This Wednesday (10th June), in support of #BlackLivesMatter and the demonstrations taking part worldwide, there will be a day of action in various parts of academia to simply stop doing “business as usual” while the horrors of what is routinely done to black people at all levels of society continue.
What people choose to do on that day is up to them, but there are suggestions as a number of websites. I encourage you to go there and read what they have to say, and make up your own mind. A good start is the ShutDownStem site, and search under #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives on social media for chatter, activity, and more resources. The Particles For Justice group, led by people in or close to my field, have also joined in to lead and encourage, and their site is here, again with lots of suggestions for types of action to get involved in.
Frankly, having seen and heard (over many cycles) a lot of rhetoric and symbolic action go nowhere on this issue, I’m not sure how I feel about this (which is partly why I’ve not posted about this for a few days since it was announced). …And I could go on at length about all the “turning points” people tell me that they can see “this time”, and how familiar it all is to me, but I won’t. I just hope that I’m wrong and that something will come of everything people are doing in their own ways. Hope is a powerful thing, and I won’t let cynicism (mine, or anyone else’s) get in the way of people trying to make a difference.
I will say that it is striking and an excellent development that people in academia, and as far removed from the everyday as particle physics, have at least recognised (this time around) that the issue is connected to them, recognized that “business as usual” is part of the problem. It’s usually easy for them to just ignore the concerns, since there are so few black people around in the corridors of academia -and especially in my field- that there’s usually nothing or nobody to remind them to stop and think about it. But of course, it’s not an accident that so few of their colleagues are black – it’s connected to the very same issue. So, great, something’s getting through, and several people are showing that they care – enough to stop what they’re doing, if just for a day, and not do “business as usual”. I respect that, and respect the people organizing this.
So have a look, and make up your own mind how/if you want to participate. Consider signing up at the Particles for Justice google page to show your support, and good luck to you.
Good luck to us all.
–cvj
