From our inception as a brand our goal was to create a beautiful range of hair care products as well as growing our community and team with a diverse mixture of people, inclusive, supportive and sustainable. So far we have only produced one campaign shoot, and in that we wanted to celebrate different hair types and textures to reflect our brand and products being for all hair types and all people. We are only a very young brand, however as we grow we pledge to do all that we can to ensure diversity and inclusivity within our company and in the imagery and voice we put out as a brand.
As a result of the recent protests to the brutal murder of George Floyd & widespread racism that still exists in the world we have stopped to take time to listen to those speaking out against prejudice and oppression, and educate ourselves on the history of racism in the UK. It is our duty, we believe, to do so as otherwise we will continue to see similar things happen to that of George Floyd and without educating ourselves fully on who we were and where we have come from, we can’t accurately make the changes necessary in order to create a future that is of equality, fairness and justice.
Individually we will be continuing to learn and actively encouraging those around us to do so to and as a company we pledge to continue to act in a way that promotes equality as we stand in solidarity in the fight against racism and white supremacy. We will not stay silent.
We have made personal donations as well as on behalf of CENTRED to several of the Black Lives Matters causes.
We also want to put together a list of resources to share with our community ways in which you can help, learn and encourage others to do the same.
Together we can make real change but only if we really act.
We have listed some of the resources we have used to educate ourselves and some suggestions of where to start below:
Books to Read
- How To Argue With A Racist – Bill Bryson
- Black And British (A forgotten history) – David Olusoga
- So You Want To Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
- BRIT(ish) – Afua Hirsch
- Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Me And White Supremacy - Layla F Saad
Programmes to Watch
- 13th – Netflix
- Explained – The Racial Wealth Gap - Netflix
- 12 Years A Slave - Feature film, Netflix
- I Am Not Your Negro - Documentary, Amazon Prime
- When They See Us - Netflix
- The Hate U Give - Feature film, Amazon Prime
How To Amplify Your Voice
Write to your MP – How to find your MP Here
Write to Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education to Make Black histories mandatory in the national curriculum – Use this email Template from The Black Curriculum. Make sure to CC in your MP. https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/action
Sign this Petition through Change.org to update GCSE reading list
Sign the letter To Prime Minister Boris Johnson Asking To Support the Call For An Independent Public Inquiry Into The Disproportionate Impact Of Covid-19 On The Uk’s BAME Communities - https://www.ubele.org/weneedanswers
Donate to UK Black Lives Matter : https://uk.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund
We hope you find this information helpful but also want to remind you to take time to look after your self. There is no correct way to feel with all that is going on in the world right now however it is important to stay present, keep practicing self care and stay together in unity.
Please reach out if there is anything we can help with hello@wearecentred.com
Take care,
Laura and Kieran and all of us at CENTRED.
