WGS Undocumented Communities Solidarity Statement
In light of the recent social media post denigrating Undocumented communities, Women’s, Gender, & Queer Studies at Cal Poly writes to voice its support for and stand in solidarity with our Undocumented community on campus and across the Central Coast, as well as students, staff, and faculty in mixed status families.
Women’s, Gender, & Queer Studies at Cal Poly promotes scholarly inquiry, education, and activism in the service of transformative, widespread, and lasting social justice, and we call out the racism and xenophobia of the social media post. As scholar-activists engaged in questioning and contributing to knowledge creation, community formation, creative practice, and policymaking from interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives, we reject the dehumanizing and nativist language of “illegal” and “alien.”
Women’s, Gender, & Queer Studies at Cal Poly values Undocumented students, staff, and faculty as integral members of the Cal Poly and Central Coast communities, and we publicly commit to intensifying our efforts to address the needs of the Undocumented community on campus and across the Central Coast. We also echo the words of the National Women’s Studies Association (from the NWSA November 2016 Statement on Combating the Climate of Fear, Division and Xenophobia in the Wake of the U.S. Presidential Election): “In these challenging times we must embrace and reclaim the activist roots that carved out a place for women’s and gender [and queer] studies and other interdisciplinary, critical areas of study within the Academy [and beyond] over forty years ago.”
Finally, we stand against all forms of oppression and recommit to supporting all actions necessary to create a more just and equitable Cal Poly and world.
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Women’s, Gender, & Queer Studies at Cal Poly