SAC members personal letter on anti-Black racism

Dear Colleagues and Members of the SAC community,

The horrific events of anti-Black violence and discrimination over the last week has created outrage across the world and anguish among the University of Windsor’s Black community. We share their outrage at the inhumanity, anti-Black racism, cruelty, indignity and injustices. The casualness of the violence against George Floyd and other African Americans and the persistence of anti-Black racism and behaviour in Canada has horrified colleagues and students alike. Just as we are trying to manage the dislocation of COVID-19 pandemic, which has had devastating effects on racialized groups more substantially in the US,  and likely too in Ontario once the province collects data by race to track this, we have been confronted with these harrowing scenes over the last week. Structural inequality and racism have devastating personal effects.

In the spirit of our mandate as engaged social scientists, we ask all of University of Windsor to be persistent, committed and engaged in our actions to make our Department, campus and community a site for solidarity with Black community members and a space for critical self-awareness. As teachers, peers and mentors in this tense time we need to demonstrate values of inclusion and solidarity.

We stand in solidarity with those who have sought solace, strength and justice through assembly and protest in cities across the United States and Canada. We share the concern that structural racism and discrimination continues to pervade our social fabric.  As engaged scholars, we commit ourselves to identifying, documenting and analyzing all forms of racism voicing our strong opposition to its pernicious effects and creating open classrooms that address these issues.

Yours in humility,

Nick Harney, Tanya Basok, Glynis George, Natalie Delia Deckard, Gerald Cradock, Ronjon Paul Datta, Greg Feldman, Amy Fitzgerald, Jack Kapac, Jane Ku, Jacqueline Lewis, Suzanne McMurphy, Francisca Omorodion, Alan Phipps, Cheran Rudhramoorthy, Danielle Soulliere, Jim Brophy, Margaret Keith