Diversity

Diversity is the acknowledgment and celebration of differences and commonalities across cultures. There are many different ways that people live in the world, including how they eat, dress, listen to music, and more. It’s important to “have lots of different kinds of people in our community and that everyone feels safe.”

Empathy

Empathy is one’s ability to connect with others by building mutual trust and understanding. “Think about how other people feel, because different people have different feelings.… Think about how you would feel if the same thing that happened to your friend happened to you.”

Loving Engagement

Loving Engagement is the commitment to justice, liberation and peace in all our interactions. Being fair and peaceful takes practice so we have to do it a lot to get better at it.

Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice is the commitment to building a loving and sustainable community. When you hurt someone, “you can't just say, ‘Sorry,’ and walk away.… We have to help people when something happens to them, even if it was by accident.”

Black Families

Black Families is the commitment to family-friendly spaces that let caregivers fully participate in the community with their children. “It’s important to make sure that all families feel welcome.”

Intergenerational

Intergenerational is the belief that all people, regardless of age, have the capacity to lead and learn from each other. “It’s important that we have spaces where people of different ages can come together and learn from each other.”

Black Villages

Black Villages is the disruption of Western nuclear family dynamics through the support of “villages” that take care of each other. “People who take care of each other… might be related, or maybe they choose to be family together…. Sometimes, when it’s lots of families together, it can be called a village.”

Black Women

Black Women is the building of women-affirming spaces free from sexism, misogyny, and male-centeredness. “There are some people who think that women are less important than men. We know that all people are important and have the right to be safe and talk about their own feelings.”

Queer Afirming

Queer Affirming is working towards a world without the belief that everyone is heterosexual unless told otherwise. “Everybody has the right to choose who they love and the kind of family they want by listening to their own heart and mind.”

Transgender Affirming

Transgender Affirming is the commitment to make space for our trans siblings by encouraging leadership, recognizing trans-antagonistic violence, dismantling cisgender privilege, and uplifting Black trans folk. “People know in their hearts and minds whether they are a boy, a girl, both, or neither. We call this gender identity. Gender identity is who we know ourselves to be.”

Globalism

Globalism is our ability to see the Black global family that exists across the world, and how we are affected or privileged within different regions. “Globalism means that we are thinking about all the different people all over the world, and thinking about the ways to keep things fair everywhere.”

Collective Value

Collective Value is the understanding that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status or location. “Everybody is important, and has the right to be safe and happy.”