CAMS response to racist Zoom bombing of Penn State Black Caucus

The Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies is appalled by the racist Zoom bombing of the Penn State Black Caucus on January 27, 2021. We stand in unquestioned solidarity with our students who are Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color and unequivocally condemn racism and anti-Blackness both personal and systemic. We are also revolted by the use of language and imagery conveying anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in the Zoom bombing incident. We repudiate in the strongest terms any use of the record of antiquity to justify the degradation of any person or community of people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or political affiliation.

We are all too aware that this racist attack is only the most recent example of white-supremacist aggression against Black people and other individuals of color at our institution. It comes at a time when the current pandemic has exacerbated racial inequalities and when we have witnessed increasingly distressing acts of racist violence—from the outrageous use of force against citizens at Black Lives Matter demonstrations to the murder of Black citizens by police to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th by insurrectionists brandishing the symbols of white-supremacist hate groups. We consequently call on Penn State to make good on its commitment to root out the systemic racism that has too long existed at our university. The perpetrators of this attack must be identified and held accountable for the hate crimes that they have committed. 

Now, more than ever, it is essential that we come together as a community to support our students and to combat these poisonous prejudices. As such, we unequivocally support the Black Caucus and its call to action: <https://twitter.com/PSUblackcaucus/status/1355207050612109318>