A Statement Regarding George Floyd and Police Brutality

Lost in the Vault

In written form:

We would like to address some things here at Lost in the Vault so as not to be silent and thus complicit in the structural failure to address Black issues in America. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was suffocated to death by police officer Derek Chauvin after being taken into custody. In the midst of this tragedy, which is part of a prolonged problem of racist and white supremacist police brutality and is not an isolated incident, we ask our listeners to consider what they can do to address their own power, privilege, and relationship to these kinds of issues--what can you do to help, to promote direct action, and bring the discussion beyond the limited capabilities of social media? We have seen this time and time again--Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor-- and we must keep saying their names.

We are a Disney history podcast, so this may seem irrelevant to us or our content. It is not. These issues permeate every crease of our society and culture, and we cannot let it continue. As our main focus is a megacorporation with huge influence on the world, we aim to address its faults and those influences in our episodes. Therefore, when something current and real is happening in the world, we must use this platform to address adjacent systems of power and how they are committing acts of violence on people of color. To ignore these things is to choose to think change is not needed. It is.

We are not here to dilute Black voices, and will therefore keep this short. There will not be a new Lost in the Vault episode this week. We had also planned to record and release a discussion of the newly launched HBO Max and its original content; that, too, is delayed until further notice. It would be inappropriate to focus our energy on these right now and we ask that you focus your energy on more important matters too.

We ask that you do what you can within your community to help. Donate to bail and mutual aid funds. Educate yourself on the history of Black issues. Protest. At the very least, sign petitions and talk to your family about why this is important. The normalization of violence must be broken in these self-sustaining systems of white ignorance.

There needs to be action. There needs to be change.

Whatever you do, listen to your Black brothers and sisters, they need us and we must stand behind them. We send our regards to you, to all those fighting out there, and most especially to George Floyd and those who love him. Our hearts are with you.

From,

Your Friends at Lost in the Vault

We do not stand by racism nor the inexcusable conduct of the police. We stand by justice.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lostinthevault/message