AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION: Statements Condemning Racist Violence and Police Brutality.

June 3, 2020

The APA Board of Officers has issued the following statement:

The American Philosophical Association unequivocally condemns all forms of racist violence and white supremacy. We are pained and outraged at the countless incidents of police brutality and injustice toward Black people both recently and throughout the history of the United States, and we stand against the structural and institutional racism that enables these actions. The APA board of officers reaffirms our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our discipline. As philosophers, scholars, teachers, and learners, we have a responsibility to work toward a better, more just society.

In addition, the APA Graduate Student Council has issued a related statement:

To the Graduate Student Community,

We are deeply angered and heartbroken by the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, as well as the countless others who have lost their lives due to racist violence and police brutality. We write to you to express our unwavering solidarity in the fight against systematic and structural racism, white supremacy, and the long-standing oppression faced by Black communities and other communities of color in the United States, Canada, and beyond.

We are a community that needs to stand together. We take it as our duty—in fact, as core to the very mission and purpose of the GSC, to represent and advocate on behalf of the interests and concerns of all graduate student members of the APA—to call out this injustice. We also call for the continued care and support of our Black graduate students. To those who are currently teaching, we encourage you to create space in your classrooms for your students to process, and to provide proper accommodations for those who are hurting right now. To those who are taking courses, we encourage you to call on your professors to provide proper accommodations in ways that will not systematically burden Black students. 

The GSC is committed to amplifying the voices of historically marginalized members of our profession, and to continually organizing in support of making our discipline a more genuinely inclusive and welcoming place for everyone, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, creed, or class. Therefore, it is especially important to affirm that Black Lives Matter and that we have a responsibility to work together for justice. We encourage those who can to be involved in their local communities and to educate themselves on the issues involved.

Some resources include:

• The Black Lives Matter Syllabus
• Keisha Blain on the history of policing in the US
• Melvin Rogers on the current protests
• Kimberlé Crenshaw on Racism, Intersectionality, and the Death of George Floyd in the Times of COVID-19
• Episodes of Myisha Cherry’s UnMute Podcast

To all of those who are in pain right now: we hear you, we see you, and we are with you.

Yours in Solidarity,
The Graduate Student Council of the American Philosophical Association

The APA invites philosophers to explore resources for teaching about race and racism in our Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection and, in particular, its section on Philosophy of Race.