A Message to the CLX Community and our City

Just. One. Moment.

George Floyd was silent for a moment before taking his last breath. Breonna Taylor was sleeping for a moment when she took hers. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging one moment and lifeless the next. Add to them Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Shukri Abdi, and countless other Black lives stolen in just a moment.

Across the nation, people are in the streets marching and invoking their names, seizing this moment for change. Whether we are with them raising our voices in public or working for justice behind the scenes, we are really fighting for more equitable opportunities and for the dignity of Black lives.

The Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), with our network of over 200 youth-serving organizations and institutions, is on a mission to close the equity gaps that hinder Black youth academically, socially, and economically. We work together with our network to remake learning so it’s equitable, engaging, hands-on, and relevant -- helping educators better serve our children to flourish today and in the future.

We do this against the backdrop of history in this country that has shown us that, for Black lives, the future can often be uncertain and sometimes unfathomable.

As educators, we know a moment can change the direction of a young person’s life; and it is in these moments of turbulence we can change perspectives, policies, and even systems.

So, we ask: What will we do with this moment?

Will we use it to create safe spaces and belonging for Black lives?
Will we use it to reimagine education toward justice and liberation?
Will we use it to reimagine policy on policing in places of learning and the importance of civic engagement?

It is up to us to decide.

At CLX, we don’t have a singular answer on how to meet this moment. But we do have the power of our innovative and passionate community to learn, share, and change.

Join us to meet this moment and design a different future for Black lives.

In solidarity,
Sana, Gina, Kiara, Vanessa, Maria, and Savannah: the CLX team

“I sit before the typewriter and nothing comes. It feels as if underlining these assaults, lining them up one after the other, and looking at them squarely might give them an unbearable power. Yet, I know that the opposite is true-no matter how difficult it may be to look at the realities of our lives, it is there that we will find the strength to change them. And to suppress any truth is to give it power beyond endurance.”

― Audre Lorde, I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings