The Gratton Lab is committed to justice in our research group and communities. We stand with the longstanding movement to dismantle systemic racism that has most recently been invigorated by the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others. Black Lives Matter.

As scientists, we cannot simply lament the dismal underrepresentation of Black researchers in our field at every level while not responding to the fact that over-policing, mass incarceration, and many more structural barriers oppress Black communities.

Our lab mission is, in part, to create a working environment “that values and includes people with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences.” We’re spending this week listening and researching further actions we can undertake as a lab group to live up to this mission. We recognize that this work needs to be never-ending; this mission statement should inform every lab meeting, field season, and engagement with our broader communities.

Our intent is to hold ourselves accountable to these values and create structures and actions to support them.  We will share these in the weeks to come, so stay tuned! We also invite other labs to share ideas – what are you doing in your research group?

In the meantime, we encourage those who are able to donate and respond to calls to action from these groups in the UW/Madison community organizing for racial justice.

@AboutFreedomInc

@TriageUrban

@SICofUW

This article was posted in Lab Blog, Lab News, Outreach, Policy, Uncategorized.