Thursday, April 21, 2016

Statement Against Racist Backlash on the UIUC campus

As an organization dedicated to creating a community that is more inclusive and immigrant friendly, the CU Immigration Forum would like to take this opportunity to condemn the provocative chalk writings that have been appearing around the campus recently, and their blatantly anti-feminist, Muslim, Black, and Latin@ sentiments, as well as the racist Facebook group which also surfaced around the same time.

As its name suggests, the CU Immigration Forum was created with a belief that dialogue is key to fostering communication and building ties within the community. Only through sharing our stories and creating a positive atmosphere for interaction do we create the potential for understanding one another, and so a belief in the power of speech and an open exchange of thoughts and ideas is a foundational aspect of our organization.

These writings however, pervert this process and use speech as a weapon. Their intent is to assault, and violence does not build, it only destroys, so it is the violent intent of the words that were chosen and the placement of those messages that we wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms.


We at the CU Immigration Forum believe that our community is at its best when we stand, work, and dream together, and we therefore join with the many other campus and community organizations who categorically reject these crude attempts at exclusion and intimidation.