GWS Statement on Anti-Black Violence

June 1, 2020

In the wake of continued systemic state and vigilante violence against Black people in the United States, including the murders most recently of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, and given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and Indigenous communities, we pause to grieve these profound and preventable losses.  We breathe deeply and register our anger at the injustices faced by those made vulnerable through racism, settler colonialism, incarceration, age, and economic precarity.

As scholars and teachers of intersectional feminist, queer, and transgender studies, we are committed to confronting, understanding, and undoing the longstanding history of white supremacy, conscious and unconscious, that has structured institutions, culture, and everyday life for centuries in the United States.  The Department of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois redoubles our efforts to challenge the many and various forms of violence and discrimination faced by Black people.  We call on you to join us in our active commitment to challenge racism in all of its forms; to create more just ways of distributing and inhabiting power; and to heal our communities and reimagine justice.