Dear Colleagues,
During public comment period of the September 26th Board of Trustees meeting, many individuals spoke with passion for and against the proposed salary increases for CCSF administrators. When the Board returned from closed session, the student trustee, Bryan Daley, reported that during the recess, a person who did not identify himself told him that people were so mad that they wanted to “lynch” the board.
AFT 2121 rejects and condemns without reservation the use of the term “lynch” in this context, as well as all racist expressions, whatever the circumstances are within which they occur. Applying a word that holds so much history and pain to an issue of compensation trivializes our country’s history of systemic racist terrorism against African Americans, and appropriates the pain of African Americans. The fact that this was said to our student trustee, who is African American, and about our board, which includes two other African American members, makes the statement that much more disgraceful. We respect and value our trustees who are African-American, and acknowledge the harm done to them by this statement.
In addition, several administrators and classified staff expressed offense, anger, and hurt over the use of songs associated with the civil rights movement at the September 25 “Funeral” protest at Ram Plaza and Conlan Hall.
AFT 2121 agrees that the songs of the civil rights movement should be held in respect. The event in question was organized by the Higher Education Action Team (HEAT) a coalition of students, community members, and faculty. We believe the organizers of the event are considering the critiques very seriously and thoughtfully. We support them in doing so, just as we supported them in speaking out against class cancellations and exorbitant administrative salary increases.
Finally, AFT 2121 reaffirms our commitment to speaking out against the misuse of college resources, and to maintaining high quality educational opportunities for all students.
In Unity,
Jenny Worley
AFT 2121 President
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