Enough Is Enough
At the McBride Magic & Mystery School, Black Lives Matter.
We are horrified at the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. These are far from isolated cases: we remember Botham Jean in Dallas, Stephon Clark in Sacramento, Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina. We remember Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Laquan McDonald in Chicago. We remember Michael Brown in Ferguson, and so many other Black Americans who have been killed at the hands of law enforcement.
We know the deep inequities toward Black Americans that run rampant through the criminal justice system. We know the long history of racism in America from slavery, through “reconstruction†and its lynchings, through Jim Crow laws, practices, and terror, through the brutality and bigotry endured during the march for Civil Rights, up to today’s stunningly common patterns of inequality before the law, along with violence and death at the hands of those sworn to protect it.
We recognize and condemn the systemic racism that has existed in America since its very beginning. We stand with those Americans, and people all around the world, who are raising their voices, protesting the injustices, and demanding real change.
In our own small world, we recognize that the subculture of magic in America is predominantly White and male, and we will double our efforts to create not merely diverse, but actively inclusive environments, where underrepresented magicians can perform, learn, speak, teach, and flourish.
As our Dean, Dr. Larry Hass, recently said, “We must hold ourselves accountable for the ways, large and small, that we have contributed to this culture of injustice. And we need to suspend our opinionizing, listen with an open heart, and actively learn about the history of these systemic inequities, so we can act in ways that might serve to heal our broken world.â€
Jeff McBride
Abigail McBride
Tobias Beckwith
Larry Hass, Ph.D.
