A message from Klear employee Ashlie Garnett on Black Lives Matter

Ashlie Garnett is a Director of Sales at Klear. She took the time to share a heartfelt message with her coworkers, most of whom live abroad, about the current situation in the US and what it means to her. Her words were beautiful, passionate, but most of all, important. We hope you’ll take the time to read this.

Klear is dedicated to fostering a company and service that provides inclusion and promotes diversity. As an equal opportunity employer and service provider, we are committed to ensuring our AI technology operates without bias, and that we provide equal opportunities for all influencers.

Klear stands with the Black Community.

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I wanted to take a second to address what’s going on in the US right now from my perspective.

I will try to express my thoughts on what’s going on recently to provide clarity to those who might not understand.

As kids, we weren’t allowed to play with any toy guns, even those that were clearly fake. We weren’t allowed to play any aggressive/violent video games. My 1st-grade teacher was openly racist and would never let me go to the restroom even though it was in the classroom, my parents had to remove me from the school.

When I got my driver’s license my mom gave me the longest speech ever through tears. My sister and I always thought our parents were being unfair, but they were trying to keep us safe. These are just some of the many rules you learn from your parents to stay alive while being black.

My grandparents had to give my parents a different set of rules to survive racism. My mother-in-law, who is a successful chemist, was put into special education classes in an attempt to derail her future because her teachers were openly racist and felt she was stepping out of place.

My great grandmother was the only one in her family fair enough to be sent to stay with a relative in the summer who passed for white. She escaped the brutality of her daily world while her siblings could not.I am not saying this for sympathy just so you can understand that this is something that is engrained in our DNA.

Now that I’m a mother I’m dreading the day I have to explain to my son what racism is and how some people will hate him simply for existing. It will be me killing a part of his innocence and it breaks my heart.

The anger and the protests stem from generations of us explaining to our children what racism is and how it will affect their lives. As people we are tired of telling our children rules to live by for being black.

I’m asking my friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers to help me stop this cancer from spreading to a new generation. Stand against racism, speak out against injustice, and show that there we have more in common than what divides us. The US is under a magnifying glass but we all know this is not an issue that is unique to  America. Have those tough conversations, make your friends and family uncomfortable.

Enough is enough.

#blacklivesmatter

#endracism

Here are a number of ways to support this human rights issue.