To Our Black Students, with Love, is a series of letters from the SLCC student body to our Black students. The Office of Diversity & Multicultural Affairs started this letter campaign to show solidarity with our students in response to the Zoom bombing that occurred during the Black History Month Poetry Slam hosted by the Black Student Union in February 2021. Read more letters here.
You belong here. You are wanted. You are loved. You are welcome. You matter. Your voice matters. Your experience matters. Your knowledge matters. Your perspective matters. Your story matters. Your pain matters. Your love matters. Your culture matters. Your interpretation matters. Your safety matters. Everything about you matters.
May these words and knowledge of your immense value as a beautiful Black human wash over you and land in the depths of your being. May they also wash over those of us who are white so that we may see with clear eyes and actively work to dismantle the racist ideologies that have been embedded in our hearts, bodies, communities, and institutions. May they help us see, listen, and repair when we perpetuate harm that goes against our values of supporting a just, free world for everybody.
Adrienne Maree Brown, an Octavia Butler scholar and transformative justice activist, once said, “I believe that all organizing is science fiction – that we are shaping the future we long for and have not yet experienced.” May those of us who are white listen deeply to you and other Black visionaries and together imagine, shape, and actualize this longed-for future. We have much to learn, and I’m here for it.
I love you,
Emily
