Defund CPD’s Statement + Call-to-Action regarding threats made at Friday’s Black Women Matter Rally
**Content Warning: discussion of vehicle used as weapon, anti-Blackness**
What happened at the rally yesterday:
Over 200 Charlottesville community members gathered on July 17th, 2020 to affirm that Black Women Matter in our community. However, this rally and march was disturbed by a UVA student, Morgan Bettinger. Morgan drove around the public works truck blocking the street that demonstrators were convened on, and felt compelled to say, not just once, but twice, that protesters would “make good speed bumps.” The second time she repeated it loudly to a Black protester and added “good fucking speed bumps.” This is deeply chilling as we know there have been dozens of. car attacks on protesters across the U.S. in the last few months.
For coverage of the action and Morgan’s threats, see this Daily Progress article.
Why this is violent language, particularly in Charlottesville:
Let’s break down the language she used. The “protesters as speed bumps” meme has been a thing for a while now. This phrase is becoming a rallying cry for white supremacist extremists who want to intimidate and surpress the movement in defense of Black lives right now. Before he ran his car into us on 4th St on August 12, 2017, James Fields posted a meme that reads “You have a right to protest, but I’m late for work.” There is a link between the deliberate dehumanization of protesters circulated in these memes and an increase in violent car attacks on protests in the last few years.
What Morgan said Friday does not exist in a vacuum. She deliberately used language that is currently a dog whistle for people who want to commit these acts of violence and terror. She lives in Charlottesville, VA where we’ve experienced a deadly car attack. She knew what she was saying and she repeated it. There is no room for her to back down from the stance she took last night. Please read these articles that track the increase in car attacks on protesters in the last three months and before that, three years.
NBC news: “From May 27 to July 7, I cataloged 72 incidents of cars driving into protesters across 52 different cities, including both civilian and law enforcement vehicles.”
Why we must take action:
Morgan’s actions are not to be trivialized. Her words were clear, her words come from a language of violence, and we should take her at face value. To the UVA administration: it would be unconscionable to know that a student at your University, in a town with its own car attack on protesters in near history, would feel emboldened enough to say not once, but twice, that protesters would make good speed bumps, and not take immediate action against that student.
There is nothing honorable about endorsing white supremacist terror tactics. UVA must take swift action to expel Morgan Bettinger. UVA has a duty to protect its Black students from people espousing white supremacist ideologies on its campus. Morgan was unflinching in her verbal threats on protesters last night; it is UVA’s turn to be unflinching in their response to her actions.
UVA’s responsibility in this situation exceeds this one specific student. As an educational institution, UVA has a responsibility to develop students into people who will not threaten or perpetrate white supremacist violence. The UVA School of Nursing has an explicit goal to “stop graduating racists,” and the rest of the University must also stop graduating racists.
EMAIL these UVA deans now to demand that Morgan face consequences for her actions and that UVA stop graduating racists:
Dean David A. Sauerwein — Assistant Dean of Students — das2ss@virginia.edu
Dean Allen Groves — Associate Vice President & University Dean of Students — allengroves@virginia.edu
Dean Ian B. Baucom — Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences — ibb4n@virginia.edu
Why we must demand more of Charlottesville and UVA:
We remain committed to our original demands for defunding and dismantling the entire system of policing and incarceration in Charlottesville and Albemarle. We also rise in solidarity with the UVA students, particularly Black UVA students, who have been organizing for years around decreasing the scope of policing at UVA. This call to action isn’t just about Morgan: it’s about the entire system of policing and the toxicity of whiteness that she embodies. While we demand immediate repair for the harm she has caused, we still continue to uplift our original vision of a community free from policing. Only WE can keep us safe from threats of racist violence.
