Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Donate $200K to the NAACP and Pledge to Examine Their Bias and Complicity
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have pledged to examine their own complicity in systemic racism and have donated to the NAACP.
To support protestors and help demand justice for the murder of George Floyd, please head here.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have donated $200,000 to the NAACP and released a statement about their own complicity in systemic racism—as well as their commitment to educate themselves and become more informed.
“We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car,” the couple wrote in their statement. “We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out. We can’t imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.”
They also spoke about their plans to educate their children so they don’t contribute to this awful cycle:
“We’ve been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people’s experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it…especially our own complicity. We talk about our bias, blindness, and our own mistakes. We look back and see so many mistakes, which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become. They’ve led us to huge avenues of education. We’re committed to raising our kids so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and so they’ll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously. It’s the least we can do to honor not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Eric Garner but all the Black men and women who have been killed when a camera wasn’t rolling.”
A post shared by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) on May 31, 2020 at 6:09pm PDT
Blake and Ryan concluded their statement by announcing their contribution to the NAACP, pledging to stay educated and to vote in every local election: “We want to use our privilege and our platform to be an ally. And to play a part in easing pain for so many who feel as though this grand experiment is failing them.”
To demand justice for George Floyd and support protestors, check out the resources below—but reminder: Donating money and signing petitions is just step one. Allyship is an ongoing process and we must commit to being anti-racist in every single facet of our daily lives—long after protests end.
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