Clothing business Levi Strauss is using staff members the opportunity to participate in a “fireside chat and Q&A” with a “racial injury specialist” following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on November 19.
The statement came through e-mail from Levi Chief Variety, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Elizabeth Morrison, according to a copy of the email acquired by the @libsoftiktok Twitter account.
Levi Strauss & Co sent a notice to their employees using a therapy session with a “racial trauma professional” to find out “injury coping systems” after the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict pic.twitter.com/9rSXRqZzbN
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) November 24, 2021
“With the news that Kyle Rittenhouse was not convicted in the shooting of 3 people– two of whom lost their lives– during racial justice demonstrations last year, this is a hard day for lots of,” the email starts.
The e-mail continues:
The discomfort and injury of race, identity and belief-based tragedies is a reality that much of us are battling with on an ongoing basis. It can feel physically, mentally, and mentally draining pipes to continue to relive these moments and I want you to understand, its alright not to be okay. Please likewise understand that my group and I are here for you and are working hard to create opportunities for you to reveal how you are feeling.
To assist promote safety, sharing and to encourage healing, I’ll be hosting a fireside chat and Q&A with Dr. Jamila Codrington, a licensed psychologist and racial injury professional in early December. Dr. J and I will discuss the mental and physical impacts of back-to-back social and racial justice occasions and injury coping mechanisms throughout our discussion.
The e-mail goes on to list resources to assist employees in affecting “social justice, equality, and drive favorable change.”
The approaches noted include “getting educated and informed on the problem of gun violence so you can be an active person in your neighborhood” and “connecting to your chosen officials to let them know simply how important common-sense weapon laws are to you.”
Jamila Codrington is a licensed New york city State psychologist and serves on the board of the New York Association of Black Psychologists, according to the company’s site.
In an interview on the Karen Hunter Show, which was posted to the show’s YouTube channel on January 6, 2021, Codrington was asked:
If you could just prescribe a healing routine for somebody who is coming out of the enslavement area or somebody who is coming out of Jim Crow– what would a healing regiment for that neighborhood or that person appear like as we experience therapy now?
She reacted in part:
Wow, beautiful concern Marie. You understand, I think the very first thing for me is always to reach back and remember who we are, because one of the primary weapons of manifest destiny and white supremacy was to damage our memory, and to separate us from, basically our wealth, our cultural wealth. We’ve been erased out of history books, we were forced not to speak our native tongue.
Codrington later on added, “We have actually been fooled into feeling that we do not matter, and all of that is coming out of a legacy of enslavement, and we have to defy this lie of inferiority.”
In reaction to a follow-up concern later on in the interview, she mentioned, “We have to initially begin with decolonizing our mind and our worths.”