Letter of support for the Monterey 8, signed by staff and faculty of CSUMB

CSUMB Staff/Faculty Letter of Support


Letter of support for the Monterey 8, signed by staff and faculty of CSU Monterey Bay*


* “And our topic is topsy-turvy: civil disobedience. As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem…. Our problem is civil obedience.” – Howard Zinn, 1970

On March 28th, 2015 eight people were arrested as part of the Black and Brown Lives Matter Protest: Alexandra Walling, Colette Marlin-Winter, Peter Xiong, Amoxtli Ilhicamina, Michael Fredericksen, Benjamin Wilson, Courtney Thomas, and Maxwell Green. All eight are either current students or alumni of CSU Monterey Bay.

We, the undersigned faculty and staff at CSU Monterey Bay, support and congratulate these protesters for standing up against police brutality. By engaging in this particular tactic, they are part of a long tradition of non-violent direct action which takes a stance against racism and systematic injustice.

In their thoughtful statement these students and alumni align themselves with larger protest movements sparked by the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and many others. These direct action movements aim to disrupt “business as usual” by forcing people to come up against the anger and resistance that has been produced by establishments which refuse to transform themselves and hear the voices of the oppressed. The disturbing bystander footage of the recent murder of Walter L. Scott in South Carolina underscores the continued urgency of ending police brutality that disproportionately targets people of color.

As part of the Black Lives Matter Movement, creative ways to engage in this disruption have included blocking police stations, filling the Mall of America, singly loudly at a performance of the St. Louis Symphony, and reading the names of black men and boys killed while people eat at restaurants (part of the Black Brunch tactic). Roadblocks are a common action in these protests, with protesters taking similar action in Santa Cruz, Boston, San Diego, New York, and many other towns and cities across the U.S.

It is important to remember that these students and alumni are following in the footsteps of those who have struggled for justice before them, whose portraits often adorn their childhood classrooms, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Cesar Chavez to name a few. Each of these activists organized and took part in non-violent direct action in their various struggles against imperialism, racism, and injustice. Perhaps most iconically on March 9th 1965, when King led a march through the streets of Selma, sitting and blocking the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Often times the very people who extol the virtues of King, Gandhi, Mandela and others are the first to denounce those today who are using the same tactics and methods in the continuing fight for racial justice.

We are proud to work at a university which has inscribed in its mission statement its position as a part of the movement towards social justice.

And we are very proud of our students.

These students and alumni are facing a variety of charges which could have them forced to pay heavy fines or sentenced to jail time. We ask the District Attorney Dean Flippo to dismiss all charges against them.

Sriya Shrestha, Lecturer
Kenny Garcia, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Library
Stephanie Spoto, Lecturer, Humanities & Communication
Meghan O’Donnel, Lecturer, Humanities & Communication and Global Studies
Brendan Taylor, Administrative Support Coordinator, Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies
Patrick Belanger, Assistant Professor, Humanities & Communication
Daniel Fernandez, Professor, Science and Environmental Policy
Kathryn Poethig, Professor, Global Studies
Naseem Badiey, Assistant Professor of International Development & Humanitarian Action, Global Studies
Angie Ngoc Tran, Professor of Political Economy, Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies
David Reichard, Professor, Humanities & Communication
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Professor of Anthropology, Social, Behavioral and Global Studies
Miguel G. López, Associate Professor of Social Justice and Multicultural Education, Liberal Studies
Maria Villaseñor, Associate Professor, Humanities & Communication
Ajit Abraham, Lecturer, Humanities & Communication and Global Studies
Joe Lubow, Circulation Specialist, Library
Debra Busman, Associate Professor, Humanities & Communication
Deb Burke, Professor, Service Learning Institute
Rebecca Bergeon, Interlibrary Loan Manager, Library
Pamela Motoike, Professor, Service Learning Institute
Pam Baker, Library Instruction Coordinator, Library
Sarah Dahlen, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Library
Antonio Gallardo, Lecturer, Liberal Studies
Ernest Stromberg, Professor, Humanities & Communication
Lilly Martinez, Administrative Analyst, Psychology

*This letter is only endorsed by the individuals who signed it, not by CSU Monterey Bay or the respective departments of those who signed.


https://blackandbrowncoalition.wordpress.com/csumb-stafffaculty-letter-of-support-for-monterey-8/

Black and Brown Coalition
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