06/03/2020
June 3, 2020
A Statement of Solidarity
To the Black students of De Anza College, your Black life matters. FULL STOP.
We, the professors in the African American Studies Department, stand by you. We see you. We know your pain, we share that pain. We know you’re tired of systems refusing to change, we are exhausted right there with you.
We understand what you are dealing with, in the midst of an historic and global pandemic, which is over-impacting our community, we are now bombarded with countless images of death and violence on bodies that look like us, our sisters and brothers, our transfamily members, our aunts and uncles, and we are overwhelmed, angry, and hurting.
We understand your frustration and need to be seen, heard, and affirmed in your humanity. We see you, we affirm you, and again, you life matters. Our lives matter.
We shouldn’t have to make statements of solidarity, because solidarity is an on-going and lived experience. We also know that often that has not been your experience on this campus. We share in that experience as well.
We ask our fellow students, staff, faculty, and campus community members to do more than make a statement of solidarity for us. Rather, we urge you to take the time to do some serious self-reflection and create a plan of action for confronting and irradicating anti-Blackness and white supremacist structure models inhernt with in the infastructure of higher education and on the campus of De Anza college.
We call upon our Associated Student Body to create a student-led coalition on eradicating anti-Blackness policies and procedures on the campus and within the district. If we ever want to truly live to our greatest capacity as human beings then Black lives have to matter to you.
In solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world!
Julie Keiffer-Lewis, Department Chair, African American Studies; Co-Creator, Black Leadership Collective
Jess D. Hamilton, Part-time faculty, African American Studies; Co-Creator, Black Leadership Collective