Normally I’m ready to go June 1st to share my thoughts with my tribe on the upcoming month ahead. I took the first week of June off of Vibe With Ade to reflect, educate, and spend time finding ways to assist in the Black Lives Matter movement. I was so moved by the death of George Floyd as was the world. The time I would’ve spent on myself and the content I put towards history being made right before our eyes.
As a Hispanic woman, I recognize my privilege. I grew up in a nicer part of Phoenix that was predominantly white. I have a roof over my head, a stable income, and received a great education. I’ve never been super into politics (I’m working on it). That alone shows my privilege. I still have had my own experiences with racism by being Hispanic from white people and even from my own race.
I have always been inclusive to every person I met. I was on the phone with my mom crying and completely distraught by everything going on. She reminded me that since I was little I was always standing up for the underdog, the minorities on the playground if you will. I was a counselor for Mini Town, a camp that prided itself on teaching diversity and inclusion. I was so passionate about accepting diverse cultures, religions, people, etc. I realized I had lost that fight somewhere along the way. Maybe because the real world brings about very uncomfortable truths I wasn’t ready to accept or to call out others on as confrontation makes me uncomfortable (another thing I’m working on).
I share all this because I felt guilty letting something like this just get swept under the rug of my radar for a period of time and the death of George Floyd really awakened something in me like all of us. It brought me right back to reality, that there is still more work to be done and I felt overwhelmed. I spent last week scrambling to donate, sign petitions, use my platform to share resources, have conversations with close friends and family, check-in on my Black friends and it still felt like it wasn’t enough. Having a platform during a pandemic and a revolution like this is a tough responsibility to carry. I signed up for this and I can’t just bow out when things get tough or uncomfortable to talk about.
How Vibe With Ade is Moving Forward
I know I’m not a big company that needs to make a big statement about this, but I feel like I need to. I have a big platform in the EDM and rave community that I built and I have a responsibility to address this before moving forward with my content. There are also a lot of moving pieces here where I’m still trying to figure out where I can make the most impact. This isn’t just a one week trend, but a lifetime commitment for myself to do better and to integrate this more into my everyday life.
On Taking Action for Black Lives Matter
I will continue to:
- Donate what I can each month to a charity in need (list found here)
- Take action through T’s Action Entourage: my friend Tianna started an Instagram page to provide an actionable checklist filled with resources if you’re unsure of where to start.
- Educate myself on various topics related to police brutality, systemic racism, and more. (list found here)
- Sign petitions I come across.
On Diversity & Inclusion Within My Brand
I will start:
- Highlighting more BIPOC in the rave and festival community. I shared an Instagram post featuring some women and I would like to keep that going.
- Follow and engage with more BIPOC on social media and in-person when festivals do come back.
- Having guest writers on my blog and guests on my podcast that range in diversity so that more voices of all colors, backgrounds, etc. are represented.
- Collaborate with more BIPOC creators for YouTube videos, Instagram posts, etc.
- Sharing more education on the foundations of EDM to celebrate Blackness in the EDM Community
- Highlight more BIPOC EDM artists
On Brand Collaborations and Support
I will:
- Be more selective in the brands I do collaborate with. Staying silent is not an option in these scenarios especially in a community that prides itself on PLUR and inclusivity. Have those conversations if they have remained neutral.
- Hold the brands I currently work with to a standard that they should be showcasing people of all colors, shapes, and sizes. I have stayed quiet on this for too long.
- Support more brands that are run my BIPOC and minorities. Find ways to support them financially with my purchases and with my content.
- No longer support brands that don’t align with my values.
I have my own work to do and to continue to do to become more politically involved and knowledgeable. I am being transparent in all of this to show that we can all spend some time to work on this. If each of us are contributing a portion, the amount of change we can bring about will be incredible. We’ve already seen that amount of change of week of this can bring, let’s see what a lifetime of work can do.
I hope this inspired you to look within yourself and see what you can do. Whether you have a platform of 50 followers or thousands, we can all make a difference.
More resources can be found here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Thank you for your time and wishing ya’ll a prosperous and abundant June!
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