TO THE EDITOR
We are members of the American Studies Graduate Student Association. We write now in solidarity with the protests against police violence in Charlotte following the murder of Keith Lamont Scott and with those fighting against the transphobic politics of North Carolina’s House Bill 2. The purposeful denial of humanity to people of color and transgender individuals by our state and local governments is a violent stain on our state, which has been a silent, but active participant in the destructive repudiation of human complexity and diversity.
As citizens of North Carolina, we write for a future state that discards the legacy of its racist, bigoted past and present, and begins the work of valuing and honoring difference. As students and teachers at UNC-Chapel Hill, we write to defend the University’s tradition of progressive scholarship and service for and with marginalized communities in our state. And as students and teachers of American Studies, we write to uphold our commitment to study and teach the complexity of our nation’s past and present and to empower others to value that complexity toward the creation of an equitable future.
The murder of people of color through public state-sanctioned violence and the refusal to acknowledge transgender individuals as citizens are both part of a history of violence in our state in which governments kill and discriminate with impunity. We stand with those protesting in Charlotte and across North Carolina and ask our colleagues to stand publicly with us.
In solidarity,
American Studies Graduate Student Association
