Racism and anti-Blackness do not appear out of thin air. There does not need to be active hatred for there to be irreparable harm. The murder of George Floyd, like Philando Castile and Jamar Clark and Thurman Blevins and many others is not isolated. Our community of advocates, educators, and institutions of higher learning have a duty and responsibility to develop leaders who understand the moral imperative of justice, equity, and inclusion.
At Students United, we have spent the last several weeks articulating how the inequities and injustices that exist in our students’ communities are exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. What our students are experiencing is not new; disparities that already existed have worsened; what we see in Minneapolis is no different. Our Black students—like all students impacted by police brutality and systematic racism—are consistently expected to go on with their lives, return to the classroom, get good grades, go to work, and act normal after far too many horrific and excruciating tragedies that never should have happened. For some, the experiences of hostility, violence, and disparities are on their own campuses.
This is not acceptable
Our students formally support violence-free safe spaces, comprehensive and historically-accurate education, anti-bias work, curriculum that tackle inequities in their fields, alternative student community safety measures, acknowledging that our institutions are on indigenous land, and more.
Black lives matter and we need to start acting as such. Henceforth, Students United will be doing the following:
Continue developing an internal emergency response protocol that reduces reliance on police
Staff will receive education on anti-Blackness and racial bias
We are calling upon the Minnesota State system to immediately evaluate and respond to the known disparities in the enforcement work of campus public safety personnel and the activities of city law enforcement on our campuses. This must be included as part of the system-wide development of campus equity scorecards and the broader goals of Equity 2030.
If you would like to share suggestions about how the organization can best serve our students, please email Executive Director Carlee Diggins at cdiggins@studentsunited.org.