Over the past month, America has begun a long overdue conversation about the legacy of violence and discrimination against our Black community. It’s abundantly clear that real, meaningful change – right now, not later – is imperative to ending the noxious racism embedded in so many aspects of our society and our laws.
We at Fenway Health believe strongly that it is our duty – as an organization, as a community, and as a country – to renounce hate wherever we find it. In service to that belief, we are joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott of Facebook paid advertising.
Since its inception, Facebook has allowed posts, groups, and advertising to promote content that is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic. This must end now. While Facebook is the primary avenue for advertising our programs, services, and studies, we strongly believe that the way we spend our money should reflect our values. Facebook’s current policies around hate speech do not reflect these values.
That is why Fenway Health is joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott. For the entire month of July, Fenway Health will cease all paid advertising on Facebook. We believe the #StopHateForProfit boycott is a powerful statement to Facebook and to the world that we will not allow hatred to fulminate with our dollars. We are joined by household names like North Face, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, REI, and Honda. You can read more about the boycott here.
We have wrestled with the question of whether our boycott should go further and also include not posting to our Facebook pages during July. Ultimately, we have decided to not pause our posts for two primary reasons:
Impact. Not spending our advertising dollars has a direct impact on Facebook’s profits. Ceasing our Facebook page postings does not have that effect.
Connection. In the midst of a pandemic that continues to keep many people at home, we are more reliant than ever on technology to stay in contact. We need to be able to share information about the programs and services our patients, clients, and community rely on us to deliver, especially as we expand services as part of our reopening plan. Ultimately, we felt it would be detrimental to our patients and clients to not have this means to reach them.
That said, we always welcome community feedback. Please let us know how you feel about Fenway joining #StopHateForProfit advertising boycott and our use of Facebook for posting. Thank you for taking the time to read all this, and for being part of the Fenway family.