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We, the undersigned, are members of the Fontaine Society, a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania for PhD students of color and/or from historically unrepresented groups in our fields in academia.
As students of color, first generation college goers, queer, and/or
historically marginalized people in the academy, we recognize that systemically
condoned racial violence against Black lives around the country is expressly
related to our own histories, our individual efforts to gain a seat at the
table, and our collective striving to find greater representation and voice in
our professional communities. Furthermore, our professional endeavors must go
hand in hand with greater efforts to end injustices both in our workplaces and
in our communities.
We recognize that we enjoy many privileges -- earning the highest degree in
our fields of research, at an institution with rich resources -- but we are not
blind or silent to racism, police violence, and institutionally sanctioned
discrimination in our university, in our city of Philadelphia, and around the
country.
We stand in solidarity with groups at the University of Pennsylvania,
including Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and Students Confronting Racism and White Privilege (SCRWP), and protesters around the
country and the world who are demanding
· the indictment of police officers and officials responsible for the deaths
of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY, and many
other Black men and women in the country;
· the need for transparency with regards to profiling and police practices in
our communities;
· the end to the criminalization of Black and Brown young people and the
school-to-prison pipeline;
· greater diversity among tenured faculty in our departments and at senior
levels of the University's administration;
· and the economic accountability of the University to its neighbors in West
Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia.
We stand with the collective calls for our workplaces, communities, and
institutions to recognize immediately that Black Lives Matter.
Signed,
