Black Lives Matter
Department of Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education’s Commitment to Antiracism and Social Justice
As a department, we strongly condemn the event of May 25, 2020, during which George Floyd was brutally murdered during 8 minutes and 46 seconds by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We stand against this tragedy, and connect it to the long history of brutality against Black and Brown bodies that is fueled by racism and colonization, both in the United States and globally. All acts of racialized violence are deplorable and unacceptable; they undermine our educational efforts towards the creation of a humane, ethical, moral, and just society.
We acknowledge our personal and collective responsibility to actively interrogate and disrupt the cultural and social scripts that have been deployed to justify this oppression. As educators, we support the people in Lincoln, throughout Nebraska, and around the nation and world who continue to protest to have their voices heard. These are courageous teaching and learning moments for our community.
Sadly, though not surprisingly, racism still shows up in universities, as it does in police departments and schools. In solidarity with the 2020 uprising in defense of Black lives, we recommit ourselves to identifying, diminishing, and transforming white supremacy in our department-- in all its manifestations.
This is urgent work. This work is for all of us individually and collectively (faculty, staff, students, and community). For those of us who live with the privileges that come with being born and socialized as "White," we understand our special responsibility to examine, analyze, and transform our work--here and now--in our own practices and spheres of influence. We hold ourselves accountable for creating an environment that actively welcomes and embraces continued listening, reflection, and action regarding the entirety of our policies and practices, and our interactions with each other and with our students.
Published 07/03/2020