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.
Dear Salt Lake Community College Black Students,
In the words of the Black poet, playwright, and intellectual, James Baldwin: “People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.”
In reflecting on this quote, I will not turn over my energy to the haters. Instead, I chose to focus my attention on who each of you has allowed yourself to become and the life you choose to lead.
The events that unfolded the afternoon of Thursday, February 4, 2021, are despicable. Yet, the ways each of you handheld your response with tact and refinement is admirable.
The wider community needs to reckon with the immense care, energy, and labor you exude in spite of the injustices white supremacy has created in this world. Thank you for modeling for Black and non-Black people what it means to be about, for, and with community.
In Solidarity,
Alonso
