Dear BBA Family,

I want to honor the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the countless others who have lost their lives to senseless acts of racial violence. My heartfelt prayers are with their families and communities. 
For several days, I have struggled to respond to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and the resistance that has followed.  

I have struggled because I am tired.  

I am weary of the anti-Black racism running throughout every fiber of the world in which we live.  

I am tired of the hashtags and demonizing of victims of state-sanctioned violence.

I am tired of watching the killing of Black people over and over and over again.

I am tired of “waiting on the facts” before arrests are made only for acquittals to follow those arrests. 

Enough is enough!

While I am mentally and emotionally weary, my spirit remains strong.  My spirit empowers me to continue to fight to be Black and live. I will resist the evil of anti-Black racism by fighting for justice.   Though we may fight in different ways, what matters is that we resist. Wars are won by using multiple tactics. What matters most is that we unite and stand in solidarity in our fight against systemic racism, inequity and oppression.

Through our vision and mission, the Benjamin Banneker Association has committed to dismantling barriers that hinder all children – particularly African American children from having equitable opportunities to study and achieve in mathematics. Systemic racism and inequities are barriers that must be dismantled and can be through our collective actions. While we have made some progress, there is so much more to be done. 
As we move forward, let us act on the position shared in NCTM’s Statement on George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Dr. Trena L. Wilkerson, NCTM President and Dr. Robert Berry, NCTM Past President, encouraged us to use mathematics as an analytic tool to challenge power, privilege, and oppression, to challenge systems of oppression that privilege some while disadvantaging others and to create socially and emotionally safe spaces for [ourselves], [our] students, and colleagues.

Let us also not forget to take care of ourselves. In the words of Audrey Lorde, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

In solidarity,

Crystal Morton 

BBA President