A Juneteenth Message from HEAT, SF City College Students, Faculty, and Supporters

A Juneteenth Message from HEAT, SF City College Students, Faculty, and Supporters

Juneteenth is being celebrated this year literally under fire, as racists try to revive post- Reconstruction Klan terror, where people are afraid of leaving their houses to go shopping or attend school.

Students, faculty, and staff at City College of San Francisco are horrified and outraged by the recent racist attacks by young people in Buffalo, Uvalde Texas, and far too many other places.

What kind of world are our children and grandchildren facing? Forty years of austerity and cuts to every program. No real jobs, the constant threat of being homeless, or being beaten or killed by police or gangs, constantly being blasted by a culture of mindless violence, distrust, alienation, superstition, anger, and racism; utterly devoid of security, hope, support of self-worth, or a sense that society cares. Looming war and climate crisis. Anything for profit; nothing for anything else. Is it any wonder some kids and adults turn into racist monsters and want to kill others and themselves? We’ve got to think beyond police and gun control. What kind of social environment can prevent young people from falling into the rabbit hole of homicidal and suicidal despair?

The SF City College Chancellor and five of six Trustees just fired hundreds of faculty and staff and cut hundreds of classes, depriving education to thousands of students. What kind of education? HEAT, SF City College students, faculty, and supporters, say that the kinds of classes, programs, and education that the top City College Administration, the Trustees, and the State are shutting down are EXACTLY the kind of education that's needed to prevent these genocidal and suicidal mass shootings by young people.

....It can give them hope and clarity in spite of a world where corporate austerity has left them futures of crazy-making stress, chaos, insecurity, looming homelessness, hunger, or the army. To give them the will to fight this corporate austerity rather than murder each other or themselves.

....It can give them compassion and understanding of differences among us: of race, gender, origins, and even differences in relative wealth and opportunity within our working class.

.... It can nurture and develop the artistic creativeness they’re born with, to develop their emotional wholeness, and to connect their creativity with their values and aspirations of a better society for all.

....It can give them the clarity and self-confidence to see through and reject the racist and divisive rhetoric and theories that corporate America sheds crocodile tears about, but uses its own media to promote.

... Finally, it can give them the understanding that the reason for their lives of hardship and insecurity is not some failing or fault in themselves or some other so-called race or nationality. It’s that we’re living under a system of profit where those on top, including San Francisco’s 80 billionaires, will take away anything we need for a wholesome life, and get us to fight each other rather than them. Education teaches us that fighting that system is necessary for our short-term sanity and our long- term survival.

If this makes sense we’d love to hear from you. Let’s work together. In strong multi-racial solidarity,

CCSF-HEAT (Higher Education Action Team) Please write us: SFCityCollegeHEAT(at)gmail.com Our website: https://www.ccsfheat.org/