Letter From the Editors: May 31, 2020
By The Editorial Board
As a news organization dedicated to the pursuit of truth and social justice, we have read the room and decided to delay production on our summer issue, "A Day in the Life" until further notice. Agency cannot, in good conscience, choose to continue pushing a project that is neither time-sensitive nor sensitive to those who don't have a choice in protesting injustices that have been allowed to happen for far too long.
While we will continue fielding pitches for "A Day in the Life," they will ultimately not be prioritized during this time when our platform can be used in more appropriate and more effective ways in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
We still plan on releasing "A Day in the Life" out of respect for the time and effort people have already put into their submissions for it, just at a time when it is more appropriate.
Because we know that our platform can be used in a more productive way, we are now prioritizing pitches pertaining to the Black Lives Matter movement and surrounding issues while contributing to the spread of important information on our social media accounts.
We would like to make it clear that because we do not want to burden Black people with the emotional labor of unloading their trauma during a time that is already very traumatic, we are not reaching out to Black writers and creators personally. We instead invite them to contribute if it is productive for them but do not expect them to do so for these reasons.
We would also like to acknowledge that the burden should not only be on Black people to do this work but mainly non-Black people. We also invite non-Black folk to contribute to the discussion in ways that are appropriate from their
positions of privilege.
We are now currently prioritizing pitches including but not limited to:
- Tips on LMU-related issues that we should be covering in the context of Black Lives Matter
- Op-eds about Black Lives Matter and surrounding issues
- LMU activism (i.e. organizers, artists/creators donating proceeds to Black Lives Matter, etc.)
- Academic research/classwork pertaining to Black history
In community,
Raven Yamamoto, Founder, News and Opinion-Editorial Editor
Megan Loreto, Arts and Culture Editor
Yemaya Williams, Activism Editor
Robyn De Leon, Lifestyle Editor
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