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To understand what’s happening, you need to meet those who are living it. This is a Wilmington most of us do not know or see, but it is nevertheless very real. And that there are communities living with the chronic anxiety that comes from witnessing violence and worrying about safety each time they step out their front door. That there are children going to bed hungry and hopeless, believing that unless they become a star athlete, mainstream society will exclude them forever. I learned that in Wilmington there are generations living in poverty, believing they will never have a chance at a future beyond their current circumstances. And the people I met and circumstances I saw them enduring, changed my perspective forever. This led to being around gangs for the next 3 years – first in our city, then our state, and then across the country. I wanted to meet, and I wanted to understand. Regardless, this spark generated enough anger in me that in 2016 I reached out to our District Attorney, asking for an introduction to gang leaders. I have since learned I was naïve and wrong, and for years we’ve had a saying at TRU Colors, “don’t judge my choices until you understand my options”. Instead, like most, I was just comfortably unaware.Īt the time, I was living in a gated community, looking out and saying, “if those guys would just make good choices, they wouldn’t have all these problems”. And while some have expressed anger over my previous ignorance, it wasn’t that I didn’t care about Wilmington and all those in it.
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This was far from Wilmington’s first shooting, but it was the first time I noticed. The spark was a 16-year-old who was tragically gunned down in our city on the corner of Castle and 11th, and from this horrific event I became obsessed with understanding the cause of street violence. On December 22, 2015, my life changed forever. I don’t know what the future holds for the TRU Colors team or for those who were counting on us to succeed, but I do know these issues and the people involved are critically important to our community, and so I hope you will read on. The cost of change is high.Īs we wind down, I thought it could be helpful to explain, and so below is a small look into TRU Colors – why we started and some of what we believe and care about. TRU Colors’ last day of operation will be September 9th. These challenges have only increased in 2022, and with recent events, tragically we are no longer able to continue. With these challenges and more (COVID delays to product issues to biased media to lost teammates), TRU Colors has faced stiff headwinds that have slowed progress. I sure hope this is untrue since this lack of care and courage would make real social change nearly impossible. I’ve asked many about this, and generally the response is that for many in Wilmington, optics are more important than results. But it has nevertheless been tough gaining local support. There was no playbook, and while we made mistakes, we learned and TRU Colors became effective in its social mission.
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Over time, our work turned into TRU Colors, a social mission with a tightly integrated business. I spent the past 7 years working closely with so many amazing people trying to better our city. Click here to read coverage of the announcement. Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, TRU Colors’ CEO and founder George Taylor announced in a statement that the brewery, which employs active gang members, will close Friday.