[Peace-discuss] UIUC GEO Statement on the Emanuel AME Church Massacre

[Gus Wood]

June 21, 2015



*A Statement Regarding the Massacre at the Emanuel AME Church*



The Graduate Employees Organization Local 6300 AFL-CIO of the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign speaks out against the horrific racially
motivated murder of nine Black men and women who were at a prayer and Bible
study meeting June 17, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. We grieve with
those across the nation whose hearts, like ours, are deeply saddened by
this devastating loss of human life, especially the survivors and family
and friends of those whose lives were stolen. Further, we condemn the
attack against the historically renowned Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) Church. Emanuel AME Church is both a site and symbol of
Black liberation and freedom struggle that carries with it a long history
of resistance against systemic anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and
oppression.



These nine Black people tragically lost their lives during a murderous
rampage by a 21-year-old white man who attended the mid-week service at
Emanuel AME Church with the express desire to terrorize and assassinate
Black people. According to reports, when one of the victims attempted to
talk him out of killing any more of them he replied, “I have to do it. You
rape our women and you are taking over our country. And, you have to go.”
Our hearts are filled with extreme sadness over this act of racial hatred
and violence. Unquestioningly, the heinous act is the latest chapter in an
increasingly degenerative pattern of both state sponsored and private white
terrorism against Blacks in twenty-first century America. What is most
alarming is that this wave of anti-Black violence frighteningly mirrors the
Nadir Period in this nation’s past where between 1890 and 1930, a Black
man, woman, or child was murdered every 36 hours by white vigilantes and
mobs. Thus, racial inequality has significantly regressed in the United
States over the past few decades.



United States federal and state officials are investigating this racist
massacre as a hate crime carried out by a lone wolf. With deep conviction
the GEO argues that downplaying what is in fact an act of actual anti-Black
terrorism, claiming instead that acts of racist violence in the US are for
all intents and purposes the doings of individual extremists not in
collaboration with a colonial history, further positions these horrendous
episodes of racial violence as isolated, decoupling them from a broader
historical context and pushing the fundamental crisis of constitutive,
systemic oppression to the periphery.



The human rights crisis at hand is that violence against not only Blacks in
the United States, but also women, Native Americans, Latino/as, the working
poor and other marginalized communities is created, sustained, facilitated,
and sometimes transformed through a systemic culture of hate based on
socially constructed inequality. In other words, capturing and issuing
“justice” to the murderous racist that commits these terrorist acts does
not break the culture of hate nor initiate progressive systemic change.
Constitutive policies that promote racial, political, social, and
particularly economic inequality remain intact. As a result, both violent
and nonviolent racist actions continue to fester across the country,
purposely expanding the malignant cyst that threatens to permanently
destroy underrepresented and disadvantaged peoples and communities. These
nine Black women and men join the millions of human lives lost to us
forever at the hands of a foundationally unequal, unjust, and racist system
that consciously perpetuates policies and practices designed to position
the majority of the population in a powerless state.



The GEO honors the victims of the Emanuel AME Church massacre by
centralizing their lives and demanding progressive action that thwarts all
violence and inequality against all populations. As communities utilize
this tragic moment to organize local, national, and global movements
against racist violence, it is critical that we challenge not just the
racist action or individual, but to a greater extent the underlying
and *undying
*ideologies*, *policies, and practices that facilitate systems of
oppression and inequality. We stand in solidarity with the Emanuel AME
Church family and all communities, organizations, and individuals that
desire genuine, progressive change to these systems and an end to all
local, national, and global inequality and terror. The GEO also calls for
all federal, state, and local elected public servants/officials to denounce
white supremacy, violence against women, neoliberal imperialism and
colonialism, and all foundational inequality and begin working to
restructure our American system to include all people as citizens of this
nation.



The GEO would like to honor the memory of these individuals:

Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45

Cynthia Hurd, 54

Susie Jackson, 87

DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49

Ethel Lee Lance, 70

Clementa Pinckney, 41

Tywanza Sanders, 26

Daniel L. Simmons, Sr., 75

Myra Thompson, 59



The GEO maintains that every effort must be made to centralize their
identities and lives and therefore call on our community, allies, and as
many people as possible to say their names through every means possible.
Our work must always reflect the denouncement of racial terror and uphold
the dignity of all persons. Let our voices and actions roar thunderously in
unity remembering that as long as Black liberation remains elusive and
under attack, the realization of justice and equity for us all is at stake.




In solidarity,



The Graduate Employees Organization

Local 6300, AFL-CIO
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150622/3b87fef7/attachment.html>