BA English

The English Department condemns the brutal murder of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. We condemn the U.S. heritage of racialized violence that continues in the wake of Mr. Floyd's murder. At times like these, protest is not optional but compulsory. The criminal justice system in the U.S. is racist with modern police forces arising out of vigilante groups that hunted down escaped slaves. We know that a transformative rethinking of the police is long overdue. Given our privileged positions at a liberal arts college, we must combat the systemic racism of all U.S. institutions, whether political, economical, governmental, cultural, and/or educational; otherwise, our very democracy is threatened, and education is hampered in its role of developing global citizens committed to racial and economic justice.