The 英语系's Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

亲爱的SMC校园社区:

In response to the horrifying police murders of Breonna Taylor, 乔治•弗洛伊德, and far too many others—and in solidarity with SMC’s Black Student Union, the Black Lives Matter sub-committee of the CCIE, 民族研究项目, and other programs and groups on campus that have spoken out in support of Black Lives Matter—the 英语系 of Saint Mary’s College of California wishes to publicly and unequivocally condemn anti-Black violence. 

Condemnation is not enough, however, and action must be taken. 为此目的, we as a department are actively reexamining our own role in dismantling structures in our discipline, 在我们的教室里, and in the College more broadly that support white supremacy or promote Black silence. We want to acknowledge and thank leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement nationally and on our own campus that have been the first to make a call to action, as they have inspired us to develop these action items.

Action Items Related to the English Major and Minor

1. Acknowledge the history of racism in the English discipline and develop strategies to actively combat racism in our class discussions, 评估实践, 阅读书单, 更广泛的课程, particularly in our foundational and capstone courses.

1. 积极反思课程设置, 个别课程, 阅读书单, and disciplinary methods as practiced in the classroom setting to enhance Black voices and root out elements of white supremacy and the centrality of whiteness in the field of English.

1. 完全拥抱 “难对话模式” in our classes through training 专业发展 opportunities for English faculty (responding to the Black Lives Matter Committee’s demand #4).

1. Form a departmental working group to study anti-racism and anti-racist pedagogies in order to develop concrete suggestions for changes to our teaching, 分级, 指导, 专业发展.

1. Develop opportunities for professionalization for students in the English major, with attention to issues of equity and social justice and providing avenues for students to participate in the broader civic world and use their education in English to enact real change in their communities.

1. Recognize student work that specifically addresses issues of anti-Blackness through an 英语系 award.

1. Commit to organizing a colloquium to address an issue of interest to Black, 土著, or People of Color once a year that draws on the work of our 英语系 faculty and English majors and minors.

1. Encourage and promote platforms for student voices that center BIPOC experiences and perspectives.

1. Commit to recruiting undergraduate Black students to our major by prioritizing their applications for our endowed departmental scholarship, and seek out additional opportunities for supporting these students.

1. Continue our commitment to the unanimously-approved Senate resolution to increase tenure-track African-American and Black faculty at Saint Mary’s.

1. In order to make this document a living document, we will conduct an annual review of our progress toward the fulfillment of these objectives, 报告年内的具体行动, 并回顾本文档中的操作步骤.

We call upon our colleagues and students to draw attention to actions or attitudes that are at odds with this vision in order to hold the 英语系 accountable.

总之, 我们转向詹姆斯·鲍德温, who in his 1963 address to teachers described the reality faced by Black children in America, the lessons of inequality that their nation had already taught them, and the potential of education to transform the conditions of their lives. 鲍德温写道:

The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. 教育的目的, 最后, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, 自己做决定, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. 问关于宇宙的问题, 然后学会带着这些问题生活, 是他实现自己身份的方式吗. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. 这是社会唯一的希望. 这是社会改变的唯一途径.[1]

The 英语系 embraces Baldwin’s challenge and echoes his sentiments, and we wholeheartedly declare that Black Lives Matter.

2020年7月7日

[1] 10月16日交付, 1963, as “The Negro Child—His Self-图像”; originally published as “A Talk to Teachers” in 星期六评论, December 21, 1963; reprinted in The Price of the Ticket, Collected Non-Fiction 1948-1985圣马丁学院，1985年.