As members of the Department of Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies (SWAGS), we support the organizers and participants of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. We join their call to widen the dialogue within and beyond the college, including through the links they have made to the national #BlackLivesMatter networks. We are better for their engagement and compassion.

We thank the courageous students, faculty, and staff who have testified to the impact of police brutality and unequal justice on their own lives, and therefore on all of us.

In choosing targets, the poster vandals and internet trolls have also done their part to bring the issue home to all of us. In the logic of protection-by-assault, the leap from Black men and women to all women is quick. The phrase “all lives” used in this assault invites us to wonder who’s next.

The organizers of #BlackLivesMatter have demonstrated what real protection would be. Let’s follow their lead.

Amrita Basu
Michèle Barale
Wendy Bergoffen
Rick Griffiths
Aneeka Henderson
Khary Polk
Sahar Sadjadi
Krupa Shandilya