We are Outraged and We Raise Our Collective Voice

To our UMA Members and everyone;

We share your outrage, heartbreak, and pleas for radical change as we mourn the loss of George Floyd, and the countless black men and women that have been murdered before him.

While we closely examine the practices of our local police departments and broken criminal justice systems, we must also work to disrupt and correct the many other institutions that are perpetuating tremendous racial injustice. As an organization focused on community economic development through manufacturing, we find ourselves working to address discriminatory land use policies, exclusionary development processes, and how capital flows (or, really, does not flow) to communities of color. And let’s not forget, George Floyd lost his life over suspicions of a $20 bill. Generations of oppression of people of color have landed us here. This is not a status quo we can let persist any longer.

Our work at UMA is about lifting up the importance of manufacturing. Yet what drives this work is the knowledge that manufacturing is a powerful agent for equity and racial justice in our neighborhoods. Each day, we do our best to lift up the interventions, small and large, that are creating more accessible employment opportunities, more diverse ownership, and greater wealth for people of color. We speak a language of partnership and collaboration; community economic development does not work without robust ecosystems, and a participatory process that engages faith leaders, educators, residents, and neighborhood institutions, to name a few. Those same lessons of partnership must be applied to fighting racism and adopting anti-racist practices — both as institutions and as individuals.

Internally, we questioned whether to release our newest publication, Forging Fairness, today. This is work that was borne out of our Pathways to Patient Capital cohort, a group of community-based organizations that are committed to coming together to address the inequitable flow of capital to makers and manufacturers of color. In the end, we decided it is especially important in this moment to lift up the work of these frontline organizations, and explore their role in combating institutional racism.

This is a profound time in our nation’s public discourse, and at UMA we commit ourselves to taking bold action to promote equity and inclusion — both in the ways we know how and the ways we have yet to learn. We will continue to listen and learn from all of you, our members.

Thank you for your continued work and for so freely sharing your stories.

In partnership,
The Urban Manufacturing Alliance