A Letter from the Editors: We Support the Uprisings

Dear Reader,

In response to the murders of George Floyd, Oluwatoyin Salau, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many, many others—some at the hands of the police, some at the hands of people whose minds have been colonized by the racist and misogynist State ideology—we would like to take this moment to affirm our support for the recent and ongoing worldwide anti-racist protests for Black life. Moreover, we would like to state what our values and responsibilities are, now and going forward.

As we now stand in solidarity with the rebellions around the world, which have brought much-needed attention to devastating racial and economic disparities, we commit to uplifting Black voices in our own communities and beyond them. Although we have discussed this support internally and within our pages in the past, the Prog has not made confronting anti-Black racism an institutional priority, among our staff nor in our published work. We aspire to be a platform for the Princeton Left, but we have often failed to fulfill this role for Black members of our community, among others. With this in mind, we commit to reimagining what the Prog is and can be for the entire Princeton Left. 

Recognizing our previous failures, we commit ourselves to the self-education, reflection, and solidarity work necessary for making the Prog a space where Black voices are not only welcome, but honored. We renew our support for and commitment to the project of Black Liberation. We pledge to direct greater editorial attention to radical Black scholarship and theory, anti-Black racism in and beyond the Princeton campus, Black and Indigenous histories, and creative and intellectual work for and by our Black comrades. 

We believe that capitalism and racism are historically and necessarily intertwined, and that only the dismantling of capitalism will actually put an end to the brutality faced by oppressed peoples. We do not believe that there is anti-racism without anti-capitalism or vice-versa. We do not believe that there is anti-racism where there is faith in the police or the capitalist State. In keeping with these beliefs, we also condemn policing as a system that violently enforces the interests of capital, and call for the defunding and disbandment of police departments across the nation. 

Another world is possible. 

In solidarity, 

The Prog