Von Bru

10/13/2020

Hello world, we're new in town... figuratively. We wanted to take a moment to say hello.

Though Von Bru Design has primarily grown by word of mouth over the last few years, it's time we started promoting ourselves in the same way we encourage our clients. Take a look at our introduction video below as the beginning of our personal email marketing campaign. Let's see if Von Bru Design could do something similar for you.
> vonbru.com

An Introduction to Von Bru Design, a graphic design and marketing company. Presented by lead designer, and owner of Von Bru Design, Jaime Dickerson.

08/12/2020

Hey look, here's my face again. It's a throwback to last year when I became an honorary ginger. Still loving it, by the way. Thanks for teaching me the ways of henna!

Side Note: Did it take anyone else like 6 months to realize their camera settings were set to "glamour shot". Who needs makeup when your camera does it for you?

Also, I'm out of banked selfies now... This is when the real challenge begins. (I don't think Andrew's ready for this.)

07/03/2020

Experiences of a white girl, Part 9: How do we heal?

George Floyd was a son, a brother, a friend, and an acting part of his community. He seems to have struggled with a drug addiction. He carried out aggressive and non aggressive crimes. He isn’t a saint, but he didn’t deserve to lose his life. On May 25th he was killed by abusive and aggressive force. He laid with his face on the cement as a man in a position of authority kneeled on his neck and cut off his air supply. He suppressed the innate survival urges to fight for life, because to fight for his life would have been seen as aggressive behavior with uncertain and equally dire consequences. His face isn’t on murals and t-shirts because he was a hero, but because he was a martyr.

A few years ago when we lived overseas a black European man asked me how I felt about the racial unrest in the States. I shrugged and said it wasn’t really a thing. It was hyped up by the media. The majority of American’s were past that. Clearly, I was wrong. Our country is still hurting. There have been many others, but it took George Floyds death for me to wake up to a deeper understanding.

Our country can never move forward until we view ourselves as a whole. If a part of us feels unheard, broken down, and disrespected, we stand with them, we listen to them, because they are our comrades. They are my fellow Americans, and their lives matter.

Here is my question:
- How do we heal?

07/01/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part : Is there such a thing as reverse racism, or is it all just racism?

In college my closest friends and roommates were black. At one point they were sharing with me some of the racially charged things they had to deal with as kids. They had been raised in a more affluent area near Atlanta. One talked about a white friend's mom telling the girl she couldn’t hang out with my friend anymore because she was black. They talked about not getting invited to certain kid’s birthday parties. Honestly, I thought, that doesn’t sound that bad. I was discriminated against as a kid for being poor, and not invited to birthday parties.

The longer we lived together the more comfortable and less guarded our conversations became. Sometimes they spoke negatively about white people. I would ask, isn’t that reverse racism? How is that ok? One of them said, it’s not racism, minorities can’t be racist.

Here is my question:
- If racism is defined by being in a position of power, can minorities still be racist?

06/29/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 7: If I’m supporting Black Lives Matter, am I saying that I don’t support law enforcement?

When I was growing up my mom had a poster titled “heroes” on the door in our kitchen. Police officers were on the top of that list. I remember my mom saying, police have a really tough job to do. They risk their lives every day to keep us safe. If you’re ever in trouble and you see a police officer, ask them for help. I remember saying, but mom, I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, remember? My mom said, cops are always our friends, they are always safe.

It’s hard for me to imagine that this isn’t how everyone else feels about law enforcement. It’s hard to understand that for some, police symbolise the opposite of safety. It’s hard to disassociate “cops” from childhood heroes and people I love and care about.

My cousin is a cop. A great cop. An even better man. He has policed some high crime areas and been in a lot of tough situations. He puts his life on the line and stands between his community and those out for their own selfish gains. What if that community had lost faith in him, and stopped supporting him because of the uniform he wears? Worse, saw him as the threat. It would be absolutely impossible to protect them or himself.

Here are my questions:
At what point is excessive police force necessary?
How should police training change for the future?
How can police enforcement work to repair community trust?
How can we, as a community, better support police?

06/26/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 6: What is white guilt?

When I was a freshman in college Barack Obama ran for president. I remember telling my friends I thought it was great and it was about time we had a black president. I thought having a black president would be good for the country, a symbol that we were moving past our racial tensions. One of my black friends responded, you don’t vote for someone because they are black. You vote for them because they are the right person for the job. I was stunned, but she was right. I really liked him as a person, he felt presidential, but I wasn’t voting for the right reasons.

Here are my questions:
If I had voted for Obama simply for the reason he was black, would my vote have been fundamentally white guilt?
What is the difference between white guilt, white savior, and simply just being a white person who advocates for minorities?

06/24/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 5: What does it mean to sound or act white?

I remember meeting my roommate for college on the phone the first time. We had set up a time to talk over the summer before moving in together. Her name was Michelle and we spent some time asking each other questions. She sounded bubbly and energetic. Fun! At some point in the conversation I said something and she paused, then said, you know I’m black, right? And I responded, Really?! You sound so “white”!
..I was an idiot.

Here are my questions:
- What are we, as white people, saying when we say a black person sounds/acts “white”?
- Also, what does it mean when a black person says it to another black person?

06/22/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 4: Are white Americans guilty of feeding into white superiority?

I remember when I first heard the term, Black Lives Matter. I thought it was obnoxious. Of course black lives matter. All lives matter. We are all equal, who is questioning this...?

I wanted to be able to just move forward. I thought, at what point is this movement going to leave slavery and segregation behind? Obviously it was horrible, I wasn’t saying forget it or stop teaching it, but what were we supposed to do about it NOW?! Why can’t we all just move forward together?

I thought we were just talking about the past. We weren’t.

Here are my questions:
- What are the ways in which our system holds black Americans back?
- How does our current system, even without our direct awareness, favor white Americans?

06/19/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 3: Should confederate statues be torn down?

Recently I took a hike with a friend. She’s a world history teacher and I enjoy having in-depth conversations about all the things we’re not supposed to bring up in polite society. She has a wealth of knowledge and often gives me a fresh perspective and historical understanding.

I explained to her that in my school, the civil war was taught to give empathy to both sides. Yes, slavery was covered well, but it was made clear that the industrial control and port taxes of the north had crippled southern agriculture and was the primary reason for the south going to war.

I told her that was why I struggled with seeing some of the old confederate statues being torn down. It felt like some of history was being erased because it was complicated. She asked me what those symbols meant to me. I answered that many of the people I grew up with weren’t descendants of slave owners but small family farms. That they valued those symbolic monuments as a remembrance of what their ancestors had fought and died for.

She asked me if I knew when the majority of those statues were erected. I shrugged and said obviously some point after the war. She explained that the majority of those monuments were erected in the early 20th century. A time when a lot of racial unrest was happening in the south. The K*K had only recently gone underground, but black lynchings were still common. She said in many cases they were erected to send a message to southern black Americans as a reminder of who was still in power. It’s why they were primarily erected in front of courthouses, also why many “inner city” schools are renamed after white confederate generals.

Here are my questions:
- How does your personal & family history shape your understanding of these statues?
- What do we do with these monuments/statues?

06/17/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 2: How do we move forward together? 🤷‍♀️

When Barack Obama became president my black friends talked about how a racial barrier had been lifted for them. We got in a car and drove around town blasting Young Jeezy’s - My President, cheering when other cars were doing the same. The air buzzed with excitement and hope.

We found a crowd of students gathering to celebrate in the courtyard of a college apartment complex. They formed a circle holding hands and singing. My friends and I joined them. When I reached for the girl's hand next to me she momentarily revoked her hand from mine. Then she said, “This isn’t about you, but I guess I’ll hold your hand anyway.” I looked around the expansive and growing group and realized I was the only white person there.

Here are my questions:
- With every step towards closing the racial divide, how do we celebrate it as a nation instead of an “us vs them”?
- How did you celebrate our first black president?

06/15/2020

Experiences from a white girl, part 1: See something, say something.

When I was 13 my friend and I went on a family vacation to a small southern coastal town. One Sunday we decided we wanted to go to church, so we rode around on our bikes until we found one still filling up. We asked a little old lady if we could join and She excitedly agreed. We were the only white people in the room.

When the pastor stood-up to preach he announced that he had decided his message for the morning was going to change. Instead we were going to talk about the racial divide in their community. For the next two hours we three white people sat tense, red faced, and awkward in the front of that church as the pastor talked about how the racial divide in that town had to end and whites and blacks both had their part to play. I wanted to scream, “I’m not from this weird little town! I’m not a part of the problem!”

On the way home we stopped at a grocery store. My friend and I ran in and as we waited in the checkout line, we listened to two black ladies chatting behind us. As our time with the cashier neared, the chatter of the ladies suddenly stopped. A white man had walked up, cutting the long line of black people behind us and began setting his things down. The little ladies defiantly tried to hold their place in line. But the man only grunted in annoyance and elbowed his groceries onto the conveyor belt. My friend and I stared open-mouthed.

I remember the anger that coursed through me. HOW DARE HE! WHO DOES THAT?! I felt my heart break as the ladies became resigned to what was happening. I thought, I wish someone would do something! And then, I paid for my icecream and left. I was a part of the problem.

Here are my questions:
- I could have said something to shame the man, but would there have been a better way of handling this?
- Is there a way of approaching what appears to be racially discriminatory situations that allows an opportunity for farther reaching change and growth?

06/05/2020

"Be weird. Be random. Be who you are. Because you never know who would love the person you hide."

🙋‍♀️Could I get a high school > early-twenties do-over? I definitely lost some years to worrying way too much if I fit in.