As we are emerging from the new reality created by the Uprising, the LATA Board wants to loudly reiterate it’s support for the youth-led movement taking to the streets under the slogan “Black Lives Matter.” Along with standing in solidarity with the movement, LATA also commits itself to uniting with the efforts to dismantle white supremacy.
Since 1970, LATA members have donated time, money, resources and energy to assure that SFUSD is responsive to the Latinx community, especially our teachers and students. Such efforts are replicated by other communities in SF and throughout the country. The reason for this is because inequality, racism and white supremacy have meant that students from our community do not have the same access or opportunity offered by this system to people of European descent. We understand that the U.S. became the nation it is today by the genocide of Native People, the enslavement of African people, and the theft of half of Mexico. To our family in the Black community, we recognize today’s Uprising is a struggle they have had to endure since their ancestors were first forced onto America in 1619.
Rooted in this understanding of how America came to be, we support the righteousness of the protests and also the need to continue lifting up our people so that the lives of our youth truly matter in this country.
Currently, tens and thousands of people are focused on ending police terror, which is specifically against Black and Brown people. The function of the police is to maintain white supremacy. It is an army of occupation in our communities. This is especially true for the youth that we celebrate during our annual scholarship dinner. They have had to face oppression from the State, whether from ICE, SFPD or the courts that don’t grant them the rights they deserve. Our common oppression and liberation are summarized in the mighty slogan, “none of us are free until we all are free!”
As a leading organization in the Latinx community, we also commit to promoting anti-racist and equity-based education. Within our own community, we know that anti-Blackness is a backward and harmful view taught to us by years of colonization. As we commit ourselves to the Black Lives Matter Movement in the streets, we also do so in the classroom. Education is not neutral. It either maintains the status quo, or it is a tool for liberation.
Without justice, there can be no peace. This is why we commend our communities standing up against this system that keeps our people and other people of color oppressed.
Venceremos,
Latin American Teachers Association Board
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