An Open Letter to the PNCA Family

Dear Members of the PNCA Family,

Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Botham Jean. Atatiana Jefferson. Eric Reason. Breonna Taylor.

Say their names. All of them were tragically killed, some even in their own homes. Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Eric Reason, and Breonna Taylor were killed in the past few years, as were too many other members of our Black community. Their names are sadly added to the too-long list of names of Black people who have been unjustly killed over the years.

It is way past time for this to end. It is way past time for inequality and racial injustice to be the weapons of a privileged few.

PNCA had its first-ever Zoom commencement on Sunday. We also had our first-ever distance-education completion of a semester. And although our College’s response to COVID-19 has brought us together, while still keeping us physically apart, the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Eric Reason, Breonna Taylor, and far too many other Black people remind us that we are far from together and are more than just physically apart. It is way past time for this to end.

Creativity, communication, and compassion are universal, and can reach far more effectively and have a longer-term impact than short-term violence and vitriol. Yet when all else fails, violence and vitriol are what remains. To paraphrase from a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, only a month before his own tragic death, violence is the language of the unheard. That America had failed to act upon promises of freedom and justice, failed to recognize that large segments of white society are more concerned about maintaining the status quo than about embracing differences. Dr. King’s speech was given more than 50 years ago and yet, here we are, still in the same place. It is way past time for this to end.

We are proud of our students, our graduates, our staff, and our faculty. We know that what we do here matters. Our graduates have the talent, skills, and commitment to confront, explore, and address the pain, sadness, shock, and outrage of the inequality and injustice we face. As an art and design college, we collectively have accepted the responsibility to empower the voiceless, to provide visionary leadership for those who may not be able to express themselves like we can, to entertain nuance and complexity in the easily distracted and divisive social media landscape.

Our destinies are inextricably linked and will rise or fall together. As noted by Lilla Watson in a speech during the UN’s Decade for Women—and given her preference to refer the quote to “Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s” — “If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” White America cannot continue to strengthen itself at the expense of others. We must listen. We must act. We must work together. We must do it now. It is way past time for this to end.

Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Botham Jean. Atatiana Jefferson. Eric Reason. Breonna Taylor.

Say their names. We know that we cannot be free as a nation until Black Lives Matter.

Christopher G. Maples, PhD Interim President