"As an activist-scholar and woman of color who works in communities directly impacted by racialized violence, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination, I especially value my connection to the ABA community. There I find a vibrant, dynamic, intellectual space full of professionals whose commitment to scholarship and teaching is fundamentally shaped by generations of social justice oriented academics--scholars who model the likes of W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and William Montague Cobb. The people whose lives we enter as anthropologists are real, the issues affecting their lives are always more than academic exercises, and the work we do never exists in a vacuum. Having a professional space which honors and cultivates this type of scholarship is necessary, and invaluable. I am AAA."
