The Importance of Your Commitment

"This is an individual challenge.  It is a challenge we all must accept, and we must in that process strive always to alter within our own selves, within our own families and our own neighborhoods, the precepts, hidden though they may be, but present as they are, of white superiority, black inferiority, and white entitlement."
          Judge Nathaniel Jones (Retited)
          U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District

"A new consciousness of institutionalized white power and privilege is the fulcrum on which all the rest of what we might do to combat racism turns."
          Dean James Diamond
          Christ Church Cathedral

"I've been doing labor employment law for thirty plus years and discrimination exists, institutional racism exists, prejudices exist, and biases exist.  It doesn't matter whether you are black or white."
          Michael Hawkins
          Partner, Dinsmore and Shohl

"The commitment is necessary in our community because all of the usual processes have led nowhere.  Our region will never live up to its potential until we face the issue of race relations, white privilege and economic inclusion in a candid manner."
          Wayne Hicks
          President and CEO, Cincinnati Business Incubator

"This personal agreement reminds each of us of our role in fighting bias, bigorty and racism.  It's our chance to invest in our community and build a more inclusive and just Greater Cincinnati."
          Carla Messer
          Vice President, Client Solutions - Postmark Company

"The Greater Cincinnati Commitment takes the racial reconciliation efforts of the Cincinnatus Association to a new level - addressing systemic racism inherited from the past.  The goal is to move Greater Cincinnati toward becoming a community that works for all."
          Brandon Wiers
          Civic Volunteer