State College Friends Meeting, June 14, 2020
The members and attenders of the State College Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends are moved to respond to the vigilante murder of Ahmuad Arbery and killings by police of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. We bear witness to the collective grief, anger and despair that is being felt across the country.
As individuals and a faith community, we can no longer avert our eyes from unconscionable acts, nor stand silent or plead ignorance. Structural injustices and pain have been present in our country from its inception based on the stealing of land and enslavement of black, brown, and indigenous people; these injustices persist to this day in many forms, from significant disparities in economic opportunity, violence, and health, to the lack of privileges and advantages afforded those of us perceived as white. These racist and violent acts lie in direct opposition to our core Quaker tenets. We are compelled to add our voices to the resounding rejection of systemic racism, violence, and injustice in our country on all levels. We acknowledge that our positions of privilege and power bestow us with great responsibility to enact change now. We need to dig deeper to collaborate across differences and power differentials to make equitable, sustainable, long-term changes in ourselves, our community, our country. We affirm that all black lives, work, homes and communities matter.
State College Friends Meeting believes that together we can build the beloved community of respect, equity, and human dignity. We are all people: daughters, mothers, brothers, fathers, and children of the light/God and so embrace each other as equal, valuable, and loved. We commit to answer this call through the following actions:
• Work to actively dismantle structural racism
• Support local and national racial justice initiatives
• Work to end the silence about racism and white privilege
• Lobby for nationwide reform and demilitarization of state and municipal police
• Act to dismantle methods of mass incarceration
• Support actions to recognize and make amends for the historical injustices done to black people
• Conduct an institutional audit for racism in our Meeting
• Learn and take action as an anti-racist religious community
• Learn and be trained to become allies for black people, indigenous people, and people of color