To the editor,

The St. Joe’s faculty unequivocally condemns racism and bigotry in all forms. We name recent events racist because they were perpetuated with racist intention: historically, the use of racist slurs by white people has been used to justify violence and perpetuate white supremacy.

Racism is not consistent with our values as a faculty, as an institution and as humans; we stand in solidarity against it. As faculty, we seek to address racism on our campus and beyond through the education of our students, the outcomes of our scholarship and our service to the community.

We are grateful for students’ efforts to combat racism on our campus, and we acknowledge that the university’s recent forum on race and racism was a step toward moving our institutional conversation forward. We urge the university to pursue real reform in a timely manner to work toward a campus climate free of overt racism, discrimination and microaggressions.

Racism is a pervasive part of U.S. culture, and unlearning racism is an ongoing process. We commit to engage in this process along with our students. We commit to educate ourselves on power and privilege. We commit to reflect on personal, cultural and systemic racism. We commit to undoing racism on our campus and in our world. We commit to striving for justice.

Hate has no home here.

Signed,

Faculty Senate