The California Law Students Association (CALSA) recognizes that Black Lives Matter and writes to condemn police brutality and racism in all forms. We stand in solidarity with the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and support the Black community in this fight for justice. No longer will we stand idly by when we can work together to prevent further loss of Black life. The lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee, Chris Beaty, James Scurlock, and Calvin L. Horton Jr. mattered. So too did the lives of countless other victims of senseless racial violence.

Police brutality has been a persistent issue in California. In 1992, the people of Los Angeles took to the streets to protest that video evidence of white officers beating Rodney King, a Black man, failed to produce a criminal sentence for any of the officers involved. Police officers in Los Angeles County alone have killed almost 900 people since 2000, mostly men, 80% of whom were Black or Latino and nearly all of whom were shot to death. Since 2000, only two of those officers have faced subsequent charges.

Almost 30 years after the Rodney King acquittals, Californians, Americans, and people in countries around the world continue to protest, filling the streets by the thousands to tell our elected officials that we no longer want to live in a world where we are told to envision some distant future where racism is over. We want to work to eliminate systemic racism in our world today.

Indeed, this fight for justice is not over with the end of a news cycle. We encourage you to center Black voices, actively practice anti-racism, practice allyship, and if you wish to contribute we have provided multiple links below for donations, books, and other resources.

If you wish to read and educate yourself regarding allyship, please consider these selections BLSA has compiled:

• An Antiracist Reading List – “By not running from the books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us. I ran from antiracist books most of my life. But now I can’t stop running after them – scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both.” – Ibram X. Kendi 
• Don’t Let the Loud Bigots Distract You – “We believed that our country had become less racist, because we were not as brazen as we once were.”

If you wish to donate:

• Please visit the Cornell Students 4 Black Lives Fundraiser Initiative at GoFundMe before it closes tonight at 11:59 PM EST: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rs6fpv-cornell-4-black-lives?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip  
• Please refer to this list of resources compiled by the Women’s Law Coalition (WLC) and the Women of Color Collective (WOCC): Resources 
• Breonna Taylor’s GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/9v4q2-justice-for-breonna-taylor 
• George Floyd’s GoFundMe:https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd 
• David McAtee’s GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justicefordavidmcatee 
• Marsha P. Johnson Institute; defends and protects the human rights of Black transgender people: https://marshap.org/  
• Nina Pop and Tony McDade funds; providing free therapy sessions to Black transgender people: https://www.theroot.com/two-funds-named-for-nina-pop-and-tony-mcdade-will-provi-1843861377   
• NYC Mutual Aid groups: https://mutualaid.nyc/get-involved/donate/ 
• Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com/ 

If you’re unable to donate, this video, featuring Black artists and musicians, donates all of the ad revenue to Black Lives Matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM&feature=emb_ 

Please remember to register to vote: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/elections/2020-presidential-election-calendar.html

We wish to reiterate BLSA’s statement: “To remain silent — to remain neutral — is to side with our oppressors. Your silence is violence. Publicly demand equality, justice, and safety for us.” We will continue to stand with the Black community and BLSA in the fight against systemic racism and white supremacy.

In solidarity,

California Law Students Association