Nationwide protests have arisen in response to the terrible murder of George Floyd by a police officer. In these challenging times, diverse Stanford groups are speaking out about pervasive anti-Black racism, police brutality, and systemic violence. Below are statements, letters, and resources offered to the Stanford community—information for those who wish to take action, and expressions of solidarity for those most affected.
Statement by the Asian American Activities Center (A3C)
Solidarity, Resources for Action, Counseling
“The Asian American Activities Center (A3C) staff are outraged by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minnesota police. We recognize his death is not an isolated event but one in a long history of racial violence that has claimed countless Black lives. The staff of A3C stand in solidarity with the Black community on campus and nationally and raise our voices to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others.”
By Helena Zhang / Stanford Daily
Statement by the Asian American Students Association (AASA)
Solidarity, Resources for Action, Educating Ourselves
“Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been used as a racial wedge by white supremacy to pit minorities against each other and to discredit the struggles of other communities of color—specifically the Black community. As a community we need to not only express our condemnation of racism, but to also take active steps to be anti-racist, to confront anti-Blackness head on, and to center the Black community.”
Letter from the Director, Institute for Diversity in the Arts
“We often think about diversity as this limited thing, those black and brown kids over there, doing whatever they do. But diversity is all of us, is the widest container we have for holding the generosity and greatness of all that we are. Diversity must however, come with equity. We must widen the scope of our arms while also dismantling the systems that pushed us to be closed-off in the first place. Diversity must be in partnership with decolonization…We need white people to jump in the trenches with us. We need you to get messy and disruptive and put your lives and careers on the line for change as we do. White supremacy will not stop until it kills us all…We need each other to survive.”
Statement by the Stanford Vietnamese Student Association
Statement, Educating Ourselves, Resources for Action
“We are appalled by and condemn the behaviors of Tou Thao, a police and fellow member of the Asian American community at the scene of George Floyd’s murder. Tou Thao’s complicity in the murder of George Floyd is one instance of the many ways that Asian Americans are complicit in upholding forms of white supremacy and violence toward Black communities. His deliberate and conscious inaction further propagates systemic racism and is a sober reminder that any inaction is a form of violent action—one that takes the side of the oppressor. He, like all police, must be held accountable accordingly…We vow to actively and continuously interrogate our own forms of anti-Blackness within our organizations and communities, including within our own families.”
For Asian Americans to Communicate with Family Members
A 2016 resource, “Letters for Black Lives,” explains the Black Lives Matter movement to people from different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. It includes many translations in Asian languages, including Bengali, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Anti-Racism Protests Spark Conversations Within Chinese Immigrant Families (Voice of America)
https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-america/anti-racism-protests-spark-conversations-within-chinese-immigrant-families
A Letter from a Yale student to the Chinese American Community (ChineseAmerican.org)
https://chineseamerican.org/p/31571
Taking Action & Education
NBC: 75 ways Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are speaking out for Black lives https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/75-ways-asian-americans-pacific-islanders-are-speaking-out-black-n1230551
SEAA Resources for Solidarity with The Movement for Black Lives:
https://www.searac.org/seaa-resources-for-solidarity-with-blm
The Asian American Response to Black Lives Matter Is Part of a Long, Complicated History (TIME Magazine) https://time.com/5851792/asian-americans-black-solidarity-history
Asians for Black Lives: https://asianamericanadvocacyfund.org/asians-for-black-lives
Timmy Lu (‘05 BA Asian American Studies) appeared on the Asian American Call with the Movement for Black Lives.
Coverage in Stanford Publications
Op-Ed: Why are finals more important than Black lives? (June 3, 2020) Stanford Daily
By Theresa Gao, Christopher Tan, Eva Reyes, and Allison Tielking
Black Lives Matter.
As we write this, the nation burns and grieves. Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor and the innumerable others whose names have since receded from the public awareness are merely the most recent victims of a society that has categorically dehumanized and devalued Black people since before its inception…
Many professors have shown support and solidarity to Black students in this difficult time, in the form of course-wide accommodations like canceling assignments or exams, making projects optional, eliminating late penalties or reducing other requirements…[W]e would like to highlight the actions of Jerry Cain in the Computer Science (CS) department, who not only enacted all of these measures, but also provided support resources. He wrote in a public post: “I shouldn’t be requiring you to email me, particularly if you have been directing your mental and physical energies towards more important matters. I need to be proactively accommodating everyone for the rest of the quarter.” This is especially powerful, because those who are most likely to require such accommodations are precisely the individuals with the least capacity to reach out.
Professors like School of Engineering Dean Jennifer Widom have repeatedly demonstrated that they are out of touch with Black student experiences on and off campus. We are especially concerned with her and the teaching staff’s refusal to accommodate Black students…We approached her…in good faith, to express our concerns with the effect the strenuous assignment schedule would have on the Black community in light of the ongoing traumatic events…
We were met not only with staunch resistance, but with tone-deaf and baseless accusations and non-sequiturs from Widom and the teaching staff. Widom expressed that the teaching staff was “not going to offer accommodations for someone who looks a certain way” and later remarked that “Asian students experience racism too.” These two profoundly ignorant whataboutisms at best completely misunderstood the point of our asks, and at worst continue to minimize the suffering of Black people, using Asian students as a wedge.
Stanford president and provost address national tragedy, pandemic, recovery (June 2, 2020) Stanford News
Op-Ed: Resources for our readers: What you can do to support the Black Lives Matter movement (June 3, 2020) Stanford Daily by the Stanford Daily Editorial Board
Op-Ed: Silence is oppression: Non-Black people must do better (May 31, 2020) Stanford Daily by Lora Supandi
Op-Ed: An open letter to my non-Black, class-privileged peers in Greek life (June 3, 2020) Stanford Daily by Sarah Lee
Students protest anti-Black racism after death of George Floyd (May 31, 2020) Stanford Daily