ECFA Executive Board Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter
The Executive Board of the Endicott College Faculty Association stands in solidarity with our Black students, fellow faculty, staff, and community against racism and the perpetuation of racial injustice in American society. We unequivocally condemn anti-Black racism and intolerance in all its forms. We do not find it controversial to state that Black Lives Matter.
Along with the rest of the nation, we have watched with horror as the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other Black men, women, and children have been cut tragically short while their killers have seldom been brought to justice. It is our responsibility as educators to confront the cultural attitudes and narratives that have for too long permitted such injustices to be carried out.
As faculty, we will focus our energy in the upcoming year on making the changes needed to ensure that our curriculum serves all of our students, preparing them to grapple with the realities of racism and to reject national narratives that serve only to reinscribe inequality. We vow to do a better job of educating all of our students not only on the particular injustices visited on Black Americans throughout the nation’s history, but on the ways in which that history continues to inform every American institution and thus every American life.
We hope and trust that the College is making plans to follow through on its commitment to “investing in diversity and inclusion initiatives that will make our campus more representative of the society in which we live,” as President DiSalvo wrote at the beginning of June. That effort will demand deliberate structural change and a significant investment of time and resources, but we want to offer our support as scholars and teachers. For some of us, that will mean engaging in our own process of reflection and education, while for others it will mean lending expertise as the college works to address systemic racism. We recognize that it is not enough to voice support. We have to do the work, even if it is not always comfortable.
We urge all members of the Endicott community to join us in working toward an environment in which it is clear to all that Black Lives Matter.