Statement on the Continued Targeting of Chicana/o/x Communities by White Supremacy
At the request of the NACCS Board this statement was prepared by Dr. Carlos Reyes Guerrero (Past-Chair) and Dr. Armando Ibarra (Past At-Large Representative)
¡Basta… Ya Basta!
We oppose white supremacy, in ALL of its manifestations and forms. The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies is a collective of scholars and activists from diverse communities and with unique histories. Our Association’s consciousness is rooted in collectivity, community building, and participation in social movements that resist ideologies that normalize exploitation and degradation, and we work to replace institutions and practices that thrive on predatory and unjust practices with new, resilient practices based on solidarity and democracy. Our aim is the creation of institutions, critical standpoints, and beneficial practices based in a tapestry of struggle cemented by respect of all humanity.
The events of the last three years under the escalating violence of white supremacy have added urgency to our struggle. Violence against our communities has long been standard State practice. Now, the State effectively demands that everyone in the United States accept and endorse this violence. Atrocities multiply, from the massacres in El Paso and Gilroy, to the ICE raids in Mississippi, the shocking and inhumane detention of thousands of migrants throughout the country in for-profit prisons, the separation of children from parents at the border, the rising death toll of migrants crossing the border (nearly 10,000 since 1994), attacks on LGBTQ+ lives and civil rights, the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, the dismantling of asylum opportunities, the outsourcing of border control to the Mexican government, continuing and exacerbated environmental racism, and the attempts to erase our history by institutions, and, even, by some allies who question our authenticity, fields of study and actions. In all this, the powerful present their whims to us as necessities for progress and security. These attacks hearken back to eras of systemic attacks on Chicana and Chicano communities who faced lynchings, murder, displacement, miseducation, and deprivation of basic human needs and dignity. Today as then—WE RESIST!
WE, the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, stand in solidarity with all communities assaulted by White supremacist ideologies and practices. We commit to continue to engage in research, education, and actions that counter White supremacy and offer an alternative rooted in respeto for humanity.
Fall 2019 Vol. 44 No. 1