A letter from the Editor, Angel Eduardo

To the FAIR community,

We are long overdue for a formal introduction. My name is Angel Eduardo. I’m a writer, musician, and visual artist, and I am passionate about using my skills to build a better world. This passion is why I joined FAIR’s Board of Advisors in July of 2021 and signed on as FAIR’s Director of Messaging & Editorial in January of 2022.

In that capacity, I have a great privilege and responsibility: to help FAIR, its employees, members, volunteers, and followers, promote a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity through honest, reasoned, and compassionate communication.

My name literally means “messenger,” and it is no exaggeration to say that I feel I was born to do this work.

That doesn’t make it easy, however. I don’t have to tell you how fraught our discourse is, but I believe FAIR’s pro-human principles are a much-needed way forward—and as Senior Editor of FAIR’s Substack, I feel it is incumbent upon me and our organization to model those principles in how and what we publish.

My vision for FAIR’s publication platform is to have it serve as a forum for diverse perspectives on a variety of issues—including difficult and contentious ones. It’s an opportunity for us to show ourselves, each other, and the world a better method of engagement, in keeping with the “Understanding” portion of our Pro-Human Pledge:

“I am open-minded. I seek to understand opinions or behavior that I do not necessarily agree with. I pursue the objective truth through honest inquiry. I am tolerant and consider points of view that are in conflict with my convictions.”

On this point, there are two important things to note. First, none of our Substack articles should be assumed to reflect FAIR’s position on a given issue. FAIR does not use our Substack to make official policy statements; we have other forums for that.

There are also many issues on which FAIR does not and should not take a position. Mission creep is a legitimate concern for all organizations, and it is important that we maintain focus on our stated goals. However, it is within FAIR’s purview to promote a healthy discourse, which is why we try to share perspectives that you, I, and other members of FAIR’s staff or Board of Advisors may not always agree with.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, we can publish only the pieces we receive. We are currently working to create themed weeks and months, release symposia showcasing a variety of opinions on a given issue, and solicit specific pieces from regular contributors. But our bread and butter will always be the writing submitted to us by voices within our community, showing us work we may not have even thought to request.

We highly encourage all of you to send pieces to us at submissions@fairforall.org, even if you’re a first-time writer. My role as an editor is to help you state your case in as well-reasoned, compassionate, and FAIR-minded a way as we can, together. My team and I will not always do this perfectly, but I promise you that our efforts will always be an attempt to promote a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.

In return, I hope you will extend to us the good faith, patience, and compassion that is often needed when building something as ambitious as what we’ve set out to do. I also hope you’ll extend the same to yourselves and each other when you read and respond to the content we publish.

Thank you very much for being part of the FAIR community. It means everything to me to be able to do this work, and I truly believe that if we do it together, we can build the better world we’re all dreaming of.

Sincerely,

- Angel Eduardo

Director of Messaging & Editorial

Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism