Africana Studies at Cornell expresses its condolences to the families of the three people, Heather Heyer, and two public servants, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, and Trooper pilot Berke M.M. Bates, who needlessly lost their lives on Saturday, August 12 as a result of the unlawful actions of members of Nazi and white supremacist organizations in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. The disgraceful acts of criminal violence and hatred by white nationalists in Charlottesville were a predictable result of our nation's continuing refusal to acknowledge the bloody history of slavery, segregation, lynching, and white supremacy, a history that endures as juries continue to acquit police officers who have gunned down unarmed black and brown men, women and children, and as law enforcement disproportionately arrests and incarcerates black and Latino peoples. In this climate of systemic injustice and organized nonviolent resistance to it, when mobs of armed Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and white supremacists assemble in public under the cover of the First Amendment for the purpose of committing violent crimes against those who reject their shameful ideology of hatred, no one is safe. We ask that people of all backgrounds stand with us in condemning in no uncertain terms white supremacy, and discrimination and violence against people of color, Muslims, Jews, immigrants, women, LGBT-Q persons, poor people, and indigenous peoples.
See the American Association of University Professors Statement Regarding Charlottesville
