June 3, 2020
We, the Latinx Geographies Specialty Group Collective are outraged and heartbroken by the murder of George Floyd, and extend our compassion and solidarity with everyone who is grieving and rising up, especially our Black compañerxs, friends, students and communities, including our Black/Afro-Latinx members. The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and David McAtee follow in the wake of countless Black lives taken by police. We condemn this ongoing, tragic and painful loss of Black life at the hands of racist, anti-Black policing in the US and across the Americas. We stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives to demand justice that goes beyond arresting and charging police officers: pushing for transformative change to dismantle white supremacist structures that oppress and subject Black people to premature death. Abolition is an everyday practice that we must work to center in our organizing.
The creation of LxGSG would not have been possible without the path-breaking work of the Black Geographies Specialty Group, and we aim to continue organizing with our Black geographer compañerxs to transform the institutional culture of the American Association of Geographers, uproot anti-Blackness within our discipline and create alternative spaces of mutual support and activism. Further, as differently racialized Latinx geographers and community members, we intend to organize conversations to collectively strategize on how to address anti-Blackness within our families and communities, and to amplify Black/Afro-Latinx voices and scholarship in all our programming.
We cannot stay silent. Geography is a discipline with origins in colonialism that in many ways continues to function within the bounds of white supremacy. Neoliberal politics of diversity and inclusion are not sufficient: we urge academics, universities and scholarly associations to go beyond blanket statements denouncing racism and to commit to interrogating anti-Blackness and racism in their institutional policies and practices.
Lastly, we echo demands for universities to divest resources from policing, to cut ties with local police departments, and to redirect these funds to increase social and economic support for Black students, staff, lecturers, faculty, programs and local communities.
Black Lives Matter. Las Vidas Negras Importan.
La lucha sigue,
The Latinx Geographies Specialty Group Collective
Resources:
Reading Lists
‘Reading Towards Abolition: A Reading List on Policing, Rebellion, and the Criminalization of Blackness’ compiled by The Abusable Past Collective
‘Abolition Study’, a reading list compiled by Drs. Ashanté Reese and SA Smythe
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1odJy1Mj5lsr94xbS_5EHhEYmvls9QsE5o7nLsyzWV4U/mobilebasic
Statements
Black Midwest Initiative by Terrion Williamson
https://www.theblackmidwest.com/blog/georgefloyd
Mutual Aid
Reclaim the Block:
Resources to Support Twin Cities:
Community Organizing Sources and Bail Fund Links
