CSUS statement on anti-Black racism
The Centre for the Study of the United States stands against anti-black racism in all of its forms, whether it is state violence against black bodies, the deployment of mass incarceration as a tool for immiseration and subjugation, the ongoing structural disadvantaging of communities of color, or the multitude of microaggressions that are the fabric of daily life in white-supremacist societies, including the United States and Canada. The current Covid-19 pandemic that we are all suffering through has been magnified in communities of color because of the structural disadvantages inflicted on those communities, and they have suffered disproportionately. The ongoing, nearly daily litany of deaths of black and brown people at the hands of the police already intolerable, has intensified this misery, prompting justified outrage in the aftermath of the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and so many others. Communities of color are entitled to the fundamental justice, respect, and care that every human being deserves. #BlackLivesMatter. We stand in solidarity. We will continue to support and feature programming and teaching that addresses the underlying causes of anti-black racism, and to challenge discourses and logics that attempt to normalize inequality as a community pathology or the result of personal failings. When the pandemic finally ends, we cannot return to ‘normal life,’ if that life is the subjugation of whole communities and peoples in order to accommodate a systemically unjust power structure. We all have an opportunity for real and substantial change and we at the Centre for the Study of the United States will do our part to see that it comes about.
Below are organizations, resources and events in support of these efforts. Please do/take whatever steps you can.
Below are organizations, resources and events in support of these efforts. Please do/take whatever steps you can.
The Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office at the University of Toronto
Black Organizations And Anti-Racist Groups Canadians Can Support Now - Huffington Post
Reading List:
An Antiracist Reading List - The NY Times
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice - Medium
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reflects on George Floyd protests - Los Angeles Times
Robyn Maynard - Black Feminist Writer, Activist and Educator
Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot - Medium
Of Course There are Protests; The State is Failing Black People - The NY Times
