The following letter was sent to the LBJ student body on June 4th, 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in racial violence and racial hatred against the Asian and Pacific Islander community, both in the United States and internationally. We must make this clear, GPAC condemns all racism. Furthermore, we are
committed to promoting racial equity at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, at UT Austin, and in the broader community. GPAC encourages the student body to learn more, engage more, and listen more to our classmates in this troubling time. In moments like these, we must ensure thatour peers feel seen and heard.

In the last year, reported hate crimes against Asians in the U.S. have increased by 164%. These hate crimes were driven by fear and xenophobia amidst the pandemic, and exacerbated by the former administration’s use of racialized language to describe the virus. The impacts of this violence are not limited by politics, however, and both liberal and conservative communities are made less safe by these attacks. In March of 2021, a white gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, including six Asian women. This immoral act galvanized solidarity across the U.S. to “Stop AAPI Hate.” We welcome the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act to protect our country’s AAPI community. Yet we recognize that global systems of race and power have often excluded and disenfranchised Asians and Pacific Islanders, especially in this country.

Furthermore, as students tasked with creating the policies of the future, it is our duty to create policy that is anti-racist on its face and in its substance. Undoubtedly, now more than ever, the times demand a commitment to anti-racism and anti-violence. It is up to us to promote an
anti-racist culture and anti-racist environment at the LBJ School and beyond. GPAC unequivocally supports the movement to Stop Asian Hate.

With hope for change,
Azeem Edwin, President, Graduate Public Affairs Council

The following letter was sent to the LBJ School of Public Affairs administration on June 4, 2020.

Today we grieve for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Mike Ramos, and all other Black Americans murdered by police in a long, unbroken history of injustice. They are held in our memory only by the power of grieving families who speak out and the labor of Black activists across the country. These voices call out a desperate warning: to be silent is to be complicit in their deaths. Mike Ramos was murdered right here in Austin, Texas, by officers of our own Austin Police Department. We cannot accept that any of our Black colleagues could be next. We will not be silent. Black lives matter.

The LBJ School’s Graduate Public Affairs Council stands opposed to racist policing, opposed to brutality and violence against Black Americans, and opposed to the local, state, and national institutions that allow for the violence to continue without justice. We stand in support and solidarity with our Black students, faculty, staff, neighbors, friends, and families. We stand prepared to do what we can to defend those who must speak out, not in civic duty, but in defense of their very lives. The LBJ School and the University of Texas at Austin are held in high regard around the world, but we have a long way to go before we can call our institution a stronghold of anti-racist leadership. Nevertheless, justice demands that we become anti-racist. We must amplify Black voices, listen to our Black peers, and learn from Black history. We must address our own racist policies and
complicit behavior, making the critical leap from students to teachers and practitioners of anti-racism. By honestly judging our shortcomings and educating ourselves, we can renew hope in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s greatest charge: “to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.”

The Graduate Public Affairs Council (GPAC) is not making this statement alone. We join the voices of UT Austin’s Interim President Jay Hartzell and Vice President Dr. Leonard Moore. We follow the leadership of UT Austin Student Government and the Black Student Alliance. As called for by Dean Angela Evans of the LBJ School: “We have to reject the presence of violence. We have to reject the systemic inequality that plagues our society and that prevents us from becoming what we are capable of being. Instead, we have to open our eyes and hearts to stand together.” Many students and faculty are doing this work right now, and we fully support their efforts online, in the streets, and in the halls of government.

In partnership with the LBJ Policy Alliance for Communities of Color (PACC), GPAC has specific goals and actions we want to share with our community, taking what we are learning and putting anti-racism into practice. We are committed to amplifying Black voices in our events, classrooms, and all spaces LBJ students occupy. We call for diverse leadership in our student body, our faculty, and the administration. We will work to use GPAC’s resources to protect students who speak out against racial injustice and police brutality, support students targeted by racist policy, promote an anti-racist culture, and promote anti-racist education at the LBJ School.

We must take concrete actions towards these goals. GPAC commits to:

1. Pledge to match the $350 donations made to the George Floyd Memorial Fund by both the UT Senate of College Councils and the UT Black Student Alliance.
2. Hold an online student assembly the evening of June 9th (details sent separately), and continue to hold assemblies that give students an internal platform to strategize;
3. Engage with the Senate of College Councils, Graduate Student Assembly, and main campus
   student leadership organizations to support UT-wide anti-racist policy and initiatives, which includes ending all contracts between UT Austin and the Austin Police Department;
4. Commit GPAC funds to promote student-led events in the 2020-2021 academic year that center Black voices and organizations in our education in racial injustice;
5. Support and accelerate the development of a civil rights and liberties Professional Development core course for the 2021-2022 academic year; and
6. Utilize our newly-created GPAC Diversity & Inclusion Officer and Committee to coordinate and lead additional anti-racist action at the LBJ School.

Our student organization is fundamentally implicated in the safety and equity of our Black peers. Our resources are limited, but we are in the good company of anti-racist leaders within the LBJ School’s student body, its faculty, and its administration. We urge every member of the LBJ School family to use their voice now and stand up for those who are in the line of these injustices. Together we will reject silence, turn words into actions, and become the school we are called to be.

In Solidarity,
Graduate Public Affairs Council (GPAC) Executive Committee

Policy Alliance for Communities of Color (PACC)

Resources:
UT Campus:

• Call for Action from UT Graduate Student Assembly
• Call for Action from UT Black Student Alliance
• Counseling and Mental Health Center

Greater Austin Community:

• Austin Monthly List of Austin Organizations Promoting Racial Equality
• Austin Monthly List of Black-Owned Business to Support
• Black Pearl Books (Black-owned Local Bookstore)

Education and Awareness for Allies:

• Combating Racism Resource Guide from the UT Black Student Alliance and UTSG
• Anti-Racism Resources
• Anti-Racism for Beginners
• A Guide to Allyship

Welcome to the new GPAC website!