 Recognition and Acknowledgement of Harm
We recognize that the country we know as the United States of America was founded upon twin evils: the theft of lands and genocide of Indigenous people and the enslavement and torture of people from the African continent. Those of us who were raised in, belong to, and have benefited from the dominant culture of whiteness, are complicit. After all these centuries, we have never acknowledged nor apologized for nor repaired these violent traumas and crimes against humanity that still persistently negatively impact our fellow human beings. We must do better; we can do better. We are committed to confronting racism with sustained engagement: doing the hard, messy and uncomfortable work necessary to become anti-racists, repair these harms and heal these wounds. Knowing that systemic racism will not dissolve simply with our intention to become anti-racists, and understanding that we will continue to make mistakes and cause harm even as we do the work, we undertake the ongoing work of interrupting the forces of racism as a continual practice--individually, through our purpose practices and in every other sphere of influence. We are committed to creating a more just, equitable and sustainable world where all of us are honored, valued and free to fully express our purpose. Until we eradicate racism, this is impossible. The Racial Justice Plan As a community, we state unequivocally, that none of us are free until all of us are free. None of us get to fully live our purpose in life if there is injustice. We stand with #BlackLivesMatter and are taking new actions. “Justice deferred is justice denied.” Louisiana Law Journal, 1842 George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing civil rights movement, the largest in human history, has impacted each of us in the Global Purpose Leaders (GPL) deeply and in a variety of ways. As a Council, tasked with shepherding this volunteer non-profit, a global community of 50+ purpose practitioners with an annual budget of ~$2,500, George’s murder has called us to question our purpose as an organization and our own blindness to systemic racism. Although we are largely female (60%), we are an overwhelming white community (87%), and we are called to examine who we are in the face of the systemic racism that has shaped our community and the ongoing racial injustice. We are examining what our role is as guides, coaches, educators, facilitators and entrepreneurs in the healing, awakening and reforming of society and addressing the impacts of bias, oppression and injustice that are devastating to all our members, especially our African American members. These impacts are devastating to us, even to those of us who believe purpose activation and social justice are apples and oranges. Purpose is a bridge between the human heart and the world. It connects us to our families, careers, communities, governments and ecology. In effect, every human being has a soul contract to fulfill within the global collective. Whether a GPL member acknowledges it or not, every purpose is bound together in a sacred marriage between self and other. We agree with Martin Luther King Jr., who stated so powerfully, “In a real sense, all life is inter-related. All [people] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Our vision is a planet of awakened souls. Souls cannot awaken to their purpose and flourish when there is a knee on their neck. They cannot awaken to their purpose and live it out loud, when they are terrorized and executed by police for their blackness. They cannot realize the liberation, creativity and prosperity that results from purpose activation, when they are systemically impoverished and oppressed. Further, native peoples, the indigenous cultures of the United States, cannot inhabit their souls, cultures and lands, when the U.S. government criminalizes their rights, existence and sovereignty. Especially in light of the shamanic practices the world over that inform our craft, we find our purpose as a community is inextricably bound with the plight of black, brown and indigenous people, and with the other marginalized people in our human family - with poor people, with women, with the GLBTQ community, with immigrants and those who are physically, mentally or otherwise challenged - and our planet’s ecology. We are inextricably woven together. These are fine words, but they don’t change anything unless we as purpose practitioners do things differently. As such, we both commit to taking new actions today and commit to a process of learning to do things differently, to take future actions in accordance with what we are learning. We pledge to enact the following:
In the coming weeks, we’ll report on our progress and further details of these commitments. In solidarity, The Global Purpose Leaders
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