.

Helping educators remove racist content online & maker communities

A teacher contacted Adafruit about racist content on Thingiverse and asked for our help to encourage MakerBot, Thingiverse and Stratasys to continue to enforce its existing rules and remove the hatred, white supremacy, bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and violence from the Thingiverse platform.

We emailed Nadav Goshen the CEO at MakerBot, MakerBot PR, and Stratasys the parent company. Included were specific examples which were on the site, we also included meaningful actions to take to not only remove the hateful content, but also ways for Thingiverse to take ongoing actions against racist content.

And good news, MakerBot (Thingiverse) replied and removed the content, same day, within hours.

We informed the teacher that contacted us, and we’d like to thank MakerBot for taking quick action.

Public updates & accountability

The Adafruit teams will not settle for a hash tag, a Tweet, or an icon change. We will work on real change, and that requires real action and real work together. That is what we will do each day, each month, each year - we will hold ourselves accountable and publish our collective efforts, partnerships, activism, donations, openly and publicly. Updates to this page will happen frequently. Our blog and social media platforms will be utilized in actionable ways. Specific actions each week noted and shared as part of our all-company "State of the Fruit" notes and all-company meeting.

Join us and the anti-racist efforts working to end police brutality, reform the criminal justice system, and dismantle the many other forms of systemic racism at work in this country.

Black-Owned, Buy Black Friday & Giving Tuesday @adafruit

The Adafuit site and social properties will amplify and celebrate Black-owned businesses and support Giving Tuesday efforts in the holiday season.

Black Lives Matter Education & Workshop Kit

Black Lives Matter electronic badge

The Black Lives Matter Education & Workshop Kit is an open-source design the Adafruit team published during the peaceful demonstrations for social justice in the summer of 2020 (https://github.com/adafruit/BLM-Badge-PCB). As a company and culture we came together to make our voices heard, share the pain we all had, the anger, and then work together for equality and justice in our communities (https://www.adafruit.com/blacklivesmatter). We listened to each other, we marched, we donated our time, resources, we distributed PPE at community events, we came together.

The kit is a snapshot in time, a time capsule of what we did together, and what we can build together going forward. The kit can be used for learn-to-code events remotely or in person when gatherings are safe post-COVID. We wanted to make something that would continue to emphasize the moment, is a movement.

The kits will never be for sale from Adafruit, they will be donated to learning-to-code organizations, social justice groups, and events.

This education and workshop kit features a Cortex M0+ processor that can run Arduino or CircuitPython.


Black History Month @adafruit

Adafruit Black History Month 2021
The Adafuit site and social properties will amplify and celebrate Black History Month.


Black in Robotics
Black in Robotics

Black in Robotics (BiR) is a new organization that was born to address the systemic inequities found in our robotics community by focusing on three primary pillars – community, advocacy, and accountability. We want to bring the robotics community together around these initiatives! Black in Robotics brings together a global network of Black Roboticists, Allies, and Organizational Sponsors contributing to the goal of enhancing diversity, inclusion and equity in robotics. We believe that to see increased presence of black and under-represented minorities in robotics we must actively build community, advocate for diversity and encourage accountability - Black in Robotics (Adafruit is a sponsor).


Updates on inclusive language for electronics & programming

Switching default branch of repositories from master to main & MOSI/MISO.


Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC) – SBS / Black Business Month

BE NYC - Advancing Black Entrepreneurship

Black Business Month - NYC, Read more on our blog, PDF, and video

Black History Month 2022

Black History Month 2022

Celebrating and reflecting on the contributions, honoring legacies, and achievements @ Adafruit together  - adafruit.com/Blackhistorymonth2022

January 2023

"(Adafruit team email / team leads... - the family of Tyre Nichols has called on all of us to stand with them & share his story. the family of Tyre Nichols and calling for "Tyre's Law" to be made, enforcing more accountability & requiring an officer to intervene. deaths from the police are disparately impacting brown and Black communities. we're marching today and we'll do what we can to help make Tyre's Law a reality in TN, NY and in the entire USA with our voices. we'll get more info and get the word out as there is work to do to help."

we'll be at the gathering at washington square park tonight at 5pm.

Tyre Nichols remembered as beautiful soul with creative eye
https://apnews.com/article/tyre-nichols-profile-memphis-3104f3cdbaf568daf6647eca080d4001

Tyre Nichols’ Memphis - Photography Website
https://www.memphisflyer.com/want-to-see-tyre-nichols-memphis-check-out-his-photography-website
https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsphotography

.....

resources and more -

Digital privacy and security measures for staying safe while protesting
https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/06/05/digital-privacy-and-security-measures-for-staying-safe-while-protesting/


Black History Month 2023



Celebrating and reflecting on the contributions, honoring legacies, and achievements @ Adafruit together  - adafruit.com/Blackhistorymonth2023

Black History Month 2024
Black History Month 2024

Celebrating and reflecting on the contributions, honoring legacies, and achievements @ Adafruit together  - adafruit.com/Blackhistorymonth2024





Last updated: 2/1/2024
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