One Love Foundation - The Necessary Way Forward

Charlottesville, Virginia

June 3, 2020

If you are not familiar with the One Love Foundation, here’s a link to their website: www.joinonelive.org. It does wonderful work educating young people on healthy, and unhealthy, relationships. From its humble beginnings it has grown into an organization with remarkable reach.

I applaud them for expanding their mission as explained below.

While much of life is still slowed down, racism in America rages on.

To our One Love community, Our hearts are aching. The last weeks have been heavy and painful ones for our world, our country, and our cities. From the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery to Amy Cooper weaponizing her white privilege against Chris Cooper in Central Park — the harsh reality of racism has been on full display for all to see. Racism, like relationship violence, is an issue that is real to so many people yet so hard to talk about out loud. We know from our work that silence sustains abuse. We know that by remaining silent, you become part of the problem not the solution. There’s no time for us to be silent, now is the time to step up and to do the work. Right now, it’s also necessary to acknowledge the undeniable truth that the Black community, especially women, are disproportionate victims of relationship violence. Our mission to help everyone love better and live healthier, safer lives needs to address this explicitly. To take the first step, we are committed to listening, learning and having ongoing dialogue about how we can do better and work harder to combat social injustice and systemic racism. From these conversations we want to incorporate the healthy behaviors that we teach every day — equality, taking responsibility, and healthy conflict — into more inclusive education that speaks to communities of color and reflects the real experiences and truths of all humans. This is the necessary way forward for One Love. Racism is one of the most insidious forces in this country. We want you to know that we will always stand up to reject all forms of discrimination and injustice. This is the right thing to do, and now is the time. We invite every member of the One Love community to join us in this work. With respect and gratitude, The Team at One Love