Our story starts with a little girl born in Lagos, Nigeria. Moved by the Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd, she felt a need to help shift social narratives to be more inclusive for her son and those who look like her.

This incomplete understanding of Huemanity perpetuates social inequalities, generational traumas, continuing the cycles of oppression and systemic exploitation of different groups of people to this day. Though we know that these gaps exist, many of us are not aware of our own cultural stories or even the narratives that feed our implicit biases. Most of us have no life experience befriending people outside our family networks or “cultural tribe,” be it ethnic, religious, or even recreational.  Living in segregated neighborhoods, working in cultural silos, we have few opportunities to cross over and know people different from ourselves.  At worst, this continues negative social attitudes towards dark skinned people that have led to anti-black bias and violence in many of our communities. 

Black Lives Matter. And all Black Lives are not the same. Black identity is not monolithic, but just as wide-ranging, nuanced and varied as the Asians, the Caucasians, or the Indigenous Peoples. Throughout human history, the stories of people with lighter skin, color or race have dominated Western history, religion, commerce and education in different parts of the world. Yet there are still many stories of people with different skin, color or race who have not been heard. 

In response to these conscious and unconscious systemic injustices, AWỌ was born. AWỌ in Nigeria is a word that means skin and also color. Learning from the experiences and stories of people different from ourselves is critical to a more holistic perspective and therefore, more diversity and inclusion.