Message from the Director

Violence, murder, and oppression are not acceptable. Racism is not acceptable. As scholars who are committed to the eradication of gender-based violence (GBV), we must center the intersections of gender with other marginalized identities. 

As a community, we continue to condemn the violence against Black and Indigenous communities. We stand in solidarity with our Black faculty, staff and students and affirm that Black Lives Matter.

We also focus renewed emphasis on eradicating racist violence against Asians and Asian Americans. Anti-Asian violence is not new and has been increasing, culminating recently in the horrific murders of 8 people in Atlanta. 

We mobilize now with a renewed sense of urgency to advance racial justice in our local communities and the nation. While the issues arising in the summer of 2020 drew specific and warranted attention to racist violence against Black men and women, the United States has a history of racial injustices toward Indigenous people, Asian immigrants and Asian Americans, and migrant communities. We recognize that we must examine ourselves with a sense of immediacy, understanding that it is our responsibility to identify and eradicate any policies or practices that have created inequities due to our action (or inaction) for groups that face disadvantage as a result of systemic racism.

I am hopeful that we can harness our collective anger and sadness to focus our GBV work on dismantling the racist policies and practices that devalue the lives, bodies, and spirits of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The issues of GBV are not separate from racism and there is no success within gender equity if it does not simultaneously work toward racial justice. We approach this with different histories and from various positionalities, both as individuals and as scholars; I believe that this affords us an opportunity to work together to intentionally build an anti-racist practice focused on condemning all forms of violence and oppression. To this end, the resources complied below are intended to elucidate the intersections between GBV and antiracism work and to provide a starting place for the individual and collective work that is needed to move toward a more just and equitable society.