Black Lives Matter.
The Riverside Boat Club community stands firmly against racism. We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the excessive use of force by law enforcement against Black and Brown people, as well as ongoing systemic injustices such as mass incarceration and voter suppression.
In particular, we condemn the unjust killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and countless others, both known and unknown.We are holding introspective conversations throughout the club about our previous failures to confront racism in our history and sport. Too often we have failed to be actively anti-racist and to act as allies. At the end of the day, we have not done enough to be anti-racist in a sport that is often associated with racism and white privilege. We take responsibility for this and pledge to do better.
We at Riverside have an obligation to not only speak truth to injustice, but to also roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of correcting it. Meaningful change occurs one community at a time. Let's make the rowing community of Boston and Cambridge more representative of these great cities. The sport of rowing, our cities, and we ourselves will all be better for it.
We commit to taking active steps to support access to rowing for underrepresented communities to ensure they feel welcomed and included at Riverside Boat Club.
To show our immediate support, we will display Black Lives Matter signage and are humbled to participate in the ongoing protests.
We are actively working on updating our club Code-of-Conduct, anti-harrassment/anti-discrimination policies and governance structure to be explicitly anti-racist.
As soon as it becomes safe to do so, we commit to hosting community events such as learn-to-row sessions, collaboration on swimming lessons, and open houses. We will also explore how we can best amplify the voices of Black rowers and support the work of those who are making rowing more inclusive within underrepresented communities. Riverside will reach out to and collaborate with like-minded local organizations to amplify our impact.
We believe that the march towards justice and inclusion takes many forms, large and small, and everyone has a part to play. From peaceful public gatherings of support for those who have been victimized by larger forces in our society to self examination as to how subtle forms of racism penetrate our own consciousness. We all need to commit to work harder against these biases on a daily basis.
Everyone should be able to experience the joys and challenges of rowing. We have been silent for too long, we don’t know all the answers, but we commit to taking the first steps towards change.
From the Chair of the Membership Committee
Above you will find the RBC position statement in support of Black Lives Matter, which is the result of many submissions from our members. The board and I thought it would be best to let our members express their thoughts using their own words, and in doing so, provide a direct expression of their reactions to the recent incidents of racism and police brutality.
Our country is undergoing sweeping expressions of outrage towards these events. It is heartening to see that many of these expressions come from white allies who may have remained silent for too long. Why is now the time the white community is vigorously responding? Is it because there have been too many senseless murders? Or the lack of national leadership on these issues? I don't think this can be answered easily.
The more pressing question is how can we keep these feelings of outrage and concern from subsiding into complacency?
We have arrived at an unprecedented moment. We face many significant world-wide challenges ahead including a global pandemic, an ever widening wealth gap, cyber warfare and climate change. We hope to focus our efforts towards resolving America's age-old problem of racial inequity in order to face these looming issues with the strength of our complete American family.
With that in mind, the board would like you to know that we are fully committed to the sentiments and goals that are expressed above, with the hope that we can achieve lasting change in the attitudes which shaped both the racism and the silence of those who stood by.
Rich Emmel
Chair of the Membership Committee
Vice President, Riverside Boat Club
6/30/20
