To the Poketo community:

We wanted to let you know that in support of justice and equity for Black communities, we have made donations to Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. You can read more at the end of this post about these organizations and find a list of others that you can support. There are so many words to be said right now but we’ve decided at Team Poketo to show our solidarity through listening, learning, and funding, as well as continuing to promote inclusion on our own team. 

We’re also continuing to partner with and donate to CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), which has been working to set up free drive-through testing sites for COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected and killed people in Black and Brown communities.

In the words of Desmond Tutu, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Black lives matter.

- Angie Myung and Ted Vadakan, co-founders

UPDATE: Starting June 9, 2020, we'll be donating 10% of all of our sales to Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund through the end of the month. This is in addition to the donation that we made as a company last week to these organizations. Though we're still struggling in the midst of closed stores during the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to give as much as we can while keeping the business afloat. 

Black Lives Matter: “Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.”

The Bail Project: “The Bail Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization designed to combat mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system ‒ one person at a time.”

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund: “The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 75 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.”

Campaign Zero: “Funds donated to Campaign Zero support the analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.”

Color of Change: “We design campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward. Until justice is real.

Black Visions Collective: “Black Visions Collective (BLVC) believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.”

ACLU: “The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.”

The Innocence Project: “The Innocence Project's mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.”

Anti Police Terror Project: “The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. We support families surviving police terror in their fight for justice, documenting police abuses and connecting impacted families and community members with resources, legal referrals, and opportunities for healing.”

We The Protesters: “We The Protesters is a national organization focused on ending racism and police violence in the United States. Since 2015, we’ve built the most comprehensive database of police violence in the nation, used the data to identify effective policy solutions and supported movement organizers to enact these policies at every level of government.”

CORE: CORE saves lives and strengthens communities impacted by or vulnerable to crisis.”