A note from the SAA Publications Committee on a selection of SAA publications on Race, Inequality, and Decolonization

The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other Black people by police have drawn attention to institutional racism and the effects of long-term discrimination against Black people. Like many academic communities, archaeology has a racism problem.

The SAA Publications Committee echoes the statement from the SAA Board and the statement from SAA Editors and stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizations fighting racism and systemic discrimination in the United States and globally. In responding to the SAA Board’s call to "stop, listen, and evaluate how we can each contribute to breaking down inequality", the SAA Publications Committee has collected a selection of SAA publications and made them free to read to support archaeologists’ understanding more about racism. We also recommend the reading list “Archaeology of Racism” prepared by Professor April Beisaw, which is online here.

We also encourage you to visit the Society of Black Archaeologists website for additional information and events at societyofblackarchaeologists.com. We recognize that while reading to improve understanding is important, specific anti-racist actions are necessary. We encourage SAA members to share their ideas for actions to support and increase representation of Black archaeologists directly with the SAA Board to advance the Society’s actions on this topic.

Special selections

Please also visit a series of special pages below where we highlight a selection of items from the SAA Archaeological Record, Advances in Archaeological Practice, American Antiquity, and Latin American Antiquity. In addition, the editors of the SAA journals have crafted a strong statement and set of actions. This statement will appear in each journal (and online as FirstView), as well as on the SAA website.