ConCarolinas Statement on the Murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others and the Nationwide Demonstrations Protesting Police Brutality.
Black Lives Matter.
In a perfect world, this statement would end there. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t need to be said at all, because it would be obvious and everyone would live by that statement. But this is not a perfect world, as can be seen by people rising up in all fifty states and many countries around the world to speak out against systemic racism and excessive use of force by American police departments. ConCarolinas wants to make it abundantly clear that we stand with our African-American fans, guests, volunteers, and humans. You matter. We see you.
And we see ourselves. We as a nation are not perfect, and we are not where we need to be. We as a convention are not where we need to be. We have made mistakes in the past, and our representation by attendees, volunteers, and guests of color is inadequate. We are working to improve.
Our Con Committee and Track Directors are actively working to add more diverse programming and guests to our convention, and we are creating new initiatives to increase attendance by African-American fans and fans in other underrepresented segments of our population. We will talk more about those initiatives in the coming weeks and months. We will post those initiatives both to the ConCarolinas website, and to our social media pages. This is a time to say that we stand with you, and we will do and be better in our actions. Words are too often empty; it is actions that matter.
Fandom is for everyone. ConCarolinas is for everyone. You are welcome here. We see you. We support you.