BBSA Black Lives Matter Solidarity Statement, 2020

Black Lives Matter. Solidarity.

The mission of MIT Sloan is: to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice.

We recognize that our society is at a pivotal juncture where we must step up to build a better system for Black people and communities of color. Explicit in MIT Sloan’s mission is a responsibility to improve the world, and this mission can only be realized by recognizing privilege and leveraging power to create equitable spaces. It is time for action and accountability that are in accordance with MIT Sloan’s mission.

We acknowledge our privilege as Black graduate students at MIT Sloan, and with this privilege comes the responsibility to lead and to align with true allies in this call. We understand that the power and voices we have as leaders in business can be utilized to drive positive change and to call on those within the broader MIT Sloan community to do the same. We will continue to work with MIT faculty, staff, and students on concrete actions that we believe the entire MIT Sloan community should take to address systemic racism in all its forms.

We know that the experiences of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd occurred because of their race, making their experiences inextricably tied with ours. These tragedies — whether implicit or explicit forms of racism or violence against Black people — occur far more frequently beyond what is recorded or seen. We call on our classmates, staff, faculty, and administration to identify their privilege and challenge them to leverage it to act on behalf of Black people across this nation because any of the aforementioned names could have been one of ours.

Black Business Students Association at MIT Sloan, 1 June 2020