Martin Luther King, Jr.'s powerful quote has been on our minds this week.
When we started Magma, our goal was to empower entrepreneurs who were getting overlooked in Latin America. We’ve made anti-racism, anti-classism and anti-gender bias a core part of our investment thesis. We still have much to learn.
That’s why we’re committed to listening to and supporting the work of those who are fighting to make our world a better place.
From protests in Chile and throughout Latin America, to an unprecedented global pandemic wreaking devastation throughout the world, 2020 has seen so much already. George Floyd’s murder is a tipping point.
Throughout it all, we ask: What can we do?
We can keep learning and educating ourselves on the issues affecting our community, our friends, families, investors, and the founders we support. Listen, ask questions and think about we you can be the change we want to see in the world.
Outside of education, one can also hire and wire if one is in a position of power. Make the hire, make the investment. We’ll continue to invest in and be allies to underrepresented founders across Latin America.
We’re been inspired by writer and poet Scott Woods, who writes that racism is much bigger than “conscious hate,” it's also about privilege and understanding that you have it.
As he says, “Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything.”
Here are some other resources we are turning to in this time:
George Floyd Protests: A Timeline
BLCK VCs Emergency Relief Fund Resource List for Founders of Color
COVID-19: Investing in Black Lives and Black Livelihoods
75 THINGS that White people Can Do for Racial Justice
Another way to help is to give to those organizations who are making deep change. Here are some of the organizations we have made donations to. We encourage you to do the same:
- The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Minnesota Freedom Fund
- Center for Policing Equity
#BlacklivesMatter. There is a better way. And we all have a shared responsibility to help find it.
