Young@Heart has been discussing the issue of ongoing systemic racism brought to light by the murder of George Floyd. Here is our response:
Enough is enough. This time has to be different. We applaud our “grandchildren” taking to the streets to make this an irreversible moment for change. We support and join you in this sincere struggle to make meaningful lasting change in our country.
For our first 20 years, Young@Heart was all white, however we made a conscious effort to collaborate with groups of color. And we still do. In 2002 we decided it was not enough to simply collaborate with people of color and we needed to become a more racially diverse organization with greater equity.
Currently, people of color make up 25% of our singers, band, staff, and board. To us, that’s still not enough. This summer, we will identify the social, economic and geographic barriers to greater equity in our organization and come up with a very specific action plan to increase our diversity substantially in the coming years. We look forward to sharing our progress and holding ourselves accountable to this promise.
We’ve been singing “A Change Is Gonna Come” for years. That time is now.