To do the work that we do is to sit inside and with full awareness of the enduring and unaddressed legacy of racism and injustice on which this country was founded and that continues to permeate every sector of our democracy, including education. The fight for justice in policing practices, in labor and the workforce, in housing policy, in healthcare, in criminal justice, in education, is—as we have been reminded this spring with COVID-19 and now with outcries for justice following the murder of George Floyd in police custody—the fight of this generation, the fight giving wind to our work.
We stand with others in seeking, with urgency, justice in the near term for Mr. Floyd and his family, and in the long term, justice wherein all institutions of our society ensure that Black Americans have equitable access to the physical safety, educational advancement, and economic prosperity in this country for which they have been long overdue.