We have remained silent on Black Lives Matter until now because historically we do not comment on issues, and we don’t want to participate in performative allyship. Rather, we’ve tried to participate in fundraising and creating a welcoming environment in our spaces. However, we now acknowledge that this is an instance where we need to voice our opinion and respond to our community, which has rightfully asked why we’re being silent and want to know that we’re with them. So we’re breaking our 20-year tradition and want to let you know where we stand.
The video circulating the news and social media of George Floyd being murdered by police, while he begged for air, amplifies the injustice and police brutality that the black community faces in America – racist injustices that the community has been asking their fellow Americans to acknowledge and address for years, and now simply cannot be ignored.
At Card Kingdom and Mox Boarding House, our mission states that we use tabletop gaming as a campfire – a place to gather, share and celebrate – for the sake of cultivating deeper relationships with our customers, amongst ourselves, with our communities, and the world. We cannot cultivate deeper relations while ignoring the outcry of pain from our communities, our customers, or among our team.
That is why we have donated and are matching employee donations to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization that fights for racial justice. Additionally, we are looking inward and addressing our own culture biases to ensure that we are creating an environment of diversity and inclusion. This will require work and help from outside resources, but we are committed to being better and doing better.
We’d like to thank those in the community who called on us to end our silence and pushed us to be better. We hear you and stand with you, and we are working to be better. And just to be clear, Black Lives Matter.