2020 has been an unrelenting assault on Black lives. Police brutality and racially disproportionate COVID-19 death rates, two results of our country's long-standing systemic racism, have claimed tens of thousands of black lives. And that's just this year.

USDN wants to acknowledge and honor Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many other Black lives lost in the United States to police violence and white supremacy.

We want to acknowledge and honor the Black and Indigenous lives lost in the colonization and building of this country. What we have seen this year are just the newest repercussions from centuries of slavery and dehumization of Black bodies in our white-dominant culture.

We want to acknowledge and honor the Black people who are, yet again, in the streets across the country demanding justice. We stand with them.

USDN and the sustainability field are dominated by white bodies and white privilege. As we continue to learn how to center equity in our work, this moment is a reminder of how much further we have to go. As people working for and with local government, we must remain acutely aware of being part of this system of injustice, and do the work of transforming it.

At USDN we're working to provide a supportive space for our local government members to learn, share, and grow in their anti-racist practices. And, as a white-dominant organization, we too are still learning and practicing what anti-racism means.

We have a lot of work to do. We also have the power to do it.

Black Lives Matter.

USDN Staff and Leadership