Turning Outrage into Activism

In a recent interview, I was asked, "What keeps you up at night?"  My immediate response was and is racism.

I find it beyond intolerable that Asians and People of Color are assaulted daily just because they look different or come from different cultures - clearly the height of ignorance and stupidity. 

Just imagine how you would feel every single day if you knew that every time someone you loved walked out the door they could be shot, assaulted, or killed just because they were a targeted group of hate. That's precisely how Jews felt during the rise of Nazi Germany, and now we have hateful and evil American Nazis.

Let's focus on Georgia.  Many of you may have seen the picture of a group of white men, led by Governor Brian Kemp, signing the voter suppression law, which included making it illegal to provide water and food for people standing in line to vote.

The visual image of a group of Southern White Men, posing in front of a painting of an old southern slave plantation while deciding that ONLY THEY have the right to decide who should vote, brought up for me the image of a group of men sitting inside a cave decades ago, talking about the fact that women were becoming too powerful, and they have to come together to make sure they don't lose control of women!

Let's call it what it is - A BUNCH OF RACISTS ASSAULTING THE VERY FOUNDATION OF OUR DEMOCRACY !!! 

So, as I am watching this group of white men, who have zero commitment, imagination and dedication to issues that will help the people in their state, decide to limit the voting to only the people they believe will vote for them, I am thinking what can we, as a community do to make it very painful for any state to even consider passing these racist voting bills!
 
Starting the moment you finish this article, I ask each of you to commit to the following:

1. Ask your company and your colleagues to publicly denounce the actions of the Governor of Georgia and to announce that your company will withdraw any business meetings, conferences, or sponsorships of the same being held in Georgia until this law is reversed.

2. Individually, let's agree to boycott every company who is supporting these voter suppression laws.

3. Let's also stand up and declare we will not attend any business meetings, conferences, etc. in Georgia.

4. Let's use our intellectual power, our knowledge of technology, social media and our relentless commitment to respect for every human being to take a stand against all racism!   Each of us can start writing articles, sending letters to the press, commenting on social media and, most importantly, publicly boycotting all companies, conferences, and businesses in Georgia.

Remember, people have the power. We can work together to restore fairness for all people of this great country and, most importantly, communicating our outrage by putting every possible kind of pressure on all companies, conferences, and businesses in Georgia.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.