Department of Gender Studies

Black Lives Matter.

The Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington supports the protesters who are demanding an end to the long and continuing history of police brutality, a racially biased criminal justice system, and the systemic racism that is killing Black Americans. We see you. We hear you. We grieve with you. We support you.

George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis did not arise in a vacuum. The murder of Black people is not isolated, and it is not rare, but it is one of many ways that systemic racism and the devaluing of the lives of people of color in general, and Black people in particular, continues to make itself tangible.

We find the seeds of this monstrous violence in chattel slavery and the continuation of racial capitalism, which continues unabated through the global prison industrial complex. Racist policing has always been a mechanism of subjugation of people of color. George Floyd is among the latest in a long list of names of Black people who have been murdered at the hands of police, vigilante, and criminal “justice” anti-Black violence, some of whom include Shelley “Treasure” Hilliard, Eliza Woods, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Lexie Gordon, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Nina Pop, Eleanor Bumpurs, Trayvon Martin, Tony McDade, Michael Brown, Sean Monterrosa, Michael Stewart, Jordan Davis, Emmett Till, James Carrier, Philando Castile, Troy Davis, and Aiyana Jones, all of whom are just the tip of a heavy iceberg. There are many names, unfortunately, that we do not know.

Colleges and universities are not exceptions in the pervasive and numerous consequences of racism and White supremacy and the White privilege that is produced. As educators and scholars, we stand against structural racism and White supremacy in higher education and the militarization of our campuses, and we are committed to doing the work necessary to dismantle racist oppression. We believe in critical thinking and debate, accessibility and belonging, and we condemn anti-Black violence and hate.

We are living in immensely difficult and stressful times, but getting “back to normal” is not a solution. We recognize that statements are easy and the labor to enforce them is hard; we are committed to doing the hard work that lies ahead to dismantle White supremacy. We in the university and the society as a whole must do better to restore, and prevent the theft of, Black life.

Unless and until White America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, use that privilege to take responsibility for its violent past and abolish the legacy of that past in the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in restoration and reconciliation, the list of Black people that George Floyd has been added to will never end. We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation in systemic and social reform.

Resources for change:

• Do the work it takes to become an anti-racist by reading more for yourself and the children in your life

• Study the language you're using

• Actively support changes to police and criminal justice policy.

• Support educational reform efforts to incorporate racial justice work into the classroom.

• Support nationally and locally Black-owned businesses and media.

• Watch media that will educate you.

• Read (or listen to) and discuss books such as How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, and others recommended on antiracist reading lists available online such as :

  • An Antiracist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi on The New York Times and Chicago Public Library

  • 7 Anti-Racist Books Recommended by Educators and Activists by The Editors of The Strategist

• Learn new skills to dismantle institutional and structural racism from organizations like Midwest Academy and Race Forward.

• Visit the Black Midwest Initiative's statement and website where you can find resources, events, and how to contribute to the David C. Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund.

• Learn about BLACK LIVES MATTER and what you can do nationally and locally at BLACK LIVE MATTER – BTOWN and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - BTOWN

• Recognize the limitations of reading on your own. Take courses that address race from among the many university departments that offer them including our Department of Gender Studies and the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS)

Ask the big questions. Sit with the answers you hear. Do not be immobilized or turn away from the problem because of guilt or disillusion. Get ready for a lot of work. Support organizations such as those above with your time and/or money. Talk with friends and family about the issues. Actively participate in shaping our government and communities to overcome problems. Educate yourself about candidates for offices at all levels – local to national. Vote. Volunteer to help candidates you support. Or even run for office yourself. Dismantling the racist systems of this country will not be easy and will not be achieved in a single lifetime. But it must be done and fundament change must be implemented now.

In solidarity,

IUB’s Department of Gender Studies