Our Statement on Racial Justice

White supremacy and systemic racism permeate every American institution. The United States was founded on the enslavement of Black people, the exploitation of Latino and Asian immigrants, and the genocide of Indigenous populations. This history of oppression is still evident today in the massive disparities in wealth, education, and opportunity that exist in communities of color. It is our shared responsibility to examine how white supremacy of the past and present continues in the institutions we are a part of today, and to actively work to dismantle it.

Sitara Systems was founded by the children of immigrants to the United States. We recognize our responsibility to learn about our shared histories, and help right our historic wrongs. We commit ourselves to creating a set of values and actions that help to dismantle white supremacy and systemic racism.

This living document serves as a record of our values, commitment, and progress in doing our part. We commit to reviewing this document annually, evaluating our progress towards our goals, and updating this document with our latest developments.

Our Values

We cannot separate racial justice from economic justice. Economic policy has long been used to institutionalize racial disparities in wealth and opportunity, and to perpetuate discrimination. Racial justice cannot be achieved without the redistribution of economic power.

We commit to using our economic power to help empower people of color by providing equal opportunities for employment and fair compensation for work.
Our obligations to right these wrongs are not equal. Institutions and individuals with more resources available to them have an outsized obligation to take meaningful action.

We commit to initiate a dialogue about racial and economic justice with each and every client.
None of us are equal until all of us are equal. Individual struggles have long been used to obfuscate the long-term effects of systemic racism; achieving equality for any one group isn't sufficient to dismantle white supremacy.

We commit to opposing racism, discrimination, and white supremacy in all of its forms.
White supremacy culture is embedded in work culture. Individualism, competition, power over others, and conflict-avoidance perpetuate systemic inequality.

We commit to facilitating an environment that is collaborative and collectivist, where power is shared, and where we approach interactions from a mindset of growth.
Everything we spend money on is an investment into one type of future or another. One of the best ways to amplify our reach is to carefully consider what we do with our money by choosing to support businesses that have similar values.

We commit to evaluating the values of vendors, associates, and businesses and reviewing our business relationships based on this information.

Ongoing Actions

This is a list of our ongoing actions; this list is reviewed and updated at the end of each calendar year.

New Actions

(12/2022) We will donate 2.5% of annual net profits to a community-based non-profit organization benefiting underrepresented or disadvantaged groups that are experiencing hardships or are investing in their community infrastructure improvement.
(09/2021) We are restructuring our company to be a certified woman-owned and minority-owned and operated business. We hope that this will help us to initiate conversations about economic and racial justice with our clients.

Halted Actions

(12/2022) We previously focused our end-of-year donations on communities local to our client projects; however, due to the nature of who hires us, we’ve found that this largely continues to cycle money into affluent communities rather than reaching communities in need. Instead we will focus on historically disadvantaged communities or communities that are currently experiencing hardships moving forward.

Continued Actions

(2021) We seek out professionals from underrepresented groups to build working relationships with so that our network grows more diverse and supports our values over time.
(2021) We have instituted a pay floor for our freelancers based on published data. If our freelancers propose a rate below our pay floor, we offer them our rate instead.
(2021) For roles that we cannot find further information about, we consult MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to determine a pay floor that matches the living wage for a respective area.

Research Topics

This is a list of topics that we are actively researching, and hope to incorporate into our ongoing actions in the upcoming year.

As a design and technology company that specializes in serving cultural institutions, we are actively researching opportunities for us to work pro-bono or at deeply discounted rates with organizations that directly work to preserve indigenous cultures, promote racial justice, and dismantle white supremacy culture.
As a design and technology company based in Las Vegas with global reach, we are actively searching for opportunities to leverage our reach to promote the work of local artists, creatives, and storytellers that reflect the diversity in our community.