These past three weeks our social media and the news has been flooded with the Black Lives Matter Movement. The movement originally started with Trayvon Martin, who was a 17-year-old African-American boy who was shot by George Zimmerman in 2013. After George Zimmerman’s acquittal, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter began. Since then, the black community and their allies have been supporting the movement to bring awareness to others and show discrimination and inequality towards them.
On May 25th, a 46-year-old African-American man named George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin and four other officers in Minneapolis. An innocent bystander caught this on camera and then was widely spread on all platforms. Once people saw the horrific acts of what happened, it sparked a worldwide outcry for justice, for not only George Floyd, but for countless others in the black community who have endured inequity and racism. Within these past few weeks, you’ve seen people protesting for the black community and vocalizing, “Black Lives Matter.” You might’ve participated in these protests, know someone who has or even just watched from your T.V. or phones. If you were on social media, you might've seen a myriad of posts of black screens, educational posts about Black history, and even posts on where you can donate or sign petitions.
Here at Perfect Locks we embrace diversity, fight for what’s right, and want to see a change for a better future. We wanted to participate and display information below on how you can further educate yourself, your family, and your community about black history.
Get Educated with Streaming Services
If you have Netflix, they recently added a new collection that highlights black storytelling. Their collection includes “When They See Us”, “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson”, “13th”, and many more.
Websites Who Fight for the Cause
We have attached a few links below to where you can learn more about organizations that are helping the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Blacklivesmatter.com - https://blacklivesmatter.com/
- Campaign Zero - https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
- NAACP Legal & Defense Fund - https://www.naacpldf.org/
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Black Visions Collective - https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
Perfect Locks will be donating 5% of all online sales during the month of June to the NAACP Legal & Defense Fund.
Ways You Can Support the Movement
There are many offline and online ways you can help. We have attached a few links below to see how you can help support our black community.
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10 ways to support the black lives matter movement:
https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/evnykp/10-ways-to-support-the-black-lives-matter-movement -
Support Black Lives Matter, Protesters, and Equality Initiatives:
https://time.com/5849721/how-to-help-black-lives-matter-protests/ -
Petitions to Sign that can make a difference:
https://www.change.org/t/black-lives-matter-en-us
There are numerous other ways to help support our black community as well. This would be educating yourself through books, podcasts, and art about black history. You can support black influencers, black-owned brands, black authors, and more, as they need a voice to be heard. You can watch monetized youtube videos about racial justice. You can reflect on all of the ways you benefit from privilege and acknowledge that the path to racial equality is far from over. You can also volunteer for black-led organizations. These are just a few ways to help and show support to our black community. Now is the time to show up for change on racial equality and discrimination We are louder together.
A statement from the owner Priyanka:
This is a painful time for our country and for us. The events going on around all of us are heartbreaking. Change is needed, and we as a company of diverse individuals are committed to being a positive part of that much-needed change. We've long believed that embracing diversity is the key to a better community and society. Perfect Locks would not exist if it weren't for our black customers and hairdressers. While we have consciously made every effort to be diverse within our workforce and in everything we do, it's impossible for us to deny that we can't do better. Our black team members are hurting, our black community is hurting. I have my own personal experience with racism as a brown person, but it's certainly not the same... Not even remotely. I have always believed that we as human beings are all "hairs from the same head" so to speak, but it's clear everybody does not feel the same. The recent events are powerful, and we must do better to combat discrimination and ignorance against our black community. My most heartfelt thoughts go to the families of the innocent victims, and countless other black human beings.
Sometimes we must fall apart, before we can rise together.