A Message from DIASPORA

We are DIASPORA. We are the Black employees of the College Board. We are hurting both individually and collectively. We have spent this week meeting every day as a community. We have shared our stories with one another: our pain, our rage, and sometimes our hopes. We are among the leaders of the College Board, and all the other leaders of the College Board have listened while we spoke. We are not OK. We are in terrible fear for the safety of our own children and the students we serve. We know how quickly Black children go from being cute to being targets. The recent killings of Black Americans in the street and in their homes by the police and others have haunted all of us with the worst memories from our own lives.

Our country needs to do so much better. Covid-19 has already taken a disproportionate number of our elders and some of our younger brothers and sisters. Black students everywhere will navigate a harsher future stained by violence and loss. How many more promising futures will be lost in the days, months, and years to come?

We have assembled to grieve, and we will now assemble to act. Our organization’s purpose is for all students to own their future. And if Black students’ futures do not matter, our purpose is broken.

We, and all the leaders of the College Board who are not Black, join today in our commitment. We condemn the killings of Black people that have made the news and witness the daily cruelties that often go unseen. We see that the year to come offers perils for all students navigating to college but most of all for students of color.

As a first step, the College Board will make donations of $25,000 to The Jackie Robinson Foundation to propel Black students to college and $25,000 to Color Of Change to lift the voices of people of color; additionally we will match all employee donations to these causes. We will do more, but today we share our tears, rage, and resolve.