A Message to Our Community

OCTOBER 1, 2020

To our Co-op community,

This morning, we became aware of a disturbing flyer that was posted and shared around the Burlington area with racially offensive language and upsetting accusations about the Co-op’s practices. We unequivocally condemn white supremacy and the language that was used in the flyer. Confronting and addressing racism and white supremacy is crucial and necessary work but choosing to do so by perpetuating racial slurs is disappointing and detrimental to our community.

As a country and as a community, we are facing a necessary reckoning with the reality of systemic racism and the role that white supremacy continues to play in perpetuating inequality and discrimination.

Over the past few months, as a Co-op, we too have recognized the need to centralize conversations around racial justice and prioritize racial equity in our daily operations. This work starts (and certainly does not end) with reflecting on the conscious and unconscious ways we may have as an organization contributed to this system.

We hosted staff listening sessions in July as a launching point for these conversations to help guide a path forward. We have an anonymous process for employee feedback including staff comment boxes and our annual Management Evaluation Survey.

We welcome a dialogue with the individual(s) who posted these flyers to discuss their issues of concern so that we would have the opportunity to address them.

We recognize that we have work to do and we welcome thoughts and ideas from our community as we continue our own education around racial justice.

Sincerely,

John Tashiro
General Manager