June 1st, 2020

Dear Tape Op Readers,

We are feeling overwhelmed and deeply saddened by the death of George Floyd. Unfortunately this is far from an isolated incident.

Our voices and collective action have never been more needed than right now.

Human life and human dreams are all we have, and music is an amazing conduit to share life, love, struggles, thoughts, and feelings. We all need to support each other and our adventures through this life on this planet we are lucky to inhabit.

The music industry's "Blackout Tuesday" is a gesture in the right direction, but seems in many ways like another social media awareness campaign that will be forgotten as quickly as it arrived. We cannot post a blank image and wash our hands of our individual or collective responsibility to actually do something towards real change.

We acknowledge that we have never experienced the systemic racism that our black brothers and sisters have, but we stand in solidarity with them. Tape Op Magazine does not tolerate racism in any form, and we hope to see real human equality for all in the United States.

We all must do better, and the time is now.

Thank you, The Tape Op Staff, 2020