Dear Emerson Community,
I am writing this not only as President of SGA, but as an individual who is disgusted with the systems of the country I call home. We are living in a wildly chaotic time, and it’s going to stay chaotic. We aren’t returning to a pre-March 2020 America. A lot has changed in just the past week. On Tuesday night, protests in my hometown of Brockton, MA, ended in police-instigated violence. Protesters were tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets. Transportation was cut off so they couldn’t escape. The National Guard was called in before the protests even began. The murder of George Floyd ignited this insurrection, but it is about far more than one life now. These protests and riots are about every single Black life. Systemic and institutionalized racism are the defining civil rights and social justice issues of our time. More people have come to understand that to be silent about the violence and threats to the lives and well-being of Black people is to be complicit in that violence and those threats. Silence does nothing. Nineteen million people have posted a black square with #blackouttuesday on Instagram. Eleven million people have signed George Floyd's petition for justice. Don’t absolve yourself of responsibility, unify your voices. If you’re white, you have an obligation not to keep quiet. Use your privilege to amplify the voices of people of color about these issues of injustice. Signing a petition is free and takes two minutes. There is no excuse not to do so.
What follows are just a handful of the hundreds of petitions started in the last week: Raise The Degree, Justice for George Floyd, Convict all Four Cops involved in George Floyd’s Murder, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for Dion Johnson, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for Sean Reed, Defund the Police, and The Hands Up Act. I recommend adding your names if you haven’t already.
If you’re able to donate, I recommend donating to I Run With Maud, The Official George Floyd Memorial Fund, Justice for David Mcatee, Justice for Jamee, Justice for Regis Korchinski Paqueti, The Homeless Black Trans Woman Fund, LGBTQ Fund, Miss Major's Monthly Fundraising Circle, Unicorn Riot, Emergency Release Fund, Solidarity Support Distro, NAACP Legal Fund, National Police Accountability Project, Campaign Zero, The Black Visions Collective, The Loveland Foundation, The ACLU, Color of Change, Reclaim The Block, Communities United Against Police Brutality, or, Split a donation between Bail Funds. This, again, is only a handful of the countless charities/fundraisers out there.
Students have been reaching out to me and other SGA members about the possibility of donating remaining organization funds to various bail funds and charities. I want to be clear that I wholeheartedly support this idea. I am currently working with the administration to find a way to allow organizations to do this. I apologize that I don't have a definite answer at the time of writing this, but I will make it known to students once I do.
As an organization, SGA promises to “promote and protect the rights of the students, indiscriminate of race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, gender identity or expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.” Right now, those rights are not being protected by our state or national governments. SGA owes it to all students to continue to press on these issues, and to hold the administration and student body accountable for any shortcomings. As Executive President, I promise that SGA will commit to holding our community and officials to anti-racist standards. SGA stands against police brutality and white supremacy in all its forms. SGA stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the protestors standing against police violence all across the globe.
Solidarity Forever,
Claire Rodenbush, SGA Executive President