The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the countless Black men, women, and children at the hands of the police have reminded us that it is simply not enough for us white people to issue sympathetic statements and post black squares on social media. We must be actively anti-racist and dedicated to changing the systematic oppression and brutality of Black as well as Indigenous, Latinx, and other people in a country founded on slavery and genocide. And we must do so with our business platforms. Scott and I personally stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and our business, Tilted Shed, follows suit.
We have always used our business platform for causes we believe are good, from women's rights, voting rights, universal health care, and of course in support of many local nonprofits, community groups, and local businesses and friends who've needed help during the many calamities Sonoma County has endured over the years. But we have realized we need to make our activism for justice and democracy a codified part of our business. This is our attempt to do so.
This page will grow over the coming days, weeks, and months, with our thoughts and actions dedicated to ending racism and supporting BIPOC businesses and people in Sonoma County, the Bay Area, and around the country. We are going to do the uncomfortable but right work of calling out our weaknesses and biases and taking forward action to be better people and a better business. We challenge the American cider industry, whose past is steeped in white colonial oppression and slavery, to examine their own marketing, hiring practices, and operations and join us. Are we pushing racist nostalgic narratives in our marketing? Are we hiring BIPOC to join our teams? Are BIPOC people in leadership positions? Are we paying living wages that are equitable for all, fighting for universal health care or providing health coverage? Are we supporting BIPOC-owned businesses and reaching out to BIPOC customers? Are we wanting to help rectify the systemic inequities and injustice of BIPOC farm displacement, barriers to land access and foreclosure, and help fight for food justice? It's not just police brutality that we must fight, but the myriad assaults on human dignity, health, and the many other parts of life that we white people take for granted.
Of course this is a problem 400 years in the making, so it will take all of us, working tirelessly to eliminate the systemic causes. It will take voting en masse and fighting voter suppression, engaging our elected leaders, demanding police reforms and funding of human services over militarization, donating to BLM and other BIPOC-led organizations and projects, protesting and marching, and doing the many small things that over time make a huge difference.
At Tilted Shed, we are committed to using our business platform to work for justice, racial, but also social and environmental, as they are all intertwined. Please follow us on Instagram (@tiltedshed) to see what causes, projects, and things we are supporting or discussing.
We have made financial contributions to the following, and we encourage you to support them as well or one of the many other great causes out there.
We have always used our business platform for causes we believe are good, from women's rights, voting rights, universal health care, and of course in support of many local nonprofits, community groups, and local businesses and friends who've needed help during the many calamities Sonoma County has endured over the years. But we have realized we need to make our activism for justice and democracy a codified part of our business. This is our attempt to do so.
This page will grow over the coming days, weeks, and months, with our thoughts and actions dedicated to ending racism and supporting BIPOC businesses and people in Sonoma County, the Bay Area, and around the country. We are going to do the uncomfortable but right work of calling out our weaknesses and biases and taking forward action to be better people and a better business. We challenge the American cider industry, whose past is steeped in white colonial oppression and slavery, to examine their own marketing, hiring practices, and operations and join us. Are we pushing racist nostalgic narratives in our marketing? Are we hiring BIPOC to join our teams? Are BIPOC people in leadership positions? Are we paying living wages that are equitable for all, fighting for universal health care or providing health coverage? Are we supporting BIPOC-owned businesses and reaching out to BIPOC customers? Are we wanting to help rectify the systemic inequities and injustice of BIPOC farm displacement, barriers to land access and foreclosure, and help fight for food justice? It's not just police brutality that we must fight, but the myriad assaults on human dignity, health, and the many other parts of life that we white people take for granted.
Of course this is a problem 400 years in the making, so it will take all of us, working tirelessly to eliminate the systemic causes. It will take voting en masse and fighting voter suppression, engaging our elected leaders, demanding police reforms and funding of human services over militarization, donating to BLM and other BIPOC-led organizations and projects, protesting and marching, and doing the many small things that over time make a huge difference.
At Tilted Shed, we are committed to using our business platform to work for justice, racial, but also social and environmental, as they are all intertwined. Please follow us on Instagram (@tiltedshed) to see what causes, projects, and things we are supporting or discussing.
We have made financial contributions to the following, and we encourage you to support them as well or one of the many other great causes out there.
- ACLU: We are monthly card-carrying donors to ACLU, the champion for civil rights in the US.
- Black Earth Farms: Grassroots Pan African & Pan Indigenous farming collective doing a CSA in the East Bay
- Black Voters Matter Fund: A nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the Black people have full, fair, and equal access to the ballot
- Fair Fight Action: Dedicated to fair and free elections in the state of Georgia.
- Kiley Clark GoFundMe for a Black-led Regenerative Farm: Our friend Kiley is a Black queer farmer formerly of Sonoma County who, after an exhaustive search throughout Sonoma County and the West Coast, bought a farm in Georgia, where the prices weren't so astronomical. Only 2% of farmers in the State of California are women of color, and about 0.3% of farmers in California are Black. We weren't able to move the needle with Kiley, but we're proud we raised $500 with sales from our Love's Labor cider to help her achieve her goal! To learn more about the poor state of BIPOC farm ownership in California, read the Farmer Equity Report published by the California Department of Food & Agriculture.
- North Bay Organizing Project: A multi-racial organization dedicated to racial, environmental, and social justice in Sonoma County
- The Bail Project: A national nonprofit providing bail assistance to protestors arrested during BLM marches.
- TransLifeline: We have raised over $3,000 since 2021 for this Oakland-based nonprofit offering financial and emotional support to the trans community, by the trans community. Trans rights are human rights!