We CAN do better. We NEED to do better. We MUST do better.
We at YPT International fully support Black Lives, and the movement to end systemic racism, discrimination and intolerance. Collectively, we share the pain, anger and frustration felt across America over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dreasjon Reed and so many more. This is not a moment in history, but rather a movement in condemning racism itself.
We can’t talk about racism without addressing the history of racism in transportation. Transportation has an element of systemic racism that has allowed racism, discrimination, and intolerance to sustain itself. From interstate highways built through communities of color to an underinvestment of transit services, underserved populations continue to be left out of consideration when decisions that impact their day to day lives are made. The traditional makeup of our industry has predominately been of one race, gender identity, sexuality, and of fully-abled bodies creating change that only represents these limited voices.
YPT International has and will continue to enable spaces for all. Here’s what we’ve achieved so far.
- Our board serves as a snapshot of the future of transportation leaders, with the inclusion of Black, Indigenous, POC and LGBTQ+ professionals
- 2020 National Rural in Transportation event, this event highlighted indigenous communities
- 2020 Black History Month
- 2020 Creating communication protocols that encourage the use of pronouns for our Board of Directors
- 2019 Established more membership demographic options for members to identify with as part of their membership profile (I.e. non-binary, trans-man, trans-woman, etc.)
- 2019 Pride Month
We will continue marching forward and identifying action items that increase the visibility of those who face racism, discrimination and intolerance. For those that are interested in collaborating with us, or want to become involved with these efforts, please contact (info@yptransportation.org). Please stay tuned as more information on specific action items will be shared in the coming weeks.
We hope to see you standing with us, making moves and inspiring change to help put an end to systemic racism.