OUR Statement​

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Black Lives Matter is a movement, not a moment. As students involved with the Beyond120 program, we recognize that it is important for us to remember that conversations surrounding racial injustice and systemic racism in the US are not new, and they are far from over. The murders of Black Americans like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and Ahmaud Arbery highlight the life-threatening and oppressive nature of a system rooted in white supremacy. Covert racism and anti-Blackness have propagated discrimination in the workplace, education system, justice system, medical community, and in housing and voting policies. This is racism that remains prevalent in and excused by these systems which are in place in our communities.

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A commitment to anti-racism, to listening to and amplifying the voices of our Black scholars at UF and, more broadly, Black people in the US, should be lifelong.The last few weeks, we have been compiling a list of various UF organizations who have compiled documents and action item lists of their own and ought to have their voices amplified. Our Beyond120 team is more than open to hearing suggestions and critiques regarding the document we have linked in our bio and aim to continue to add to it in the coming months.  Committing to the constant process of dismantling white supremacy should be foundational to how we move about in the world as individuals, and how we position ourselves collectively as an organization.

 

As of late, the Beyond120 administration and its students are actively working towards making our organization more inclusive, representative, and explicitly anti-racist. Some of the initiatives of the Beyond120 administration moving forward, as supported by its students, include being more intentionally representative with the alumni and professionals the program collaborates with, consciously integrating conversations of systemic racism and prejudice into the Beyond120 curriculum, and actively pursuing partnerships with diverse campus constituencies. As students, it is our goal to hold our peers and our administrators accountable regarding complicity and silence on the insidiousness of systemic racism both at the University of Florida and beyond. It is not only a matter of enforcing a zero-tolerance policy on overt and covert racism in speech and action, but also a matter of centering and amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other Peoples of Color as well as making the discussion of race and intersectional experiences in professional spaces core principles of our organization. We are learning, but we are committed to improving and to making our niche in the University of Florida campus a more inclusive, representative, and safe space for our students.