YWCA Statement on Air Force veteran Ramona Cooper and retired State Trooper David L. Green

White supremacy and racism are here in Massachusetts and in each of our communities. Each and every day we all bear witness to the deep and systemic ways racism permeates the very core of our society. It is in our places of work and worship, in our schools and on our streets. It is a public health crisis and collectively we must fight this disease. Silence only serves to uphold systems of oppression. Denial emboldens their existence. And it costs lives.

We continue the call to all members of our community to critically and radically examine how we, as individuals, continue to uphold racist systems and perpetuate racism and anti-Blackness.

Then have these conversations with your friends, your family, your colleagues, your communities. We must question system-level disparities and take deliberate and urgent action to dismantle them.

At the YWCA, we will not give up on that work until justice for our Black community, just is.