Below is a letter written by the Black Justice League at Princeton to the Black students at the University of Missouri
To the Black Students at Mizzou:
We, Black Justice League, an activist and advocacy group of Black undergraduate students at Princeton University, are in solidarity with the Black community at Mizzou. Through news outlets and social media, we have been paying close attention to your plight and fight for justice on your campus. The same campus that you chose to be your home—before it broke its promise to you. The nation is watching and tuning in, but not everyone sees you, and not everyone hears your outrage as justifiable, though it is. We want you to know that we hear you and we see you.
We know that #ConcernedStudent1950 began weeks ago, and that the coverage of the campus movement probably doesn’t even begin to cover all of the late nights of planning, organizing, venting to friends about microagressions, crying, and then picking yourself up to plan and organize some more. We celebrated your victory of standing your ground to get Tim Wolfe to resign. We respect the football team—and we know that there are and have been students fighting for justice who are not on the football team, whose names we don’t know. We don’t know your names, but we see you and we hear you.
We know, from our group’s policy and direct action work to make Princeton University an equitable and inclusive home and institution, that holding administrators accountable is a large part of the fight, but only part of it. We know that much of it is feeling the burden of explaining your humanity to peers who don’t seem to want to understand you. It’s debating with yourself on whether to call out a racially insensitive professor because that might put your grade at risk. It’s seeing social media posts by students within your community that say you’re just complaining, as though navigating Black pain is merely a trivial pursuit. But we hear you, and we see you.
We wrote to you to let you know that amongst the vitriol and the hate, you’ve got Black students around the country looking at you, and being reminded of what we already knew—that Black power is Black love and that we all stand on the backs of Black people who made resistance and resilience a tradition.
Sincerely,
Black Justice League
Princeton University