We are Auburn Students and Community for Change. The purpose of the protest on Sunday, June 7, was to amplify the call to justice for the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and the countless Black people who have lost their lives at the hands of police brutality.
We are heartbroken and enraged for every community that has lost someone to the cruelty of both the police and the systems that consistently and unremorsefully uphold the police’s reign over Black lives.
Auburn Students and Community for Change would like to thank everyone for attending Sunday's protest and standing in solidarity with the Black community.
We would also like to extend our appreciation to the many people that have contributed to and supported the protest that were unable to be present with us. Your support does not go unnoticed.
Even though the protest on Sunday has ended, the Black Lives Matter movement and Auburn 4 Change’s protest against police brutality, discrimination, and racism does not end here. If you care about this movement, we challenge you to take action every day to educate yourself and support organizations working toward equity and justice.
To our Allies:
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable as you stand in solidarity, advocate, and uplift Black voices within our community!
Please stop looking to Black people to fill voids in your knowledge about social and criminal injustice. You have the world wide web to educate yourself. Use it, and in turn, educate your non-Black peers.
Please continue or start calling out your friends, family, coworkers and professors making racist remarks or discriminating against minorities. You have the power to hold your city and University accountable, and to bring about drastic structural change.
By not speaking up you show that you agree. Continue to have discussions with Black people and practice Cultural Humility above all.
To the Black community:
Our voices will no longer be silenced! Our presence will be felt!
This is not a sprint but a marathon. We must continue to support each other and not give space to those who try to create division within our community.
Continue educating yourselves and finding where and how you can contribute to our movement.
We have a long history of Black liberationism and organizing to draw from, and our current mental health is also key for the longevity of our movement, locally and worldwide. Please continue to allow yourself to feel angry and demand change. It is time people are held accountable.
Lastly, remember why we all march. Remember what we fight for.
Yes, we fight for an end to police violence in the Black community. But even more, we fight against the insidious system of racism and oppression that gave rise to the violent policing culture that has existed so long. The insidious system upon which America, this state, and this city were built, and which must be dismantled to bring about a liberated world for all.
We fight against these systems so our children, and their children and their children after that can live in an America that is true to the values it has so long espoused.
The protest on Sunday has ended, but it was just one event. We ask: what are you doing today to combat systems of oppression? What will you do tomorrow? We have a long road ahead of us and a lot of work to do. Let’s go.
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