When One of Us Rises, All of Us Rise
When one of us rises, all of us rise is our equity lens. It is our rally cry as we commit to the life long journey of dismantling systemic oppression, and white supremacy. This work is never about one person, it is always about the collective liberation of all people.
We acknowledge how branding, marketing, and personal development often center and reproduce harmful dominant systems, ideologies and oppressive norms. This is one of the main reasons we started BWB. There have been, and continue to be many great teachers who inform our principles and practices. Some have modeled exactly what we don’t stand for, and others are the guiding light as we navigate becoming who we need to become.
We continue to do our own decolonization and anti-racist work on our journey toward accomplice-ship and re-imagining branding and marketing as tools for healing and liberation.
Through our own identity work, specifically in unpacking notions of “femininity”, “white femininity,” and how it shows up in branding and marketing, we stay in constant reflection about the impacts of having “woman” in our company name. BWB strives to embody and uphold the principles set forth by Black Feminist Theory and intersectionality – a concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1992.
As a company co-owned by two white women, we acknowledge, and actively work, to repair the hurt and fractures within the feminist movement in the United States. This includes the harm perpetuated by white women throughout history – especially toward women of color, people of color and gender non-conforming folks.
We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Racist, sexist and elitist actions and beliefs (ideologies, attitudes, interactions and microaggressions) have no place here. If a concern arises, we will engage in dialogue. We reserve the right to terminate contracts immediately if this is violated.
We are constantly asking the questions: how can we be more equitable, honest, authentic? Is our intention in line with our impact? How is our privilege and power showing up? Where are our blindspots? And, how can we, individually and collectively, get more free? We are not perfect, but we are committed to doing our work.
