Statement of Demands to Act Against Racial Inequality in the United

States
June 2, 2020
Yet again, recent acts of police brutality have brought national attention to systemic racial
inequalities in the United States. Across the country, people are gathering to mourn and protest
the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by the hands of the police. These atrocities
shed light on decades of injustice and systemic attempts to erase and undervalue Black lives.
George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s murders are only the most recent of a long line of police
brutality, systemic racism, and state-funded murders perpetrated against Black people.
The inequalities that systematically impair the livelihood, nutrition, education, judicial
experience, environment, and healthcare of Black people in the United States need to be
addressed at the Sanford School of Public Policy. This institution—which officially states that it
promotes equity—needs to allocate resources, alter the curriculum, and equip its staff and faculty
to address these systemic disparities in law enforcement, health, and beyond. These changes
must occur immediately.
Systemic racism cannot be solved by holding events that promote selective empathy or
by burdening a few respected and overworked faculty members and students to educate others. It
is the responsibility of all communities in the United States, and particularly those that educate
the nation’s future policymakers, to actively remove structures that oppress and violate Black
lives. The Sanford School of Public Policy has an obligation to genuinely and transparently
support its Black students, faculty, staff, and community members.
Policy for the People is demanding that the Sanford School of Public Policy does the following:
1. The Sanford School of Public Policy must change syllabi in core curriculum courses to
include readings, lectures, and discussions about equity, systemic racism and social
inequality for classes beginning Fall 2020. Beyond this, equity implications must be an
integral part of the curriculum by all faculty, and not the work of a few professors,
courses, or isolated lectures.

2. The Sanford School of Public Policy must provide and require all faculty to take anti-
racist trainings beginning Fall 2020.

3. The Sanford School of Public Policy must resume meeting with students and faculty
about Jayson Dawkins and Parker Martin’s research and recommendations found in
Feasible Options for Addressing Racial & Structural Inequality.

4. The Sanford School of Public Policy must donate the entire cancelled admitted student
day budget, cancelled MPP graduation and leftover funds from the downsized 2020
orientation to organizations specifically identified by Sanford students that are at the
forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement, the fight for George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor and those at the intersection of Black and LGBTQIA+’s life and legacy, local
Durham community development efforts, and police brutality counter measures.
Policy for the People firmly believes and affirms that Black Lives Matter. We demand that
the Sanford School of Public Policy take necessary efforts to demonstrate its commitment to
Black people and racial equity.