CHA #BlackLivesMatter Statement
Black lives matter. Stop the killing. Respect Black people.
We shouldn’t have to write this trio of 3 words in the year 2020, but the murders of Black Americans, often at the hands of police officers, that has been happening for too too long (and most recently that has happened in Minneapolis, Tallahassee, Louisville, and on the streets of Georgia) means that we all have to repeat this 3 word trio:
Black lives matter. Stop the killing. Respect Black people.
Of course, we know that racism is systemic and institutional, and we need systemic and institutional change that reflects true equality, inclusion, and diversity. At the CHA our mission statement reads: “The Center for Humanities & the Arts fosters community, supports collaborations, and inspires creativity and research while promoting equity, inclusion, and academic excellence.”
Our Black family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, co-workers and fellow CU Boulder community members cannot feel part of a community, work in collaboration with others, and be inspired to create art and conduct research when facing the fear, anxiety, and hostility of living in a White supremacist society. This statement won’t solve the problem of anti-Black racism or end White supremacy, but it is a public declaration that the work of this arts and humanities center, the work of any institution associated with higher education, requires us to be as actively anti-racist as we can and to declare emphatically and repeatedly that Black lives matter.
Signed by the following CHA Staff and Faculty Steering Committee members,
Leah Coffey
Francoise Duresse-Stimilli
Holly Gayley
Leila Gomez
Jennifer Ho
Arne Hoecker
Javier Krauel
Mithi Mukherjee
Carole Newland
Erika Randall
Antje Richter
Eli Sacks
Dani Urbina
Sharon Van Boven
Masano Yamashita