On January 4th, 2023 Sayed Arif Faisal, a 20 year old Bangladeshi-American student, was shot and killed by Cambridge Police in broad daylight. The circumstances of this murder are bewildering and outrageous. Faisal was likely going through a mental health crisis to which the police, called by a "concerned" party, responded by chasing him for several blocks, shooting a sponge round in their effort to “de-escalate” the situation, and then lethally shooting him five times. There were six police cars on the scene and 12 officers dispatched to subdue Faisal. 

Sayed Arif Faisal was a student of Computer Engineering in the College of Science and Mathematics at University of Massachusetts Boston. A graduate of Somerville High School, he came from an immigrant Bangladeshi family living in Cambridge. An only child, he supported his family financially by working alongside his university studies. He also volunteered with The Welcome Project, and The Liaison Interpreters Program of Somerville. While in high school, Faisal actively participated in teen empowerment programs, and helped paint the Mystic Mural Project of the Somerville Art Council, which brought together an international community of youth to work on environmental education through art. Friends and teachers in his community describe Faisal  as “bright,” “hardworking,” “studious” and as someone who would “join all the community activities and help the community in every aspect.” 

 Faisal’s killing follows in the wake of a long history of xenophobic rhetoric, discrimination, and violence against South Asian working class immigrants. In fact, law enforcement is one of the biggest perpetrators of violence against South Asian working class immigrants, rendering them susceptible to criminalization and deportation. After 9/11, South Asian Muslims have been increasingly targeted by Islamophobia, resulting in hate crimes, employment discrimination, bullying, harassment, surveillance, and profiling. 

As educators—many of us immigrant educators of Color—are intimately acquainted with the struggles of our immigrant students and students of color—mental health and otherwise—as they contend with the inherent violence of a racial capitalist system. The brutal killing of Sayed Arif Faisal follows a long line of systemic and systematic violence against racialized black and brown people in the United States. Faisal’s right to dignity, in fact his very right to exist was obliterated by the 12 police officers, who on that fateful day stood in for and enforced the racialized violence sanctioned by the system. We recognize that the Prison/Military Industrial Complex is part of the problem and not the solution. It has not been, nor will it ever be sufficient to incarcerate a handful of seemingly “bad apples” while the very systems are geared toward criminalizing black and brown bodies and rendering them disposable. 

 Even as Faisal’s family and community mourn his violent death, it is his very humanity that is put on trial by the Cambridge Police Department instead of the actions of the men who murdered him, or the system that normalizes such violence. Regardless of the circumstances of death/killing, it is inevitably black and brown bodies that are put on trial. As the Cambridge Police Department vilified Faisal, even in his death, we—as educators, families, parents, organizers, and others—found ourselves having to defend Faisal’s right to exist. We found ourselves having to make a case for Faisal’s humanity, his immense potential that is now truncated so brutally, the excruciating void left in the wake of his loss. We are compelled to this, not primarily as a way of honoring Faisal, but as a necessary response to the systemic onslaughts against his humanity. As educators, we denounce these dehumanizing discourses that tie the humanity of black and brown people to their productivity or being worthy as “good immigrants.” This narrative is a strategy to create divisions. We assert our unequivocal and inalienable right to exist as black and brown people in all of our complexities and contradictions! 

 Justice is not served by incarcerating when systems and structures are relentless in their persecution of black and brown bodies. In fact, NOW is the time for us to re-envision what justice looks like – a collective vision that is defined by people at the frontlines of struggle, and NOT by systems that have historically oppressed black and brown people. In these endeavors, we walk in the legacy spaces of peoples’ movements that have been demanding accountability for systemic violence including police terror for a long time.

 In the wake of recent police murders of Sayed Arif Faisal in Cambridge, Tyre Nichols in Memphis, and so many others, we stand in solidarity with the families and communities who have lost their loved ones to police violence. We honor and respect the pathways of justice and accountability that they seek. 

We stand in solidarity with people who are choosing these moments of rage and pain to organize. We stand in solidarity with people who choose to occupy our streets demanding justice for black and brown lives. We stand in solidarity with people who are choosing to express joy, desire, and life. We also stand in solidarity with people who need to shield their bodies and spirits from trauma. 

We consider how we may be led into action by the profound grief, the irreconcilable loss of a life and possibilities that are truncated. In addition to demands for procedural justice (viz., identification of perpetrators and transparent and independent investigation) as educators we commit to, and propose a call for mobilization and action around the following:  

1. We urge educators to actively engage the ways in which racial capitalism, imperialism, neoliberalism, heteropatriarchy, (settler) colonial legacies/occupations are killing young BIPOC people. How do these violent systems manifest in the everyday life of our institutions, departments, curricula, pedagogies, and overall institutional life? How can we mobilize solidarity and facilitate collective actions within our institutions and beyond? What are the actions that WE need to take as educators to stop future deaths through racism?
   

2. We call for a collective rethinking of mental health outside the carceral logic as well as neoliberal appropriations of self-care. Mental health must not be considered in isolation of or merely as an alternative to a law enforcement response. Both mental health/well-being and associated supports/resources are mediated by structural violence. What are some ways in which we can work to disrupt racist and other violent systems that are the source of deep-rooted harm and trauma in our BIPOC communities, and especially in young people? How can we reclaim mental health as collective care, as healing from trauma, and as capacities for radical hope? What collective actions can we take to help young people access these possibilities for survival and thriving?