This morning I found out that my social team posted a graphic on my Instagram yesterday that said, “Still… I Rise” That is, obviously, an immortal line from a Maya Angelou poem— only, no credit was given to her. I immediately deleted the post but I want to make sure and publicly apologize. While I didn’t create or post the graphic, I am the leader of the team that did and so I accept full responsibility for their actions. I can’t imagine how deeply hurtful it is to the African American community to see the words of your heroes used without credit. This has happened to you far too often and I hate — I literally HATE — that anything produced by my company added to your pain. I heard once that the only real apology was one where you don’t make an excuse, and so I won’t. I am deeply sorry. I understand that this post without credit is not a little thing to you… this is death by a thousand cuts. This is the millionth type of incident like this you’ve experienced. This is not OK. I apologize, sincerely. We will do better.
