A Statement from the YES Collective on Tony Robinson

A Statement from the YES Collective
Comfort Barlow, Berenice Garcia, DaShanna Lomack, Naomi Makesa, Yasmine McNeal, Skye Moss
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
youthempoweringstudents@gmail.com

It has been a week since Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne announced that there was not probable cause to indict Madison Police Officer Matt Kenny in the killing of Tony Robinson. The following days have given us time and space to reflect, but they have not dulled our anger and grief, nor have they diminished our resilience and resolve.

Time cannot turn our thoughts from discrete instances of state-sanctioned police violence; rather, time has given us opportunity to understand how the ‘slow death’ of the prison-industrial complex, poverty, privatized social services, and food deserts provide a context to the ‘fast deaths’ at the end of a gun barrel. However, it has always been clear that time is not on the side of people of color, and that is why the time for action is now.

As students of color attending James Madison Memorial High School, and as women of color, we are particularly attuned to how our schools have become incorporated into the prison-industrial complex and shaped by white supremacy. Neither in our teachers nor in our curriculum do we see our identities, our histories, or our lived experiences reflected, and we want to be seen by our teachers as capable and human. We are subject to disproportionate levels of surveillance and discipline that replicates and sets us on a course for the criminal justice system.

In response to these injustices, we demand the following of the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD):

• Eliminate practices that connect schools to the prison-industrial complex
• Implement practices that are culturally-responsive and accountable
• Hire more teachers of color
• Support and invest in teachers of color once hired
• Institute mandatory mandatory ethnic studies
• Shift away from an Eurocentric curriculum

It is clear to us that the justice system is not and has never been an adequate mechanism to make black lives matter. We must tap into our creativity in order to liberate ourselves.

Our work in our schools has just begun. Over the coming months, we will continue to refine our demands for MMSD and build solidarity with other student-led groups, as well as other movements, parents, community members, teachers, staff, and administrators, who share similar goals.

Please contact us to find out how to support us and more ways to become involved with our group. We meet at 4 pm on Tuesdays at the Lussier Community Education Center (LCEC).