06/03/2020
To the Southwestern Community, and Beyond
Our department is both grieving and angry about the murder of Mr. George Floyd. We must ALL stand in solidarity and say his name, along with those of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile and Eric Garner, to name just a few. And we must affirm that Black Lives Matter.
As a department, we are committed to social justice, religious freedom, racial equality, gender equity, and a myriad of other critical issues that shape our world today. And while we regularly teach about these issues in our classrooms, it’s not enough. We MUST act, all of us, in ANY way that we can, right now!
Multi-generational institutional racism is an epidemic in the United States, and we must all work toward its eradication. Police brutality against the Black community, systemic violence and the oppression of Black voices, popular appropriation of Black culture, and the financial and educational barriers to success that the Black community (including the students, staff, faculty and alumni of Southwestern) faces on a daily basis are all part of a larger system of oppression whose history traces back to slavery and continues up to today.
And so we encourage everyone in the Southwestern community and beyond to take this as a CALL TO ACTION. Find and listen to Black voices; seek out ways in which you can contribute to black businesses, communities and causes (physically, financially, emotionally); support and lift up Black students when they need it; act to bring about the diversity, equity and sense of belonging that all people deserve. Silence and inactivity are the same as complicity, and if we wish to truly embody the ideals of social justice that are at the core of Southwestern’s mission, we MUST do the hard work, and we must, through our actions, say it loudly so that everyone hears us: BLACK LIVES MATTER!
