June 24, 2020

The McGregor Fund stands with Black people across our country, who continue to endure discrimination ranging from outright brutality to daily denigrations and widespread indifference to inequity and injustice. As we confront the recent killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and so many others, we must face the racial animus that continues to undermine many of our institutions and cause disparities in quality of life.

Black lives matter. Black lives have always mattered. Every Black life. These are not political statements but affirmations of the essential dignity and rights of every human being to thrive, dream, and build. We join in these statements because Black and white people do not experience these rights in equal measure.

Structural racism is evident in the concentration of poverty among Black and other people of color. It is evident in the disparate health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident in the persistent segregation of our region and the unequal investment in our schools along racial lines. It is evident in the mass incarceration of Black and brown people. And it is a barrier to the fulfillment of the McGregor Fund’s 95-year-old mission: to relieve the misfortunes and improve the well-being of humankind.

Last year, we reoriented much of our work to ending homelessness and disconnection from employment among Detroiters. Consistent with our refusal to view these conditions as intractable, we similarly refuse to accept that racism is intractable. For our part, the McGregor Fund is committed to solutions that encompass the perspectives, racial reality and wisdom of the people we serve. We are redoubling our efforts to listen, learn, and invest in the leadership within our community. We will proceed in our work with humility while examining and addressing our own deficiencies. We acknowledge the power and privilege that are conferred upon private foundations such as the McGregor Fund and commit to use them in service of racial justice.