Students Reps Call on Community Psychologists to Dissent, and “Face the Shit”

This statement is presented by the Student Representatives of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), Division 27 of the American Psychological Association (APA), Emmanuel-Sathya Gray, M.A. and Annalise Tolley, M.A.
on June 9^th, 2025.

To the SCRA membership, leadership, and allies:

In the words of Bayard Rustin, civil rights icon and a member of Dr. Martin Luther King’s inner circle, “in the long run, the only way I could be a free, whole person was to face the shit.”

These words were spoken in a 1986 interview, a year and half before Rustin’s death, in reference to his willingness to publicly declare his homosexuality. It was, he recollected, an act precipitated by a moment of clarity regarding Jim Crow era oppression. When a white child he passed on a segregated bus was chastised by its mother for innocently trying to play with his tie, he suddenly knew that if he continued to the back of the bus, the child would naively assume that Black people enjoyed being in the back.

“So I said, I owe it to that child, not only to my own dignity, but I owe it to that child that it should be educated to know that Blacks do not want to sit in the back, and therefore I should get arrested letting all these white people in the bus know that I do not accept that.”

According to Rustin, it was this same courage to resist anti-Black oppression that drove him to publicly declare his homosexuality despite being judged a risk to the image of Dr. King and the Southern Movement. Rustin paid heavily for his refusal to remain in the closet—he was kept out of the public eye, despite his leadership and prominence, which included being a mentor to Dr. King since the time of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and planning the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. However, publicly declaring his homosexuality was a necessity for him despite the political consequences, “because if I didn’t, I was a part of the prejudice. I was aiding and abetting.”

Today, in 2025, we in the United States are approaching a new nexus of oppression and authoritarianism that is effectively putting many people “in the closet” regarding their allegiances with the principles of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The fear is not unfounded. Within institutions of higher education, websites are being scrubbed of equity-oriented language. Students and faculty openly supporting the human rights of Palestinians are being targeted through doxing websites such as the Canary Mission, which misrepresent rallying cries against worldwide oppression and genocide as anti-Semitic. Federally-funded researchers are being identified with unincisive key word searches, added to watchlists, and positioned for public denigration.

Further, student visas were mysteriously revoked and reinstated only due to judicial rulings that such action was unconstitutional.

Friends, neighbors, and fellow scholars are forcefully absconded to outsourced detentions, or unsafe Third Country Agreements—places where guarantees of human rights and civil rights are not being made or transparently upheld. It is therefore no wonder that, within trusted circles, there is a desire to go underground. Hunker down. Change our language. Convince ourselves that four years is not such a long time to avoid public declarations of “Free Palestine,” to skip oppression and inequality topics in class, and to sacrifice the diversity, equity, and inclusiveness of our programs, out of self-interest.

Yet, we cannot help but wonder which atrocities we are “aiding and abetting” by denying our allegiances.

We call on all those who would consider themselves community psychologists to take note of this moment and not allow themselves to be unceremoniously “closeted” by the threats of the current administration. Given the values of this field – including social justice, diversity, and community participation – we have a responsibility to resist an encroaching fascist norm, and make our allegiances clear to one another. It is not a storm we can “ride out” and hope to remain unscathed. We are, by the definitions of this new administration, already professionally scathed, and so it is only reasonable for us to be firm in our resistance to oppression and policies which disregard the tenets of social justice.

Recently, there have been several public examples of open resistance and dissent. After Harvard University publicly refused to bow to pressures from the Trump Administration, stating that “[t]he University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” they are now suing the federal government for their unjustified freezes in funding. The Federal government retaliated by proclaiming that Harvard would lose its ability to enroll international students, who make up over a quarter of their study body—however a federal judge has issued a restraining order on this proclamation and the university is not backing down. Across the country, over 500 college and university leaders and administrators pledged to resist government attacks on higher education, with nearly a dozen universities and colleges forming a collective to fight federal government interference. In a statement, these administrators state: “As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” Students, faculty, and education staff have also been organizing hundreds of events to denounce authoritarian threats to freedom and education, with recent “days of action” on April 17^th and May Day.

While there is no “one way” for community psychologists to navigate these uncertain times, at the very least we must reject the warm cocoon of dubious safety and reaffirm our commitment to the principles of community psychology. Principles that, in practice, may evoke risk. We must—chiefly—listen to those most directly affected by the changes around us. Then, to respond to calls for solidarity and liberation, we must draw from the courage of those around us (and before us) and resist. Whether that be a public statement, or a quiet check-in with colleagues; identifying resources to navigate systems, or calling upon ancestors to help subvert systems of oppression.

Now is the time to show one another that, whether we feel ready or not, we are going to collectively “face the shit.”

Note: Correction was made from the original statement to clarify that over 500 college and university leaders and administrators pledged to resist government attacks on higher education.