Lee, Massachusetts - We are heartbroken for the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Botham Jean, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others. We are angry and overwhelmed by senseless cruelty, killings, and misrepresentation of Black Americans and the fear and hatred that has pervaded centuries-old discrimination and white privilege. We want to say all their names and honor the stolen lives of Rodney King and Dr. King and countless others. For 400 years, it has gone that millions of women and children and men have been chained and brutalized and enslaved at the hands of racism. We are sorry, saddened, and frustrated by these events and our history. We waited too long to respond.
Boyd Technologies stands with citizens around the globe, protesting the persistent injustice and violence against Black Americans. We commit ourselves to change and to evolve with this fight as our fight. We plan to listen and learn and to identify conditions and unconscious biases that perpetuate structures of inequity and oppression. And to help end them.
At Boyd Technologies, our mission is to Advance Health Care Together through the introduction of best to market solutions with our partners in the life sciences, whom we admire and respect. We believe deeply in collective wisdom and the acknowledgment of right and wrong as seeds of personal and professional growth. We believe in lifelong learning, improvement through action and reflection, and the value of diverse experiences and people of all races. We celebrate diversity as a root of success and believe we need to do more as a business in an industry that fosters evolution. We believe Black Lives Matter.
Our future is dependent upon diversity, knowledge, inclusion, and stewardship of just peace – these are the makings of collective wisdom and an evolved society. To this end, we know we have work to do. Boyd Technologies acknowledges our responsibility to take action and commits to doing more.
At Boyd Technologies, we use platforms to accelerate growth and the well-being of the patients we serve. We view this as an opportunity and a responsibility to use our voice to advocate for change. To the many voices who have called for change for far too long – we hear you, we are with you, and we are ready.
We have (as a company and individuals) donated to NAACP Berkshires, Black Lives Matter, and other organizations well-suited to bring change directly to those most affected, and will continue to do so.
Effective immediately, we will begin to pursue these initiatives:
- Form a Diversity Committee to advocate for Black, People of Color, Nonbinary Genders, and LGBTQ communities to advance our work and assure it's rooted in equality.
- Establish employee assistance programs and resources that are safe spaces to share experiences and raise concerns
- Conduct active listening tours and seek to understand and diversify our team, our board, and our business.
- Train our managers and question our unconscious cultural bias, challenge our assumptions and lean into the unknown
- Contribute resources to fighting racial injustice and supporting local and regional champions of diversity
We recognize that process of unlearning and relearning will be a marathon, not a sprint, and that it is not good enough to be merely not-racist; we must be actively anti-racist for the betterment of our workplace, our community, and our industry.