Dear Autoimmune Wellness Community-
By the time you read this the global antiracism uprising following the murder of George Floyd will have been moving for over three weeks. And tomorrow will be Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated in the Black community to mark the June 19, 1865 reading of the Emancipation Proclamation (which had been issued on January 1, 1863) in Texas, the last state to announce the proclamation to newly freed people.
By now, most of you know why we are writing to you in our weekly newsletter about racism, but to clarify . . .
At Autoimmune Wellness we advocate for a holistic approach to health & wellness. In the simplest terms, holistic means everything & everyone is linked. We also recognize the hierarchical nature of health & wellness. In the simplest terms, that means basics, like safety & security, must be met before we concern ourselves with things like an ideal AIP diet.
Advocating for a holistic approach and recognizing a hierarchical nature means addressing racial disparities that exist in health & wellness for the Black community. It means acknowledging that not being murdered is absolutely fundamental to the health & wellness of every human being.
Here’s the hard to part . . . while we have always had personal commitments to an anti-racist stance and even been vocal about this on our personal social media platforms, we have not amplified that message on our large Autoimmune Wellness platform. When we started a small series, called “Diversity in AIP” a few years ago and it wasn’t well-received, we stopped trying.
We had a duty to use our platforms and privilege to help address the disparities that were impacting the Black community and through that ripple undermining the health & wellness of us all. We were complicit in our silence and lack of effective follow through and for that we apologize.
As the founders of Autoimmune Wellness, we have taken action over the last several weeks to start the work of dismantling the systems that are preventing all of us from enjoying full health & wellness. We have sought out Black voices to engage with on social media, we have begun taking courses through Black educators, we are listening to, reading, and watching resources recommended by the Black community, we are donating money to Black-lead organizations, and we’ve even taken our white, autoimmune bodies out to protest alongside our Black friends, because we believe their risks are our risks.
Those actions are just the start of this journey and we will be working on how to make repeated action a part of our long-term business plan and transparently sharing those decisions with you. We’ve already begun our first step, which is regularly amplifying Black voices on our social media accounts.
In closing, we want to CALL YOU IN to this movement. We know that our audience is predominantly white women. We need your help to take action. We are confident in your ability, as our community of fellow autoimmune warriors, to take action that will help ensure the health & wellness of us all.
We are linked. Everything. Everyone.
Sincerely-
Mickey + Angie
8 comments
I am one of those predominately white women, and I say BRAVO, keep up this important work.
Thanks Maiken! We promise to keep it up & follow through.
Great article. Thank you for leading the way and engaging your community (of which I am a part) in the work necessary to end racism. In the words of @ohhappydani (find her on FB & Insta, etc.) “Perfection is not a prerequisite for participation”. The direction is appreciated. Again from Danielle Coke, Fix it in your heart. Change it in your home. Watch the world change. Thanks!
Thanks for being here JD, and for recommending Danielle – I’ve recently started following her!
This is excellent. Holistic. Honest. Helpful. Thank you.
Thanks for being here, Leslie!
I tried to find a way of contacting you privately, but was unable to find an email or link so I will ask my question here on this thread. Can you direct me to a list of organizations that your company donates to that was stated in Antiracism is Fundamental to Health and Wellness on 18 June 2020? Thank you.
Hi Tami-
We don’t have a list published at this time, because we are working on forming relationships w/ the organizations that go beyond just “random contributions on the internet.” We spent the last month identifying BIPOC owned food & agriculture organizations in our regional areas & have reached out to them to establish connections, w/ plans to begin sustainable contributions moving forward. We will transparently share a comprehensive plan we’ve developed for restructuring how we operate & re-educating ourselves, including the names of organizations we are contributing to, in the very near future. Thanks for inquiring!