We in the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and LGBT Studies Program at Cornell University express our grief and anger at the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and David McAtee at the hands of law enforcement.
We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, our Black community members, and people who are protesting racist injustices all over the world. These injustices include not only police violence but also the criminalization of people of color, disparities in health care, abuses against immigrants, and many other forms of structural racism.
As a program informed by intersectional anti-racist, queer, and transgender scholarship and activism, we condemn all forms of aggression and expressions of hatred toward people of color of all genders, sexes, and sexualities. We pledge to continue to challenge all forms of oppression through our course offerings and our collaboration with various communities, both on and off campus.
We hold ourselves accountable for challenging institutional racism within feminist studies as a field and within Cornell University. We hope students will see the programs of FGSS and LGBT as sources of support and refuge.
