Faculty, students, staff and community members in Chicana and Chicano Studies and Research Faculty associated with the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute at the University of New Mexico bear witness to the rising voices and local movements calling for an end to the systematic violence, and police state aggression against Black communities across the U.S. These outpourings have been in response to centuries of colonial and capitalist exploitation and white supremacist aggression aimed at African Americans. The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Aubrey are recent examples that are connected to longer histories of police violence against Black peoples. Protests have again brought to the forefront the inhumane and unjust actions to intentionally deprive African Americans of generative living conditions, dignity, safety, hope, creative expression and life. As Mexican, Latina/o, and Chicanx faculty, staff, and students we owe a debt and acknowledgment to the organizing efforts of Black abolitionists, feminists, and civil and human rights organizers who have fought courageously against all forms of discrimination including police and state violence.

We are in awe of grassroots organizations and of young people who are bearing the brunt of local, state and federal policing and militarization aimed at silencing human rights and freedom of speech. In recognition of these efforts we resolutely state the following:

We decry all forms of violence directed at Black communities, specifically the killings of African Americans in the United States including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and many others.

We oppose authoritarian attempts to suppress protest activities decrying state violence against Black communities.

We condemn the targeting and suppression of organizers and activists leading and participating in community defense efforts, especially Black Lives Matter activists in the front lines of these efforts.

We demand respect for civil and human rights and an end to the escalating militarization of local and national police forces invoked by the President of the United States.

We demand that public resources prioritize funding education, housing, arts, healthcare/wellness, and food programs rather than militarized police forces.

We offer our solidarity with Black communities across the United Stated in demanding justice for the killings and repression of our Black brothers and sisters at the hands of public officials on the streets, in private spaces and in systems of incarceration.

We support the movement for reparations for Black people that move beyond apologies for centuries of anti-black violence and the associated conditions of economic, social, political and cultural deprivation.

We make a call to action to the Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x to recognize and sever our participation in anti-Black violence by continuing to educate our homes and communities on the intricacies of global anti-blackness.

As members of the Chicana and Chicano Studies and SHRI, we commit to supporting and participating in organizing actions to end police brutality against Black communities.

We commit to participating in anti-blackness training and professional development and ask that our administrative supporters also participate in these training sessions.

We commit to participating in efforts to establish an Africana Studies Department at UNM

We commit to advocating for the increased hiring of African American educators, staff and administrators at UNM.

We commit to working toward a safe and more inclusive and equitable campus environment for Black students, faculty, staff and community members.

Finally, we will commit personal and programmatic funding to support educational activities that raise awareness of all forms of anti-blackness at UNM, in the state of New Mexico and globally.

#BlackLivesMatter