The Bunche Center Supports Free Speech and Student Activism For Peace, Human Rights, and Social Justice

On behalf of the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, I express my devastation and outrage regarding the violence and arrests that have been perpetrated against our students, faculty, and staff over the last week. Social movements, student activism, and non-violent protest is in the very fabric that underpins the Bunche Center. We were founded as the Center for Afro-American Studies (CAAS) in 1969 as the direct result of student activism and the struggle of Black and other students of color at UCLA to have their history and cultures recognized and studied.

Student activism has been at the cornerstone of Black-led movements for generations and, indeed, at the heart of the progress we have made against oppression and state violence in this country. Without the voices of students, we might forever be at a stand still. We stand committed to free speech and the right for our students to exercise peaceful political protest without the threat of violence. We are outraged by the violent attacks by counterprotesters on those who peacefully participated in the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment and by the subsequent violent arrests of peaceful students, faculty and staff. We remain horrified by the US-backed atrocities and genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions should not be met with violence or militarization of our campus community.

By failing to protect the right of our students to voice dissent and the academic freedom of our faculty and staff, UCLA is promoting an environment that perpetuates an unjust status quo rather than one that produces thoughtful young people who can tackle our world’s greatest challenges.

The Bunche Center supports our colleagues and students who organized themselves into a non-violent, multiracial, multiethnic, and interfaith coalition on behalf of the people of Palestine. Their First Amendment right to free speech and assembly is unalienable, and they should be able to safely exercise it without fear of violence or disciplinary action from their institution of higher learning. They are acting within a legacy of resistance to oppression across identities to express themselves and take action for what they believe in through community and in solidarity.

Ralph J. Bunche spoke out often against discrimination, segregation and the violation of human rights. He believed that bringing together different races, religions and cultures can enrich our society. His work stood for the liberation of colonized and oppressed people everywhere. The Bunche Center remains steadfast in our support of student activism for peace, human rights, and social justice.

In Solidarity,

Dr. Lorrie Frasure

Director, UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center