Antiracist Research and Policy Center, American University

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Yesterday American University graduated a new cohort of seniors and graduate students. ARPC would like to congratulate our newest alumni and to offer some tips for continuing the work of racial justice in this new chapter of your lives. Wherever you go, we encourage you to use your voices to challenge unjust systems, uplift marginalized communities, and create meaningful change. ARPC wishes you well on your journey ahead!

As we continue our end-of-year reflection on ARPC's purpose and path forward, we turn to our prioritized areas of critical intervention. This list not only represents the expertise of AU scholars and ARPC community partners, but also the interconnected issues that we continue to believe require urgent attention in order to forge a more equitable and racially just society. Our research in action looks at race and: -Carcerality -Health & Reproductive Justice -Migration -Climate Justice -Arts as Social Justice -Education -Indigenous Sovereignty -Gender-based Violence

As the end of the year approaches, ARPC is taking time to critically reflect on our core tenets and the ways in which they are reflected in our ongoing research, public education, and community-partnered initiatives. We first shared these at our Fall 2022 relaunch, and today they continue to help chart our course forward. We believe: 1. Intersectionality is central to our mission and analysis 2. Our histories and struggles are interrelated 3. Racial Justice is a transnational project 4. Academics need to 'touch grass' 5. We seed and root locally to grow change globally 6. Producing knowledge is a vital part of social change 7. Culture is a crucial terrain of political struggle 8. Liberation is both a goal and an everyday practice

Recently, over 200 colleges and universities across 33 states have reduced or eliminated their initiatives, policies, or programs designed to increase racial equity and access in higher education. The attack on education is not a coincidence. Universities are the places where new knowledge is gained and assumptions are challenged. This is why those who want existing inequalities to remain unchecked, target institutions of higher education. The threat of Project 2025 marks what may be only the beginning of the attack on equitable and accessible education. We are not intimidated into silence; rather, we at ARPC see this as evidence fueling the necessity of our work. History has demonstrated repeatedly that it is by building movements, producing and sharing knowledge, and imagining, working for, and creating the conditions for freedom that we save ourselves. As we continue to challenge the status quo of racial injustice and its intersections, and as we fortify ourselves to stand against what is to come, we are working with this broader context in mind, recognizing that our struggle must continue on multiple fronts. As the end of the year approaches, ARPC seeks to critically reflect on how our efforts align with the Center’s mission and pillars, that prioritize equity and liberation for all.

Calling on scholars and practitioners working to abolish the prison industrial complex with those who engage abolition as a praxis to dismantle other systems and structures of unfreedom. As carceral logics and technologies increasingly infiltrate all aspects of social life, scholars and activists across fields and social movements such as immigration, reproductive justice, climate justice, education, anti-militarism, and labor are articulating how their work for transformative change necessitates an integrated approach that centers the theory and praxis of abolition. For some, the turn to abolition is relatively new; others emerge out of (queer, feminist, Indigenous) organizing traditions in which decriminalization and decarceration have always been essential for the creation of new modes of communal liberation and collective lifemaking. In turn, these movements and traditions expand and complicate how we understand the workings of carceral power across different sites and scales. In this moment of possibility and danger, we invite scholars and practitioners of abolition to join us to share their work, analysis, and insight for future directions in the field and for our movements. Applications close January 5th, 2025. Access the full call and the submissions portal on our Linktree: https://lnkd.in/eahWuvXN

As we confront the changing landscape for racial justice research and organizing, we know that developing shared tools, analyses, and movements is all the more critical. Here’s a flashback from ARPC’s September live-streamed event on Race, the Farm Bill, and Beyond—a timely reminder that we’re all in this together: RACIAL JUSTICE = CLIMATE JUSTICE = FOOD JUSTICE = LAND JUSTICE = GENDER JUSTICE. Take a look to get inspired, and stay tuned for more on race, food, and agriculture in the new year! And, if you've appreciated or learned from any of our action-resources and events in the past year, will you keep us in mind as Giving Tuesday and End of Year Giving Campaigns approach? In an era of racist misinformation, actionable, scholarly, and nuanced resources on racial justice are more important than ever.

On the Friday after the election, ARPC Fire Right Now, with host Dr. Sara Clarke Kaplan, went live to debunk myths and unpack the role of race, gender + sexuality, and class politics in the elections. Watch the full video on Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eCW3snDs Guests: Ernesto Castañeda, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies + Immigration Lab, AU Molly Benitez, Portland State University and organizer in the Pacific Northwest Frankie Seabron, Program Manager at Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, DC Visit our Linktree to check out more resources on race and the elections.

The last few days have seen a barrage of political punditry. Many of these ‘hot takes’ have relied on racial and gendered narratives of blame that target our communities and allies—conservative Latines, sexist Black men, divisive anti-Zionists. Others have provided oversimplified single-issue explanations—immigration, or misogyny, or the economy. We don’t buy these easy explanations, and we don’t think you should, either. At ARPC, we’ve been sifting through the data on Tuesday’s results, with the goal of providing our community of supporters and co-conspirators the antiracist analytical tools we need to strategize, organize, and mobilize. Here are our top six takeaways.   Elections won’t save us. But they do give us yet another opportunity to face our political conditions and contradictions unflinchingly, knowing that struggling together is part of the practice of freedom. Together, we can identify points of coalition and name the past and present antagonisms that too often pit us against each other. Generations of organizers, scholars, and movement builders have shown us the way, and will continue to do so. Take a look, and if it speaks to you, feel free to download from our Linktree and share. And tune in today, starting now on our Instagram, @auantiracismctr, for our post-election “Fire Right Now” discussion with some of those organizers, scholars, and movement builders!

Here’s Key Issue #5 - Climate Justice - from our longer resource guide on Six Ways Racial Justice is on the Ballot This Election. Environmental racism places Black, Latine, Indigenous, and other communities of color at greater risk for adverse health and economic outcomes due to structural inequities. These communities are disproportionately vulnerable to extreme weather events, displacement, and prolonged exposure to pollution.  States with climate action plans with significant funding towards under-resourced communities could be at jeopardy by incoming federal and state administrations. Keep swiping for more on how climate justice is showing up on the ballot this November, and download the full resource guide for what you can do. Links in Linktree.