Strike for Black Lives

STEM Strike for Black lives, Wed, June 10

On Wednesday, June 10 there was a general STEM strike for Black lives. The Cal-Bridge program sponsored activities that day for members of the Cal-Bridge community. In particular, we held two meetings, one for faculty and one for scholars, to come together voluntarily to reflect on what we can do individually, in our departments, and most importantly as an organization and community to combat anti-black racism in academia and our society. 

The meetings were very well attended, with over 50 faculty and administrators at the first meeting and about 30 scholars at the second meeting. In both meetings, participants broke up into small groups and brainstormed about ideas that the Cal-Bridge community could undertake to combat anti-black racism. Participants were instructed to focus on concrete actions rather than their feelings about racism or current events.

By the end of the meeting, the group had a long list of possible actions. The group then reconvened two weeks later, on Wednesday, June 24, to turn the brainstorming session into a set of concrete action plans. As a consequence of those meetings, six action groups were formed. Details about the action groups can be found here: Action groups.

To learn more about the strike and actions you can take, go to these websites: