The Association of Queer Anthropology (AQA) stands in solidarity with protests across the U.S. and the world calling for racial justice in the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and with the Black Lives Matter movement. These are the latest deaths in a longstanding campaign of state terror and white vigilante violence waged against Black people, from Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald, Atatiana Jefferson and too many others to name. Violence against Black trans people, including the recent police killing of Tony McDade and the assault of Iyanna Dior, must also be highlighted. Anti-Black policing and violence is a global concern. From the U.S. and Canada, to the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and the Middle East, Black communities are overpoliced and overincarcerated. Moreover, police brutality is an LGBTQ issue.

We join calls to defund the police, to invest in Black communities around the globe, and to radically reimagine public safety. As a group that promotes research, education, and activism involving queer and trans people, AQA recognizes the centrality of anti-Blackness in the articulation of gender and sexuality. Queer and trans liberation will not come without dismantling anti-Black institutions like the police. As a majority non-Black section, AQA acknowledges its immediate responsibility in addressing and combating anti-Blackness and white supremacy in the production and circulation of anthropological knowledge as well as representation and equity within the discipline.