The killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police have resulted in deep sadness and outrage worldwide. This sadness and outrage has swept through academic communities as well. We members of the Logic Supergroup join our colleagues throughout academia in denouncing anti-Black violence in North America specifically, and systemic racism affecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color generally. We are committed to working with our BIPOC colleagues in logic and with our colleagues in other fields to speak out against injustice and to work to make logic an inclusive community. Black Lives Matter. Indigenous Lives Matter.
In early 2020, logic groups around the world began to combine their meetings into an online Logic Supergroup as a reaction to the coronavirus pandemic. As part of #ShutDownSTEM, the Supergroup held 24 hours of Inclusive Logic on June 10, 2020 to build concrete actions against racism in logic.
Here are four concrete actions that we identified as important and have committed ourselves to immediately, and which we encourage our member groups to commit themselves to as well:
We commit to doing our small part to increase the diversity in logic, as a discipline, by first increasing the diversity represented in our speaker series. We acknowledge that we have, to this point, failed in this regard. We acknowledge, in fact, that we have failed to have a speaker series that even manages to be representative of the diversity that is present in logic, let alone one that contributes to increasing this diversity.
Second, we commit to seeking funding from a broad range of sources in order to overcome barriers to participation in the supergroup, and in logic meetings and seminars more broadly. Such funding could be used, for example, in order to allow for graduate student travel stipends if the supergroup holds in-person events in the future, or to aid researchers who need equipment in order to participate in our virtual events now. This will lessen some of the barriers faced by BIPOC students to entering and participating in the logic community.
Third, we commit to hosting periodic events to discuss, evaluate, and develop resources for logic education that are inclusive and that encourage participation in logic from a diverse audience. This includes setting regular Logic Supergroup meeting times to discuss further actions in support of inclusion. We recognize that addressing issues of inclusiveness and working in support of anti-racism within individuals and within academia require continued commitment and ongoing, sustained effort.
Fourth, we commit to developing, promoting, and enunciating guidelines and codes of conduct for our conferences, workshops and other events, as well as other events associated with our constituent organizations.