[Peace-discuss] GEO Statement of Solidarity with Black Students for Revolution

[Wendy Edwards]

https://medium.com/@b4e2015/racists-probably-started-a-white-student-union-at-your-school-they-re-all-fake-5d1983a0b229#.43sghu9v8

On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 4:02 PM, Gus Wood via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> [image: Inline image 1]
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> The Graduate Employees Organization Local 6300 IFT/AFT at the University
> of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stands firmly in solidarity with the Black
> Students for Revolution. On Wednesday, November 18, 2015, they courageously
> addressed a campus steeped in white supremacy, racial violence,
> dehumanizing imagery, aggressive policing, and an apathetic administration
> while also calling upon black students to organize themselves into a
> conscious collective to challenge their oppressed position. GEO stands with
> Black Students for Revolution in affirming that Black Lives Matter at the
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The GEO also promotes other
> oppressed groups ability to organize themselves as well to eliminate all
> inequalities so that everyone has equal opportunities, safety, and better
> quality of life on campus and in the community.
>
> We denounce all forms of structural and private racism that permeate
> throughout the campus, especially the formation of the “Illini White
> Student Union,” a white supremacist group that advocates the monitoring and
> data collection of black students and faculty on campus.  Additionally, we
> condemn the university administration’s passive response to the threat
> posed by the “Illini White Student Union.” By initially addressing the
> group through a trademark infringement argument, the university
> administration positioned black lives’ and campus safety at the periphery.
> The university prides itself on its campus safety resources and its
> particular involvement in the removal of the white supremacist Facebook
> page. However, instead of finding the culprits behind this white
> supremacist page, they simply issued mass emails suggesting “free speech to
> speak out against discrimination” and information about campus safety.
>
> We also agree with Black Students for Revolution in condemning the vast
> racial disparities on campus: black undergraduate and graduate student
> populations on campus have been in an alarming decline, black employment is
> extremely low in wage labor jobs on campus while the black Champaign-Urbana
> community desperately seeks work, and blacks are frequently stopped and
> ticketed on campus more than any other racial group. We will not sit
> silently while this ignorant, hateful, and violent white supremacy
> continues to operate.
>
> GEO will continue to support Black Students for Revolution’s resistance to
> systemic and institutional racism that harms and excludes black people at
> the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in the United States.
> The solution does not exist within the current framework of this
> institution. A revolution, which is when organized oppressed groups utilize
> self-determination to transform an institution and culture, is the only
> path towards genuine justice.
>
> In solidarity,
>
> The Graduate Employees Organization UIUC
> Local 6300, IFT/AFT, AFL-CIO
>
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>
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