Black Lives Matter | CT Dog Photography
With Love & Oats Photography has always been about more than dog photography. It has always been imperative to me to talk about equality and love for all, racial injustice, climate change, and other topics that I care deeply about. There has never been a question for me that Black Lives Matter. The very first image for the With Love & Dogs Project that has become my soul work began with that statement. It is a personal value for me, and my business will always stand for it.
However, I have not done enough. Over the past year, I have worked hard to diversify my feeds and bookshelves. I began the process of looking inward and examining my own biases and white privilege, but I kept that all inside. I began working on a project that creates messages of equality, love and kindness, but I have been afraid to have the tough conversations in my real life. I have not stood up loudly enough.
That time is now over. It is not acceptable to simply not be racist. I commit myself and my business to being actively anti-racist.
I am personally committed to further diversifying my bookshelves, my education, my partnerships, and the places where I shop and invest my money. I will continue to learn, read, listen, march, vote and speak up. I admit that I have a long way to go, and I understand that this is lifelong work.
As a business owner, I commit to diversity, inclusion and equity. Right now my business is a solopreneurship, but that will not always be the case, and I look forward to opportunities to build an inclusive company in the future. I will continue using my business to spread messages of love, hope, kindness and EQUALITY. This has always been my goal and my passion, and I’m sorry that I haven’t done enough.
I believe that this is an incredible opportunity for long overdue change and I am ready to be a part of it. It’s time we work collectively toward a more equitable future. I am listening and will continue to do better.
If you are white and looking to get involved and learn more about anti-racism, racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement, I encourage you to start by doing your own personal work on your internal biases and internal racism. Please know that this work is deeply personal, will make you uncomfortable and heartbroken, and will force you to change your beliefs about and behaviors in the world. We all have a long way to go, but we must not wait any longer to begin. Here is a great link to a resource list from an amazing Black female educator, but there are many other resource lists available.
