Dear Students:
A few days ago, Fulbright College Dean Todd Shields sent out a letter lamenting the tragic and senseless deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, and so many others. In his eloquent letter, Dean Shields asked all of us, as members of the Fulbright family, to examine our own actions, to educate ourselves about the deep historical and structural inequalities that have led to this moment (and persist in our society), and to make concerted strides toward anti-racism and inclusion.
As Ibram X. Kendi, Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University observed in an article published in The Atlantic, “There can be no American dream amid the American nightmare of anti-black racism—or of anti-Native, anti-Latino, anti-Asian racism [. . .].”1 We find this statement to be both true and profoundly compelling.
We in Fulbright Honors stand with our Dean in solidarity with Black Americans and all people of color in our college, our university and across our nation. We mourn the loss of these individuals and commit to engaging in the dialogue, scholarship, and self-examination necessary to promote anti-racism, social justice, real inclusion, and lasting change in our community.
We reproduce Dean Shields’s letter here in its entirety, and at the bottom of this post we provide links to several websites – campus resources for diversity and inclusion, as well as anti-racism reading lists, books, podcasts, and articles. We hope you find these useful and thought-provoking, and we look forward to continuing this conversation with you when we return to campus in the fall.
With warmest regards,
The Fulbright College Honors Program
- Kendi, Ibram X. (June 1, 2020). “The American Nightmare.” The Atlantic. (Online resource accessible here: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-nightmare/612457/)
Letter from Dean Shields:
Dear Fulbright College family,
As we mourn together for the victims of injustice, it is time to stand in solidarity and not look away from the images of the senseless and tragic deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, of Botham Jean in Dallas and so, so many more.
It is time instead to look deeper, and ask how we can address old and ongoing wrongs to make our college, our community, and our world a more just, accountable, equitable, safe and peaceful place for all – regardless of the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality or other identities.
It is time to face our unfinished journey toward racial justice and to be conscious of our state’s history of lynching and Jim Crow laws and of the University of Arkansas’ history as a segregated school that still does not yet look like the state it serves.
It is time to fortify and expand our efforts to achieve a world that is anti-racist and inclusive.
We cannot move forward any other way.
As tensions remain high and protests continue across the country, we call upon our students, faculty, staff and alumni to recommit themselves to realizing Dr. King’s dream of a community whose members are not “judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
While we remain dispersed by a pandemic, we ask you to join together in spirit to remake our campus and the world beyond through the hard and uncomfortable work of examining our failures to realize our goal of rich diversity, true equity, and seamless inclusion.
The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is committed to both leading this work and to hearing the hard truths that need to be spoken so that they are not forgotten and are instead addressed.
We ask you to join us in building a more welcoming, just and safe Fulbright College and U of A.
We ask you to think of one tangible step you can take today to move in that direction, and to do so.
We ask you to sign up for workshops, classes and experiences to learn more about how we can support one another and our campus community in taking positive action that fosters safety, belonging, justice, equity and peace.
And we ask you to strengthen our diversity and inclusion efforts through all we do in our teaching, research and service – for we must listen, learn, and then lead by example and action to do better.
Now, more than ever before, our work to create an inclusive, anti-racist campus and world matters – though it is our deep hope that messages like this will soon no longer even be necessary as we strive to create even a greater future for us all.
Sincerely,
Your Fulbright College Dean’s Office
Anti-Racism and Inclusion Resources:
Resources provided by the University of Arkansas Libraries:
UArk Resources on Diversity and Inclusion: https://uark.libguides.com/diversity/uark-resources
Antiracism and Being an Ally: http://uark.libguides.com/diversity/ally
Anti-Racism Book List for Adults (provided by the Ypsilanti District Library in Ypsilanti, MI)
https://www.ypsilibrary.org/2020/05/anti-racism-book-list-for-adults/
Anti-Racism Resources (social media links, podcasts, books, articles, and film lists, provided by NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising)
