Ancestry.com President & CEO posts this message

[ARPad95]

Posted by Ancestry Team on June 3, 2020 in Website
To our global community,

Equality and racial justice are a shared responsibility. Ancestry stands in solidarity with the Black community and knows that Black Lives Matter. We recognize your pain and the feelings of fear and frustration over the injustices you face every day. Our hearts ache for the Floyd family, for their tragic loss, and for our communities as well.

As a company, we believe in the importance of diversity, unity and acceptance, as well as the fundamental truth that we are all more alike than not. Our purpose as a company, and the intent of our products, is to bring our shared diversity into the spotlight in order to promote understanding and equality.

When I see a horrifying video of George Floyd suffocating under a policeman’s leg, I am shaken to my core as a human being. As a mother and a sister, it’s an impossible sight. I fundamentally believe in the good in people. At the same time, I see these ongoing acts of violence and feel compelled to speak up and act. We all need to be an active part of creating a more equitable and open society. Change starts with acknowledging these issues, listening and learning more, and committing to take action.

At Ancestry, our products seek to democratize access to everyone’s family story and to bring people together. We are committed to enabling every story to be found and shared – including the difficult ones. It’s from understanding history and how we have overcome challenges and supported each other that we can become stronger, more empathetic, and more open. And history is complex and needs to be seen from multiple perspectives to be fully understood. While we have done a lot, we have a long, long way to go to make our product experience as inclusive as it can possibly be for everyone. It will take time, but we are committed.

An important part of improving our inclusivity is how we run our company and ensure a diverse set of perspectives is incorporated into everything we do. We have learned from our own missteps along the way and the feedback we have received has helped us take action. People are at the heart of all we do – and ensuring an inclusive workforce is an important foundation. We have been assessing all of our core human resource processes and working to ensure that Inclusion & Diversity best practices are woven into every step — from the way we hire, develop, promote, and pay our employees. We’ve also created an intercultural advisory council of experts internally and externally to review every new product, marketing campaign and program to ensure that what we do is as culturally sensitive as possible. It’s unearthing sometimes complex and difficult discussions – and it’s making us better.

We recognize that we’re nowhere close to done, but we will hold ourselves accountable and ask that our valued members do so as well. Actions speak louder than words when it comes to making real and lasting change.

It is in these difficult moments that we are touched at a deeply human level. There is so much pain right now – and we have to be open to talking about and supporting each other through it. To stand together, we must stand up for one another. To our colleagues, customers and everyone in the Black community — we see you. You matter, your lives matter, and you are valued at Ancestry.

Margo Georgiadis, President & CEO
Ancestry

[link:https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2020/06/03/a-note-from-ancestrys-ceo-2/|]

Of course, the offended right wingers are calling for Ancestry.com to cancel their memberships. Good thing they're being told by other members to do it themselves and "Bye Bye, Felicia."

[Lucinda]

1. KNR

[appalachiablue]

2. K/R Good for them, want to see more of this.

[crickets]

3. Agreed! nt