Dear SACRPH members:
Black Lives Matter. We write today to stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, friends, family members, and community members to condemn in the strongest possible terms the racialized policing that led to the violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. We mourn their senseless deaths, and the loss of three more lives, cut short in their prime. America is lessened through their absence, through the horror of these murders. As scholars of cities and urban spaces, we know all too well how these recent atrocities fit into the long history of white supremacy and anti-Black racism in the American experience.
The struggle against racism figures in SACRPH’s mission. We renew our determination to be an antiracist organization and to fight injustice everywhere we see it. We are already thinking carefully about the composition of our leadership and will actively recruit more diverse voices to the table. We have worked to build supportive networks between SACRPH members and we will think about how we can continue to expand our efforts and do so in ways that are more accessible to all. We will institutionalize more support for underrepresented scholars and graduate students.
Any organization is only as progressive as its members – and in this we are enormously lucky. We are proud of the work each of our members does, and we want to amplify and support the work that will dismantle the gross inequality we see around us.
As always, we welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and critiques.
Marta Gutman, Nancy Kwak, and Brad Hunt
Future, present, and past presidents of SACRPH
