From Russ Henneberry, founder of theCLIKK:

I am a white man. I live—and have lived most of my life—a short 45-minute drive from Ferguson, Missouri, the town where police fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014.

The St. Louis metropolitan area is, I believe, representative of the “racial distance” between Americans. In general, people of color stay in their neighborhoods and white people stay in theirs.

When I go to a baseball game or a bar or a restaurant in the city, I scurry home to my cush life in the suburbs.

Out of sight, out of mind.

What happened to George Floyd is a tragedy. But it’s an individual tragedy and, if we aren’t intentional about creating change, his life will have been lost for nothing. It will only happen again and again and again.

George Floyd’s individual tragedy—his murder—is a symptom of the greater tragedy: the tolerance of intolerance. And I’ve been as guilty as anyone.

When I’ve witnessed prejudice, I haven’t spoken up. When I’ve witnessed discrimination, I haven’t stood up.

This isn’t my fight, I’ll say. What can little ol’ me do about a systemic problem like this one?

The topic of this blog may be marketing, but here at theClikk, we are a community.

No matter where you come from or the color of your skin, I’m asking you to stand together as human beings. When we join together in love and kindness, the intolerant don’t stand a chance.

I promise to speak up. I promise to teach my children to speak up. And I’m asking you to speak up.

I will no longer tolerate intolerance.

~ Russ

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