A Call To Action

Photo: Cheryl Dunn

In the past few days, it has felt wrong to create any form of content that is not centered around our country’s current state. 

First, MDM will not remain silent against explicit racism, police brutality, and white supremacy. We will not be posting about lifestyle, fashion, or beauty if it does not explicitly support POC and this movement that has been long overdue. It is the silence and complacency that has created room for the killing and marginalization of Black Americans. 

In the past, I have been extremely guilty of ignoring and not understanding my own privilege. I was not educated on the consistent marginalization that is going on in America. I was aware of explicit racism, but I was ignorant and overlooked how my silence spoke louder than anything I could have said. Now I am not only ashamed of my actions, I regret not seeing the bigger picture, and not seeing myself as the problem. Amidst the killing of George Floyd, and the many before him that have been killed due to the color of their skin, I am doing my very best to read, listen, and educate myself on these issues.

It is so important to listen and learn from those who are different from you. If you are white, that doesn’t mean you have to live in a bubble, and this is what I am trying to change the most about myself. I am trying to learn not only about these issues but how I, as a white woman, can help in the efforts to actively change how many see and perceive people of color, and that will be what I share on MDM. Fashion is great, but right now we need to come together for a greater cause than what my summer wardrobe will be looking like.

Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

However, I will not applaud myself for finally coming to this realization and wanting to learn about it, because we all must realize that in order to create any change, we must be aware of how much work there is left to do. I will not champion the seemingly compulsory Instagram story of a Black Lives Matter post, with the conversation abruptly ending after clicking the ‘share’ button. We need to go beyond reading a single book or making a public statement that bears little or no weight due to the lack of action. Our civic duties extend much further than an instagram post or a book on a shelf. We must work from within, instead of championing ourselves for doing the bare minimum, we should want to shout for those who have been silenced for so long. I am ashamed that it has taken me this long to take action and hear the cries for help that have been going on in this country since its birth.

This is not a new phenomenon, and it is one that must be stopped. Modern Day Mood will be posting resources you can use to help those affected. We will be supporting black owned business, focusing our attention on culture, and sharing the resources we have found to support POC. MDM is a community of inclusion, and although it is centered around fashion, it is a place to come as you are and be proud of who you are. 

Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images