In the United States, recent acts of violence against Black people at the hands of police have prompted international protest that has itself been met with further abuse—the latest manifestation of a centuries-old history of violence and oppression. We, as members of the global programming languages community, acknowledge that every institution in our society is built on a foundation of white supremacy—and our academic systems and research industry are no exception. We have the strongest moral imperative to act not just in this particular moment of political turmoil and uncertainty, but in lasting, sustainable ways to permanently transform our institutions against the systemic racism from which they benefit and which they perpetuate.
Join Us
On this Wednesday, June 10, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm PDT, we join in the movement to #ShutdownSTEM for a global #Strike4BlackLives. We call on anyone in the global programming languages community to come listen, work, and plan to actively reject racism from the systems we create and the systems within which we exist. We know that one day of action is not enough: our goal is to both achieve small immediate change, and to facilitate the planning of broader systemic change across the world of programming languages research.
We will be holding a virtual day of conversation and focused group action. We encourage you to attend for all or most of the day, but we will be happy to welcome you if you can only be there some of the time. Our schedule (subject to change at the desire of participants):
We want to note: both of the organizers of #ShutdownPL (Talia and Kenny) are white, and we do not want to demand labor of Black voices on a day that is focused on sustainable allyship. However, the last thing we want is a day of non-Black researchers speaking for and taking actions on the behalf of Black researchers without their input. Accordingly, we will ensure all our commitments to act begin from a place of listening to the Black community within and beyond programming languages research.
Looking forward to seeing you there,
Kenny Foner, Talia Ringer, et. al.
Register
Registration is closed, because the event has already happened. Please stay tuned for updates!