The following is a blog post reflecting our First GrAID official statement released originally on June 9th 2020 on our social media channels.
Dear First GrAID family,
We founded First GrAID to create a solution to an issue we believed needs addressing. We saw preventable incidents that were causing undue harm to pediatric patients, in the form of injuries or death, as a medical problem and we built First GrAID in hopes of taking the first steps towards finding a cure.
Last week, we alongside the whole world, watched in horror as George Floyd was brutally murdered by the very men who swore oaths to protect him. This tragedy illuminated to all of us that structural and systemic racism is more than a simple injustice. It is a public health and moral crisis. Similar to COVID-19, America faces a pandemic, just as urgent and deadly in the form of racism. It is a disease that has plagued Black communities for centuries with no cure on the horizon. It is a medical problem that if left unaddressed will not just affect the Black communities of today but those of our children tomorrow and further generations to come.
Today and forever, our team stands alongside all of the victims who have been injured, killed, marginalized, or oppressed as a result of the color of their skin. We support all of those who are peacefully protesting across the country for the equality that they deserve.
We are currently at war not with a foreign enemy but with the enemy within ourselves. Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Aubery, and George Floyd are only the latest names on a long list of victims who have unjustly lost their lives in this battle. There are many more names that we have not heard, but deserve our attention, memory and immediate action today, tomorrow, and every day forward.