The recent, violent tragedies and our unrest at the status quo

Dear O4U Family,

The recent, violent tragedies that have taken the lives of innocent Black people and drawn protests across the country have reinforced our personal unrest at the status quo. Sadly, injustices at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality, or other social identities are nothing new. The United States has a long and painful history with systemic racism and violence, resulting in the death of countless Black people, which often goes unrecognized, and is sanctioned by the discriminatory construction of our legal system.

We are heartbroken by the on-going racism against Black individuals. We can only imagine the physical and psychological impact that these events have had on our Black and non-binary identified students, volunteers who organize our leadership conferences, and members of our Board of Directors. More than half of O4U students are people of color, 11% identify as Black, and all identify as LGBTQ+. Our organization aspires to be inclusive and is comprised of high achievers who have succeeded in spite of our nation’s failures to address racism, gender bias, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination in so many overt and subversive forms.

It would be inadequate for us to restate our commitment to inclusion and our mission without intentionally acting as individuals and a community to name and reflect upon the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed, and Tony McDade, and acknowledge the structural racism that permeates our society. We need to name it, talk about its impact and how we feel in its wake, and what we would like to do to change it.

It is important to reach out to one another for support and to take care of ourselves as we move forward, much as our leadership teams gathered this weekend to process our feelings and will continue to do so.

We are here in solidarity with all of the members of the O4U family. Do not hesitate to reach out to each other and to us.

Sincerely,

Out for Undergrad Leadership