June 4, 2020
by The GW Undergraduate Review
The George Washington Undergraduate Review stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and those condemning the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many other Black lives that have been lost to the police. We also stand with the protesters who are expressing their discontent in Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Chicago, and other cities.
It is difficult to translate our words on paper as to our horror, rage, and anguish at a system that continues to value Black lives and safety less than others’. These four names are the most recent in an endless list of Black people who have been murdered by the police, and we condemn this and those who support this in the strongest possible terms. We acknowledge that these are State-sponsored murders and that those within the system who are remaining silent are complicit.
As an educational and research organization, we also urge our members, the past and present GW community, and students and scholars everywhere to reflect on our own complicity within antiblack systems that perpetuate these murders. Scholarly and academic spaces are overwhelmingly colonized by White scholars and overlook the work of Black scholars and other scholars of color. The barriers to academic spaces and institutions of higher education play an enormous part in the systemic racial injustices that persist today. The dismissal of those without a bachelor’s degree perpetuates racist, classist notions and often blocks qualified thinkers and speakers from the spaces we inhabit.
We urge everyone to reflect on their privilege, ask themselves how their bodies and minds have been colonized by whiteness, and how they can counteract these forces in pursuit of a more just, antiracist world. We also ask everyone to reflect on how we can all create more inclusive environments in the spaces we inhabit, including our scholarly and academic communities.
We stand by and support the demands released by the Black Student Union and encompassing organizations to the GW Police Department Chief James Tate and the Associate Vice President for Safety and Security Scott Burnotes. We urge everyone to engage in activism in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in all ways that they can, including but not limited to protesting, signing petitions, donating, and self-education. We are dedicated to facilitating activism and support and are providing links for these avenues. We urge all other university organizations and offices to release statements of support and, in the coming days and months, concrete plans for how they will enact this support.
Stay safe and stay vigilant.
In solidarity,
The GW Undergraduate Review
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