Black Lives Matter
A Statement from ABRAMS Books
June 2, 2020
Black lives matter. Black words matter. Black voices matter. Police brutality, state-sanctioned violence, and systemic racism and biases are abhorrent and need to be called out and resisted. We at ABRAMS stand in solidarity with our Black readers, authors, illustrators, booksellers, educators, librarians, and colleagues.
Our company mission is to strive to be inclusive in our publishing and our organization, and to celebrate vibrant voices, cultures, and ideas. We recognize that we have a lot of work to do to hold ourselves accountable to this mission.
Toward these ends, we are committed to the following course of actions:
- Make and match employee donations to organizations and nonprofits fighting for equality and social justice
- Regularly spotlight Black, Brown and POC authors, illustrators, and gatekeepers involved across our industry and honor their work on our social media platforms
- Continue to diversify our publishing programs
- Create ongoing internal discussion and consciousness-raising around racism and implicit bias, including an anti-racist book club with books provided by the company to all participating employees and procured from Black-owned bookstores
This is only the beginning, and we will build upon these steps to make sure we are living the words of our mission statement every day.
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Interested in advancing the cause?
Support Black creators by buying their books from Black-owned bookstores. Use this Publishers Weekly list as a starting place.
Check out these organizations to educate yourself, donate, or get involved:
