And so you may ask why Jane’s Way? Who is a Jane? What is our “way”?
Our way—our intention—is to partner with leaders in organizations, governments, and communities to close the gap, once and for all, between our stated national ideals of equality and justice and the ongoing, unacceptable status quo of racist harm.
Our Way—our intention—is to center voices and perspectives of those who have been marginalized and oppressed in our social order:
To listen, to learn, to reflect, and to act.
For the better of all those who have been and are still so deeply harmed.
For the better of our society.
And most definitely for the better of organizations seeking to deliver with integrity on the missions they have set while attending with integrity to the contexts in which they operate.
When we say “Jane’s Way,” we mean to surface all The Janes:
Jane Doe—the unknown Jane who has suffered violence and harm reserved for women
Jane Crow—the unknown Jane who has suffered the harm of racist violence,
exploitation, and degradation.
On behalf of all the Janes, Jims, and Jax’s whose voices and experiences have been suppressed, we mean to unearth and change the ill truths of our body politic by
Becoming historically literate about their origins, legacies, and ongoing harms
Reflecting on our own roles and relations to The Changing Same of racist, gendered, and other forms of brutality
Taking authentic action to jam that wheel of time, preventing it from turning even one more time around this same axis of harm.
Not one more generation must suffer the gaslighting of disavowed racist harm.
Not one more generation must live in the spatial, economic, and social conditions we have made according to our fevered ideologies of human value.
Not. One. More.
This hard and fast refusal is what it means to be a Jane.
The world has cracked open and we have seen its festering wounds and death traps.
What will you do now that you have seen, now that you know?
Will you raise your voice, make room for voices that have been silenced, use your power to change this unbearable status quo?
Will you be a Jane?