Open Markets Supports Protests for Racial Justice and Equality

We grieve with the many families and communities who have lost loved ones to anti-Black violence. And we join Black organizers, leaders, and activists in solidarity since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. Their deaths are the product of the racism that underlies our society and that continues to result in suffocating surveillance, over-policing, and state violence against communities of color. The threat to them is a threat to the fundamental security and rights of every person.

The harsh response by law enforcement to peaceful protests is also a threat to us all, and we condemn it. The disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters exercising their rights to assemble and express themselves punctuates a long-held demand of Black leadership and democratic peoples everywhere: We must demilitarize law enforcement, dismantle the surveillance state, and reinvest in our communities.

Open Markets is committed to doing all we can to dismantle racist systems of oppression, including those built into the structure of our political economy. Today, urgently, that means falling into formation beside our courageous Black allies, friends, and colleagues as they lead in this historic and volatile moment. This also means centering the safety, prosperity, and leadership of people of color in the work we do.