BLACK LIVES MATTER

In light of recent events, AAP College Counseling wants to take the opportunity to make our stance transparent. We proudly stands in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter Movement and continuously seeks to bring awareness and action to the constant crimes committed against the Black community. We are incredibly saddened and outraged by the cruel and callous murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor–just a few among thousands of Black lives lost to police brutality. We stand proudly with not only UCLA students, staff, and faculty affected by the ongoing, senseless brutalization of Black people, but also with those within the larger campus community, around the country, and beyond.

The history of AAP speaks wonders and specifically resonates in this instant. AAP began as a way to and continues to serve historically underrepresented communities amidst a lack of support within the university. Our purpose is driven by the necessity to uplift and support such communities, including Black Bruins. As a program designed to widen access to communities of color we have a duty to work toward the legacy of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, two Black Panther Party students murdered in Campbell Hall.

We are fully committed to supporting our Black community in fighting the injustices present in their daily lives and the failures of our political institutions in supporting Black people. We are committed to providing resources to educate oneself, petitions to sign, donation funds if financially able, and other concrete ways to make effective change within our local and federal governments. Furthermore, we are deeply upset about UCLA’s involvement in the LAPD’s activities and fully support the Afrikan Student Union and the Black Graduate Student Association in their demands. We are committed to anti-racism. We are committed to amplifying the voices of our Black community to end the normalization of this despicable violence.

We ask that our extended AAP community also actively advocate against the indiscriminate violence against the Black community and fight for equality, justice, and change every day as our Black peers do. All lives cannot and will not matter until Black lives do.

With strength and solidarity,

AAP Peer Counseling

AAP College Counseling