News/Research

Silence is Violence

03 Jun, 2020

Silence is Violence

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Tony McDade. We say their names in order to express our horror and rage at the ongoing crisis of anti-Black police violence in this country and across the world. We call for the immediate demilitarization of the UC Berkeley campus, where the five of us lead academic research centers committed to anti-racist justice; this includes severing ties with police departments, ending contracts with private security companies, and changing cultures of “safety” so that the thriving, not the criminalization, of Black men, Black women, Black trans, and Black non-binary people is prioritized.

UC Berkeley as an institution and as a collective of individuals must act to dismantle structures of racism and discrimination. We call on the administration to prioritize funding of the intellectual, cultural, and social labor of transforming the white, ableist and heteropatriarchal privilege that gives rise to the dehumanizing naturalization of physical, psychological, and socially systemic violence against people of color and other marginalized communities. We move in solidarity with the Black community on campus and nation-wide.

Julia Bryan-Wilson, Director, Arts Research Center

Mel Y. Chen, Director, Center for the Study of Sexual Culture

Abigail De Kosnik, Director, Berkeley Center for New Media

Beth Piatote, Interim Director, Center for Race and Gender

Laura E. Pérez, Chair, Latinx Research Center