The Africana Studies Institute, the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, the American Studies Program, the Center for Judaic Studies, El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies), the Human Rights Institute, the ​Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), ​the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the African American Cultural Center, the Asian American Cultural Center, the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, the Rainbow Center, and the Women’s Center are in solidarity with our international students affected by the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regulations that restrict students who are on F-1 and M-1 nonimmigrant visas. We find these draconian measures to have little to do with public health, especially as they impact students who have never left the country since the pandemic began. Rather, they are an extension of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policies on immigration. We are outraged by the continued racist and xenophobic language used by the President and his administration to blame the pandemic on Asian peoples, as well as the implicit and explicit demonization of immigrants as a threat to national security through the following policy attempts during his administration:

● Undermining asylum

● Banning Muslims

● Reducing refugee admissions

● Attacking the diversity visa program

● Imposing a “wealth test” for immigrants with legal status

● The pregnancy ban

● Increase in denying and delaying worker requests

● Slowing green card applications

● Closing overseas USCIS offices

● Pushing large numbers of people into deportation hearings.

● Attacking DACA and TPS

● Increasing costs for immigrants

This new ruling is yet another attack that targets the most vulnerable in our global communities. It is also a direct assault on universities, which are seen by the administration (correctly) as institutional obstacles to the ideology of white nationalism. The ruling also incentivizes students and instructors to jeopardize their health since individual students risk deportation if none of their classes meet in person, even if they attend institutions like UConn that are not teaching exclusively online.

The Africana Studies Institute, Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, the American Studies Program, the Center for Judaic Studies, El Instituto, the Human Rights Institute, the ​Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), ​the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the African American Cultural Center, the Asian American Cultural Center, the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, the Rainbow Center, and the Women’s Center are committed to supporting the inclusivity of our international faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. We are concerned that this policy will further reinforce institutionalized xenophobia in higher education and we ask that the university administration join us and do everything in its power to thwart this ruling. We will certainly do everything we can to protect international students, faculty, and staff at the University of Connecticut.

In solidarity,
Melina Pappademos, Director, Africana Studies Institute
Jason O. Chang, Director, Asian and Asian American Studies Institute
Chris Vials, Director, American Studies Program
Avinoam Patt, Director, Center for Judaic Studies
Samuel Martinez, Director, El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies)
Kathryn Libal, Director, Human Rights Institute

Amy Gorin, Director, Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP)
Glenn Mitoma, Director, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
Sherry Zane, Director, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program
Willena Kimpson Price, Director, African American Cultural Center
Angela Rola, Director, Asian American Cultural Center
Fany D. Hannon, Director, Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center
Kelsey O’Neil, Director, Rainbow Center
Kathleen Holgerson, Director, Women’s Center

First-Year Writing Program, Department of English, The University of Connecticut

Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

The First-Year Writing program in the Department of English at the University of Connecticut affirms the Department of English’s statement in support of recent protests against police brutality, systemic racism, and anti-Black violence.a)

We acknowledge the long history of and continuing violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, most recently the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. We acknowledge, as well, the long history of both named and unnamed victims of racism in the United States.

We recognize that writing program instruction and writing program administration are disproportionately white. Recent scholarship in Writing Studies/Rhetoric/Composition has drawn attention to the lack of antiracist practices in writing classrooms and in writing program administration, to the detriment of students and instructors (see García de Müeller and Ruiz, 2015). As a group of Writing Program Administrators (both graduate and faculty) who are white, we recognize that we are in a privileged position and cannot represent those who have been shut out of positions of power like ours and whose voices have been silenced by racism in our institutions. We are committed to dismantling anti-racist practices in our classrooms and our program.

However, rather than taking over the conversation, we would like to hear from you. We ​invite you to contribute to this shared document​. We want to avoid speaking ​about​, and instead create a space in which we can speak together. We envision this document as an evolving set of practices for an anti-racist classroom. Please add your suggestions for how First-Year Writing can support you or work with you to support and foster antiracist teaching and administrative practices during the coming academic year.

We have compiled a list of resources below on writing instruction and racial justice — all of which are available for free online — and we strongly encourage you to review them as a first step toward developing and sustaining anti-racist classroom practices.

In solidarity,

Brenda Brueggemann & Lisa Blansett,
Co-Directors, First-Year Writing Program, Department of English

Réme Bohlin, Alex Gatten, Psyche Z. Ready, Kathryn Warrender-Hill
Assistant Directors and graduate students in Writing Studies and the FYW Program

Resources:

Banks, Adam.​ ​“2015 CCCC Chair’s Address: Ain’t No Walls behind the Sky, Baby! Funk, Flight, Freedom.”​ ​College Composition and Communication,​ Vol. 67, No. 2, 2015, pp. 267-279 (​Video on Youtube.)

CCCC.​ ​“Students’ Right to Their Own Language.”​ ​College English​,​ ​Vol. 36, No. 6, 1975, pp. 709-726

CCCC. “​CCCC Guideline on the National Language Policy​.” Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), March 1988, Updated 1992, Revised March 2015.

CCCC. “​CCCC Statement on Ebonics​.” Conference on College Composition and Communication (May 1998, revised May 2016).

Cedillo, Christina. ​“What Does It Mean to Move?: Race, Disability, and Critical Embodiment Pedagogy,”​ Composition Forum,​ 49, 2018.

Condon, Frankie, and Vershawn Ashanti Young, editors. ​Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication.​ ​Fort Collins, CO, WAC Clearinghouse, 2017.

García de Müeller, Genevieve and Iris Ruiz.​ ​“Race, Silence, and Writing Program Administration: A Qualitative Study of US College Writing Programs.”​ ​Writing Program Administration-Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators​, Vol. 40, Issue 2, 2017, pp. 19-39.

Inoue, Asao B.​ ​Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future.​ Fort Collins, CO, The WAC Clearinghouse, 2015.

Inoue, Asao B. ​“Classroom Writing Assessment as an Antiracist Practice: Confronting White Supremacy in the Judgments of Language.”​ ​Pedagogy​, vol. 19, issue 3, 2019.

Inoue, Asao B. “2019 Chair’s Address: How Do We Language So People Stop Killing Each Other, Or What Do We Do About White Language Supremacy?” College Composition and Communication, 71(2), 352-369. (​Video on Youtube.​)

Kendi, Ibram X.​ ​An Anti-Racist Reading List.
Poe, Mya, Asao B. Inoue, and Norbert Elliot, editors. ​Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and

the Advancement of Opportunity​.​ Fort Collins, CO, WAC Clearinghouse, 2018. Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources

A letter to our students and trainees:

The mission of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology is to provide an educational and research environment that is supportive and welcoming of all individuals across race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and religion. We strongly believe that education is a transformative experience for our students and trainees, and that their advances benefit the communities of our department, UConn, the nation and world. We endeavor to foster a learning community that is inclusive to all individuals, and to support you in your educational and personal journeys while at UConn and into the future.

It is not enough to not be racist. We must be anti-racist in our beliefs and in our actions. That is why the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UConn continues to support and amplify voices of reason and science at UConn, and the scientific community at large. In this era of misinformation, science and evidence-based critical thinking can help solve national and global issues to make our whole society better.

We are outraged and saddened by the continued violence and discrimination towards Black communities in our society. The adversarial responses to peaceful public protests are outrageous and disheartening. We acknowledge that white privilege and implicit bias negatively impact minority communities. We acknowledge that health, wealth, and educational disparities and inequities of opportunity exist in our society. We vow to continue to work to address these issues in our professional and personal roles in our community. Like President Obama, we see the “limitless potential” in each of you, and you deserve a place to work and learn where you can reach your utmost potential.

Black Lives Matter.

Please feel free to contact us if you should have concerns about any of these issues.

June 5, 2020

Dear UConn alumni and donors,

We are grieving with the nation. The UConn Foundation stands in solidarity with the African-American community and all citizens in condemning the killing of George Floyd and systemic racism. We are unified in the determination to fight for racial justice and equality. We must acknowledge the systemic roots of racism throughout our culture—from inequities in the justice and the public education systems to disparities in health care and communities that have led to disproportionate illness and death in the African-American community during the coronavirus pandemic. The legacy of injustice persists in silence. We add our voices to the resolute call to end the silence. Black lives matter.

We have compiled links to announcements and resources from across the University so that our alumni and donors can learn more:

Other UConn Letters to the Community
Racial Justice Resources from the UConn Office of Diversity and Inclusion
10 Books to Read About Race

We also want to share the letter to the community by UConn President Thomas Katsouleas and Provost Carl Lejuez, in which they contextualize current events and provide the lens through which we can examine and address racism and violence. Please read their message on UConn Today.

Sincerely,

Staff of the UConn Foundation

Message to Neag Community from Neag School Equity and Social Justice Committee

Dear Neag School Community,

Our hearts ache. George Floyd’s life matters. Breonna Taylor’s life matters. Ahmaud Arbery’s life matters. Black lives matter.

Racist violence is killing Black people and destroying our community, nation, and larger world. The violence happens every day. Every single day. Racial violence happens in the streets, in prisons, at parks, in our schools and college campuses across the nation, in research that perpetuates racism, and online. It is systemic violence that is built into and normalized in the everyday policies and practices of social institutions, including our educational system. It is a violence that suffocates racially minoritized people literally and figuratively. It prevents racially minoritized people, particularly Black people, from fully thriving because nothing and no one can thrive without being able to breathe.

As educators, leaders, coaches, and community activists, we know that one of the frontlines of this racial violence is in our domain: in our classrooms, schools, campuses, offices, and sport arenas; through our teaching, advising, coaching, support, and leadership; in the curricula we select, the research we do, the practices we engage in, and the policies we create and implement. We have the responsibility to confront this violence so that students and educators alike can be their authentic selves, thrive in their humanity, learn, and flourish.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

— Audre Lorde, poet
We support Black communities, organizations, and other activists who are participating in resistance against histories of brutality and specifically in response to the vicious killing of Black people. As John Lewis says, this is the kind of “good trouble; necessary trouble” that must be created by people of conscience so that those of power and privilege are forced to listen, to change. We call on our fellow educators and leaders, including ourselves, to make their own kind of “good trouble.” Change your classrooms, change your teachings, change your schools, change your policies, change your practices, change your hearts, change your minds, and embrace Black lives and each person’s full humanity. Educating and leading in this way means you will cause “good trouble,” but we must do so. In the words of James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

As a community, we can create anti-racist policies, engage in anti-racist practices and research, as well as offer equity-based leadership and teaching. To do this, however, we must start with ourselves, especially if we hold a privileged racial identity. We must engage in the process of learning and unlearning. We encourage you to educate yourself and seek resources that will help you to challenge racism and engage in anti-racist leadership and education. Lean into listening — listen to the voices of the people that are hurt and continuously harmed by racism.

What is clear is that to do nothing is to be complicit in white supremacy. We abdicate our responsibilities as educators and leaders if we do not work hard toward anti-racist practices, policies, leadership, and research within our own schools, campuses, classrooms, and organizations.

A number of the Neag School Equity and Social Justice Committee members identify as racially minoritized, and the following message is to our fellow colleagues of color:

Leaning on the wisdom of Audre Lorde, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Our pain and trauma are real. And, taking care of ourselves and each other is necessary. Alongside this, our hope for humanity is our legacy. We come from people and communities who have been resisting oppression and advancing dignity for all, generation after generation. We are the change makers. We are gifted with a vision for a better society. That gift is also a burden, but one we can carry together. Let’s be in community with each other. Let’s love. Let’s hope. Let’s lead. And, let’s rest, when we need to rest.

Below, we provide a few resources that we have found helpful. This is not an exhaustive list, and we encourage you to seek other resources, to share and discuss them with others, and to work in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity to make sustainable, meaningful change. In addition, please note that the Equity and Social Justice Committee will be organizing a Community Reading Initiative during the upcoming academic year, which will have the option to join virtually.

Learn more about this initiative, and if you are interested in joining, please complete this form. In addition, the Equity and Social Justice Committee will also continue efforts to strengthen community partnerships, advocate for equity and social justice practice and policies within the Neag School, and build community among Neag School constituents.

We also encourage you to stay informed with initiatives led by Dean Kersaint as the Neag School develops its diversity and inclusion plan and its broader strategic plan. We encourage you to be in touch with the Neag School’s leadership to voice your ideas, concerns, and to support the Neag School in being a leading anti-racist school of education.

Anti-Racism Resources

Anti-racism resources available online include a list of resources curated by the Neag School’s Grace Player and Danielle Filipiak, as well as a working document for scaffolding anti-racism resources available via Google Docs. Also read “Questions Academics Can Ask to Decolonise Their Classrooms,” from The Conversation.

Resources for Black and Non-Black People of Color:

Mutualaidhartford.com and ctmutualaid.com
CT Black Mental Health and Wellness Initiative: Contact: Janelle Posey-Green, LCSW, at magnoliawellness83@gmail.com
TherapyforBlackGirls.com
LatinxTherapy.com
Cite Black Women Collective
Additional Resources:

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao (Fall 2020 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
On Being Included by Sara Ahmed (Spring 2021 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Spring 2020 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Fall 2019 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas (Spring 2019 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois (Fall 2018 ESJC Community Reading Initiative Book)
Intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins & Sirma Bilge
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Race on Campus by Julie Park
Understanding Words that Wound by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
We Gon’ Be Alright by Jeff Chang
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Teaching Community by bell hooks
Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
White Rage by Carol Anderson
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Uluo
We Want to do More than Survive by Bettina Love
In solidarity,

Neag School Equity and Social Justice Committee (ESJC)

Luz Burgos-Lopez

Jason Courtmanche

Danielle DeRosa

Danielle Filipiak

Liz Howard

Jillian Ives

Adam M. McCready

Glenn Mitoma

Kenny Nienhusser

Patricia O’Rourke

Grace D. Player

Lisa Rasicot

Ashley N. Robinson

Ann L. Traynor

Mary P. Truxaw

Susana Ulloa

Kiara Ruesta

Milagros Castillo-Montoya

Ian M. McGregor

Click here to see Dean Kersaint’s Op-Ed in The Courant

Statement of Solidarity from the UConn Digital Media & Design Department

In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist. – ANGELA Y. DAVIS

Dear students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and friends,

We in the Department of Digital Media & Design feel the pain, sadness, and frustration caused by the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, and the innumerable Black citizens whose lives who were cut short by racial injustice in our nation. Say their names.

In honor of those lost and in protection of our collective, societal future, I challenge each of us to commit to being ANTI-RACIST. We can no longer turn away and remain silent – it is not enough to be non-racist, we must stand together, act for social justice, and become actively conscious about race and racism in our daily lives. This is the only way that we can transform the world around us to become a more just and peaceful society.

In our departmental mission, we state that, “…we encourage students to find and express their voice, building from their unique background and perspective. We acknowledge that a diversity of thought and expression is needed in today’s society and see great promise in our DMD students’ ability to make a difference in the world as future digital media content creators, distributors, and analyzers.”

These words are more significant now than ever. Ironically, it is only because Americans carry smartphones – with high definition cameras connected to the internet – that these horrific acts of violence are being brought to light, the same tools that we embrace in Digital Media & Design for content creation and distribution. As a creative community with talents in digital media, each one of us has the potential to make a positive impact, realize complex ideas, empower those whose voices are silenced by mainstream media, and amplify those voices in the digital sphere. This moment is a call to action for each of us to rise up and use our talents to spark meaningful conversations, engage in digital advocacy projects, and share our unique voices and diverse backgrounds.

DMD has become known for its collaborations around social justice through partnerships with the Dodd Center, the Human Rights Institute, Global Affairs, UConn Archives, and our many external nonprofit partners around the state, who we have helped realize professional digital products to support their missions. We have begun working closely with our Office for Diversity and Inclusion and our Cultural Centers, and we formed a departmental Inclusion Committee in 2019. However, confronting and fighting systemic racism requires intentionality, commitment, and coordinated efforts by the entire community.

We join our colleagues at the University of Connecticut in committing to anti-racism, share this statement on racial injustice, and invite you to read those of the Dodd Center and Human Rights Institute, the Africana Studies Institute, interdisciplinary centers, institutes, and programs, and the President and Provost. Together, we affirm our commitment to making the struggle against White supremacy and systemic racism central to our work in building an equitable and just campus community and society.

To our black students, faculty, and friends, please know that your DMD family stands with you in solidarity. We hear you, we share your outrage, and we empathize with your pain. And I ask everyone in our community, right now, to reach out to and support our friends of color, who are truly suffering during this time of national crisis, both from racial injustice and the pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted minority groups.

There are many resources available to support this work, but a particularly meaningful one is the National Museum of African American History and Culture‘s “Talking About Race,” site. I also invite you to join the Racial Profiling Prohibition Project and stakeholders from across the state for Truth & Reconciliation: A Conversation about Race and Policing at 11am tomorrow, Friday, June 5.

Finally, over the next month, we will be sharing via social media examples of recently created student projects that engage social justice issues, address racism, and embrace cultural identity. Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to view the works and help amplify our UConn DMD students’ voices as we celebrate their creativity and passion as they learn that they have the power to bring change to the world.

In solidarity and with hope,

Heather Elliott-Famularo

Department Head & Professor, Digital Media & Design

Statement from Centers, Institutes, and Programs on Racial Injustice and Ending White Supremacy

We, the faculty and staff of the interdisciplinary Centers, Institutes, and Programs, stand together to express our shock, our heartbreak, and our outrage at the horrific and senseless killing of George Floyd and the ongoing violence against Black people.

George Floyd, David McAtee, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Kathryn Johnston, Ayiana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland. Too many to list and too many to forget.

Each of these names represents a human being, dehumanized, rendered invisible, a Black life cut short by brutality and wanton violence.

We cannot look away. We cannot remain indifferent. We cannot be silent.

We must expose and confront the deep, pervasive, systemic issues that continue to fuel one tragedy after another. We must work together to bring real change. As academic units and programs of the university founded on principles of social justice and human rights we reaffirm our commitment to educating the next generation of healers and freedom fighters. The vision of change, which this crisis on top of a catastrophic pandemic calls for, is a broad, systemic, and intergenerational strategy. We recognize that broad societal change cannot be legislated alone, but must be cultivated community by community, day by day. To that end, we reaffirm our commitment to creating communities of accountability; implementing actions that dismantle the status quo of white supremacy; and amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color.

As a first step, we encourage you to join us in programs that will bring communities into conversation including tonight’s AACC Town Hall Meeting, presented by The H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center:

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Racism in the African-American Community

Thursday, June 4, at 6 PM

https://preview.mailerlite.com/k8h6u0/1435486084640281891/n9g0/

We also encourage you to read the public statement on anti-black violence from the Africana Studies Institute: https://africana.uconn.edu/public-statement-on-anti-black-violence/

We stand together with communities of color across the country as they yet again are subject to pain and suffering at the hands of a racist and unjust system. We support our students, from the African American, Asian American, Puerto Rican and Latin American, Women’s and Rainbow Centers, and Native American Cultural Programs, and all who are struggling to demand recognition of their rights and transformation of the conditions in which they live. We are not silent. We are not indifferent. We are implicated and, therefore, responsible. We will not stand idly by while the blood of our community members cries from the ground.

“Justice is not a natural part of the lifecycle of the United States, nor is it a product of evolution; it is always the outcome of struggle.”

― Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation

You are not alone. We are with you.

In solidarity,

African American Cultural Center

Africana Studies Institute

American Studies Program

Asian American Cultural Center

Asian and Asian American Studies Institute

Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life

El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies)

Human Rights Institute

Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center

Rainbow Center

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Women’s Center

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program

A Message from Dean John Elliott:

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the UConn School of Business,

George Floyd’s death has galvanized the moral center of our nation. Sadly, his brutal killing is but the latest of not years, but centuries of violence and inhumanity against people of color. As an educational community, UConn and the School of Business must be among those raising their voices to encourage change. And we are. As the University’s president and provost have noted, “[We] are uniquely positioned to reflect, learn, and act.”

As we reflect and learn, it is vital that we remember to act. We must act differently than we sometimes have and must hold ourselves accountable for those actions. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” If anyone knew the effort and work, the risk and danger required to bend that arc toward justice, it was he.

My hope is that George Floyd’s death and our nation’s response will focus us on envisioning a more just and truthful world and acting to realize it. It is our collective but individual actions that can bend the arc toward justice and truth. Please join me in working toward this goal and keeping it our moral priority until it is achieved.

Sincerely,
John A. Elliott
Dean

a person wearing a suit and tie

The UConn Rudd Center is Committed to the Fight For Health Equity and Against Systemic Racism

The brutal murders of Mr. George Floyd, Ms. Breonna Taylor, and Mr. Ahmaud Arbery have become the most recent examples of systemic racism against Black people in the United States. The UConn Rudd Center stands in solidarity with national advocacy groups and community leaders committed to seeking social justice and denouncing race-based violence and police brutality in our society.

Systemic racism is a public health crisis in our nation and a root cause of many of the issues we study. As we’ve watched the COVID-19 pandemic unfold, we’ve seen alarming inequities in the number of infections and deaths of Black Americans. This is not by chance. Black Americans are disproportionately affected by food insecurity and inadequate access to healthy, affordable food. Black youth are exposed to more marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages than their white peers. Facing stigma for one’s body weight in addition to one’s skin color compounds and exacerbates the inequities Black people in the US already face. These injustices have become all too clear, and we all have a responsibility to address them.

We commit to researching policy changes that will interrupt the current cycle of social injustice and systemic racism.

Specifically, we will intentionally support people of color by working to:

promote food security and nutrition through policies in child care centers, schools, college campuses, and food banks;
improve access to healthy, affordable food through equity-oriented policy changes at the local level;
improve neighborhood environments where unhealthy foods and beverages are more accessible than healthy options to Black residents;
hold the food industry accountable for targeted marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to Black youth and communities;
reduce the harm of intersectional stigmas including weight, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity;
provide research training opportunities for post-doctoral fellows and students of color.
We also pledge to continue educating ourselves about ways to dismantle structural racism in the food system and stand with our colleagues and partner organizations who are fighting racial injustices every day.