Engaging With Black Relationships to Land and Water
Black Like Water is a scholarly research collective open to all UC San Diego affiliates who are interested in the study of Black and African Diaspora relationships to land and water.
"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was... Like water, I remember where I was before I was straightened out.” - Toni Morrison
Land Acknowledgment
Black Like Water acknowledges that we are on the lands and waters of the Kumeyaay people whose stewardship continues today. We offer respect to Kānaka Maoli and the voyaging peoples of the Pacific for their long tradition of surf and ocean technologies. We hope to better learn our responsibilities in relationship to Indigenous land, water and people.
Labor Acknowledgment
We must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their ascendants, who suffered the horrors of the transatlantic trafficking of their people, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We are indebted to their labor and their sacrifice, and we must recognize the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact that can still be felt and witnessed today.