Affirmative Action Task Force

AATF Statement on the Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict

Dear colleagues,

First and foremost, to our colleagues of color who are disproportionately impacted by yet another stumbling block in the pathway for a wider societal paradigm shift: take care of yourselves. Your self care is as much an act of socio-political warfare against racism as your service on a committee in a world that denies the unrelenting mental, emotional, and physical toll this work takes on Black and Brown bodies and lives.

The Affirmative Action Task Force of AFT 2121 condemns the verdict and the law in Kenosha that officially sanctions white violence and reveals the continuing racial disparities for Black citizens in the injustice system. The cage of white racial bias remains a metaphor for Rittenhouse and other perpetrators of white violence as their Black and Brown neighbors are put behind literal steel at a disproportionate rate. Biden’s claim that, “the judicial system works and we have to abide by it” denies the Black experience with the injustice system, and tries to erase the historical perspective of oppression and discrimination through the current judicial system. These bars are made up in a variety of ways; from codified procedures and policies such as the cash bail system to the impact of implicit and explicit biases of the judges. And they are reinforced by our acceptance of white complaints of discomfort when made to witness the explosion of Black frustrations, trauma made visible. White citizens refuse to acknowledge the generational and chronic traumas perpetuated by systems that oppress and deny the experiences, discrimination, concerns, fears, and desires of their Black counterparts that give rise to demonstrations and then claim that they have a right to “stand their ground” and “protect their community.”

The forgiveness of white crimes and crackdown on Black frustrations plagues our city and Bay Area communities, too. SF media outlets fan the flames of white outrage over “looting” and “vandalism” which then encourages citizens to oppose policy changes that might begin to heal our systems.

So, what does this mean for us, as a labor union of educators?

First, we extend our condolences and shared outcry against injustice with the families of Jacob Blake, Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and Gaige Grosskruetz.

Second, as educators, understand that actionable impact for meaningful and effective change within our purview is to educate. We stand with the educators who are doing the heavy work to shift paradigms that lifts up the minoritized voices of Black and Brown students and their experiences of discrimination in the classroom, the system of education, and beyond.

Third, we exhort our Black and Brown faculty to keep going. Keep showing up, make your voices heard, your experiences known, and lay claim to the realities of your lived experiences and those of your students by advocating for the expansion of ethnic studies departments, visible, and meaningful engagement of your voices beyond equity and diversity workgroups and committees. Continue to step up, step forward and offer your voice, perspective and leadership with practical understandings of how your experience and expertise can serve as a guide for examining the status quo and redesigning policies and procedures. 

To our white colleagues, listen to your colleagues of color, and offer support in the way that they need it, not the way you think you should. To work for equity and an anti-racist school is to center the voices, experiences, and needs of students, faculty, and staff of color. Stop trying to tell your colleagues of color how things have been done or should be done, and commit to a radical new vision for CCSF. 

Finally, The Affirmative Action Task Force of AFT2121 calls for the immediate support of initiatives that are crucial to this work:

1. Supporting ($) existing Black and Brown faculty with their ongoing, unpaid efforts of mentoring other faculty and maintaining support networks as they work to change existing policies and practices, and fight systemic anti-Blackness at City College of San Francisco.
2. Lead and engage various stakeholders across the college on updating the implementation of EEO practices as set forth in the recent State Chancellor’s legal opinion and recommendations with a focus on bringing in diverse faculty that add to diversifying the culture and perspectives of City College of San Francisco’s decision-making bodies.
3. Commit support and resources ($) to the Affirmative Action Task Force’s work of addressing the key findings and recommendations from the commissioned report from Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, A College Within a College: Institutional Racism & the Disparity of African-American, Native-American, and Latino/a Faculty at City College of San Francisco:
   • Provide resources and education that address the culture of white supremacy
   • Organize trainings and/or panels on dismantling racism
   • Identify specific racist and discriminatory practices and policies, and who the managers are of those policies. Not to shame the managers, who are likely not intending or even aware of their impacts, but to bring them into the work to generate systemic change.
   • Examine cultures, policies, and practices that unintentionally contribute to the perpetuation of these forces within its own organization.
   • Maintain and broaden the scope of focus groups to increase visibility of the AFT 2121 and attract new leadership
   • Diversify and broaden Recruitment Targets in the advertisement of faculty posting
   • Institutionalize and Incentivize the unofficial network of mentoring
   • Compensate the invisible and often unpaid work of African-American, Latina and Latino, and Native-American Faculty
   • Reinstitute the Grow Your Own Program, or Faculty Diversity Internship Program (FDIP)
   • Provide resources and education that can help address the issue of housing insecurity in the Bay Area
   • Institute Departmental Diversity Tracking and Offer Support in Diversification Efforts rather than Punitive Action

What is the AATF?

In Spring 2018, at the behest of the union’s then-newly elected Treasurer Yvonne Webb, AFT 2121’s Executive Board voted to create the Diversity Task Force. Our name has since changed to the Affirmative Action Task Force (AATF).

We seek to address the culture of white supremacy and to dismantle racism at our college. We seek to combat systemic and institutional trends that inhibit the hiring and retention of African-American, Native-American, and Latino and Latina faculty at City College of San Francisco and leadership roles at AFT 2121.

Our first project was to collect and present data on the experiences of African American, Native American, and Latino/Latina faculty in our campus community. We engaged Professor Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, former chair of African-American Studies at City College of San Francisco and now a graduate student of history at Stanford University, to project manage a needs assessment survey and focus group, to summarize survey findings, and to write a needs assessment report. 

Ms. Dunn-Salahuddin’s report, A College Within a College: Institutional Racism & the Disparity of African-American, Native-American, and Latino/a Faculty at City College of San Francisco, a collaboration with the Affirmative Action Task Force, was accepted by the Executive Board  in Fall 2019. A summary of the report is given in this presentation.

Key Findings of the Report:

1. African-American, Native-American, and Latina and Latino Americans are collectively only 18.7% of all faculty at CCSF.

2. An Extreme Culture of Denial, Ambivalence, Colorblindness, and Fragility Surrounding Institutional Racism Exist at City College of San Francisco.
3. African-American, Native-American, Latina and Latino Americans, and Other Marginalized Groups Have Experienced Individual Forms of Racism (Both Overt and Covert) While Employed at CCSF.
4. Lack of Transparency, Equity, and Clarity in CCSF’s Hiring Process, Procedure.
5. The Onboarding Experience Ranges Greatly (Excellent, Horrible, Non-Existent) and Inhibits the Retention of Faculty.
6. There exists unofficial and uncompensated mentorship networks among African-American, Latina and Latino, and Native-American Faculty (as well as other marginalized groups.)

Summary of AATF’s Action Plan:

• Provide resources and education that address the culture of white supremacy
  • Organize trainings and/or panels on dismantling racism
  • Identify specific racist and discriminatory practices and policies, and who the managers are of those polices. Not to shame the managers, who are likely not intending or even aware of their impacts, but to bring them into the work to generate systemic change.
  • Examine cultures, policies, and practices that unintentionally contribute to the perpetuation of these forces within its own organization.
    
    
• Maintain and broaden the scope of focus groups to increase visibility of the AFT 2121 and attract new leadership
  
  
• Diversify and broaden Recruitment Targets in the advertisement of faculty posting
• Institutionalize and Incentivize the unofficial network of mentoring
  
  
• Compensate the invisible and often unpaid work of African-American, Latina and Latino, and Native-American Faculty
  
  
• Reinstitute the Grow Your Own Program, or Faculty Diversity Internship Program (FDIP)
  
  
• Provide resources and education that can help address the issue of housing insecurity in the Bay Area
  
  
• Institute Departmental Diversity Tracking and Offer Support in Diversification Efforts rather than Punitive Action

Statement on White Supremacist Attack on the U.S. Capitol

Statements condemning January 6th’s white supremacist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol abound. Along with vehement disapproval of the violence, we hear that “this is not who America is,” that “we can and must do better,” and that, suddenly, “democracy is hanging by a thread.” But we see it differently. For many in the United States–even those whose ancestors built this nation, literally, by hand–life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have always been empty promises.

Read full AATF Statement on Capitol Mob Violence…