{"id":145,"date":"2020-06-12T17:25:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sigdoc.acm.org\/conference\/2020\/?p=145"},"modified":"2020-06-12T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:25:10","slug":"official-statement-from-sigdoc-a-response-to-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sigdoc.acm.org\/conference\/2020\/official-statement-from-sigdoc-a-response-to-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Official Statement from SIGDOC: A Response to Injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Official Statement from SIGDOC: A Response to Injustice<\/p>\n

link to the PDF version<\/a><\/p>\n

SIGDOC stands in solidarity with Black members of SIGDOC and the larger Black community across the United States and around the globe in the ongoing fight for justice for the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Tony McDade, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and far too many others. State-sanctioned anti-Black violence is the manifestation of systemic White supremacy in all its forms in the United States and across the globe.1<\/sup> Black lives matter.<\/p>\n

SIGDOC unequivocally values our members who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and as an organization focused on the design of communication, there is much more that we can, should, and will do in this ongoing fight for justice. The Executive Committee has composed this statement to articulate our commitment to leading SIGDOC towards an anti-racist, justice-minded mode of operations, joining ACM\u2014our parent organization\u2014in overcoming histories that have consistently overlooked the contributions of BIPOC labor.2<\/sup>\u00a0SIGDOC commits to the work of undoing the historical roots of racism and, as White individuals leading an historically and predominantly White organization, we take up the call of BIPOC community members to reshape our organization and reform our organization to consciously combat systems of oppression.<\/p>\n

Structural issues require structural changes, and we believe in taking action immediately to put into motion long-term systemic change. We use this space, then, to enact our organizational focus on practice by publicly committing to concrete goals of accountability and investment in anti-racist design and scholarship. As an Executive Committee, we are empowered to make decisions about allocating organizational resources and our own labor in line with our values as an organization. In that vein, we are:<\/p>\n

1. Learning.<\/strong> We are prioritizing our efforts to learn about anti-racism especially in the context of the design of communication, the history of design, and documentation. We encourage SIGDOC members to do the same. This summer we will be taking part in the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge<\/a> by MLPP and reading Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code<\/em> by Ruha Benjamin, Design Justice<\/em> by Sasha Costanza-Chock, and Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn: Building Coalitions for Action<\/em> by Rebecca Walton, Kristen R. Moore, and Natasha N. Jones. We invite you to join us.<\/p>\n

2. Re-Envisioning.<\/strong> We are revising existing bylaws, policies, as well as guidance on editorial work and conference planning through the lens of justice and anti-racism in collaboration with the SIGDOC Board and our membership. We will report our progress at the 2020 SIGDOC Conference in October.<\/p>\n

3. Investing.<\/strong> We are dedicating funds to support justice-centered and anti-racist work:<\/p>\n