The Office of Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE)

cultivates an environment that recognizes an

ever-changing campus and global community.

Dear students and friends of ISE:

 

As we come upon the second week after the murder of George Floyd, we reflect on not just this moment but 401 years of systematic oppression and violence against people of African descent in the United States. We have spent these weeks in solidarity with and comforting our students, our friends, and our family members for whom this violence is personal and ever-present. 

 

ISE holds as its mission the support of all students of marginalized identities at RISD. In this moment, the lives of our Black students are necessarily at the fore. We also recognize the intersections of identities – for example, that to be Black and LGBTQIA+ is to be at even greater risk. We also recognize that racism is not the sole province of Black people but that, as we have seen so starkly in the age of coronavirus, other groups such as people of Asian descent face violence and hatred born of a similar impetus of intolerance and ignorance that drives anti-Black racism.

 

We stand with you all as you grieve and protest; as you process what is happening and find ways to heal yourselves from this national trauma. If you need resources or just someone to listen to you and bear witness to what you are feeling, please reach out. We are here for you.

 

If you are protesting here in Providence or anywhere else, we hope that you will do it as safely as possible. RISD sent an email with guidelines but I want to include some links here:

 

Yale: https://studentlife.yale.edu/how-stay-safe-and-healthy-public-demonstration
Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protest-safely-gear-tips/
Amnesty international: https://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/SafeyDuringProtest_F.pdf

ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/

 

ISE stands with you. #BlackLivesMatter

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(401) 277 – 4908
Mailing Address: ISE, 2 College Street, Providence RI 02903-2784