News & Updates

WGS Response to Black Lives Matter

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Black Lives Matter.

In the face of so many instances of state-sanctioned death, Black activists are again leading mass movements to topple institutions of brutality. We don’t know if these racist institutions will finally fall, or become reconstituted yet again. This uncertainty can be stressful and even silencing.

But it’s in this not knowing – that space of indeterminacy, of possibility – that your WGS faculty reach out to you now. In our classes together, we have embraced this space: in Gloria Anzaldúa’s vibrant borderlands; Audre Lorde’s appreciation of difference as a crucial strength; and José Esteban Muñoz’s reminder that it is queerness that tells us that this world is not enough.

Our communities are strong. We know that bail reform could lead to prison abolition. We see intersectionality come alive, as Black womxn arrive from the margins of different social movements, sweep past the cobwebs of authenticity politics, and forge their own complicated, contradictory, collective power. We witness praxis, as theory turns into the actions of writing, screaming, marching, refusing, comprehending, protecting, sharing.

As we meet each other at this historical crossroads, let’s remember to:

· Promote Black life.

Black Lives Matter. That’s it. That’s the whole message.

· Get real about violence. Watch Angela Davis explain it: https://youtu.be/-V-49fyHa2E One more time? Here’s Kimberly Latrice Jones: https://youtu.be/sb9_qGOa9Go

· Consider dismantling the police. Defunding may not be enough. Read how police profit even from corrective action: https://acrecampaigns.org/research_post/police-brutality-bonds/

· Sustain Transformative Justice. See Adrienne Maree Brown enact radical pleasure and love: https://youtu.be/h-sCy8SzvHY