ASLE stands unified in solidarity with our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color members, and all BIPOC people. We join with thousands worldwide who demand justice for those who have had their lives taken by police violence and other forms of officially or tacitly state-sanctioned white supremacy. We mourn for the murder victims, we grieve with the bereaved, we vow to work for systemic change.
In a country where the long and lethal legacies of settler colonialism and racial capitalism remain widely unexamined and unchecked, we find ourselves at a historic turning point. We stand with Black Lives Matter and the ongoing protests for justice. George Floyd’s life was unique; his murder, tragically, is not. It is our hope that his death will mark a turning point–and an end to a long epoch of violence against BIPOC. We remember the tragically long list of those murdered, most recently Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, David McAtee. We remember the many whose names have not been recorded. They are victims of a cycle of violence ongoing over years, decades, and centuries. We remember that these injustices are not unique to the United States but that their reach and scope are global.
The struggle for racial equality must be at the heart of ASLE’s work for progressive change. Work for racial justice is also work to address the environmental racism that systematically puts black and brown people in harm’s way. Included in the centuries-long litany of toxic harms to black and brown bodies is the elevated rate of Covid-19 infection in U.S. communities of color. As an organization deeply committed to the work of imagination so urgently required to cultivate more just worlds, ASLE vows to strengthen our commitments to make antiracism the heart of our environmental work.
We salute our members who are doing vital antiracist work in local communities across the planet. We value you, and we want to hold up your work. As ASLE senior leadership continues drafting a new strategic vision, we will put foremost organizational commitments to and support for research and activism that contribute to the dismantling of structures that perpetuate violence against BIPOC and the environment. Our membership is our greatest strength, and we will continue to work to recognize, embrace, and foster our diversity.
We have already received excellent suggestions about how ASLE can implement additional concrete ideas to realize these commitments to antiracism and the environment. Please feel free to share yours. Finally, if you are looking for paths for more immediate expressions of solidarity with victims of police aggression, you might contribute to the organizations listed here. Please note that this aggregation was not created by ASLE; at the time of writing this statement, it provides a comprehensive list of organizations working at local, regional, national, and global scales to end racism and police brutality. We remember their victims now.
