From the Mary Frances Early College of Education: Statements denouncing racism

Over the last several days our students, staff, and faculty leaders have come together in subgroups and across groups to discuss how to respond to the horrific violence against Black people in our country. We discussed the pros and cons of each group making a separate statement vs. a shared statement.

Ultimately, we decided that there was power in hearing directly from students, staff, and faculty, so what follows are statements from Student Ambassadors, Staff Representative Group, Faculty Senate, and Leadership Council. Although the statements are framed slightly differently, what they all have in common is the explicit recognition that statements are meaningless unless we act.

Student Ambassadors

To the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members of the Mary Frances Early College of Education,

As student leaders, we are entrusted with the important responsibility to represent our College and serve as ambassadors for all those who engage with the Mary Frances Early College of Education. But as students, we recognize and deeply care about the exhaustion, turmoil, and pain that our fellow Black and people of color peers, professors, and staff are currently experiencing. As Mary Frances Early College of Education Student Ambassadors for the 2020-2021 year, we want to engage in ongoing dialogues, initiatives, and actions that center racial justice, racial healing from trauma, and demand justice for the police and white-perpetuated murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and David McAtee amidst many, many others. As student leaders of the Mary Frances Early College of Education, we refuse to remain silent in the face of police brutality nor stand by while the Black community continues to endure systemic racism.

As an organization, we stand in solidarity with our Black students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members, and we recommit ourselves to fight against the anti-Black injustice and discrimination heavily ingrained within our society. We also are committed to acknowledging how systemic racism is present within our own academic setting. Racial stereotyping of Black folks contributes to the stigmatization and oppression they experience within the classroom and workplace. The continual dismissal of Black folks’ needs by society can be seen as byproducts of the racism evident in the American justice and healthcare system, as exemplified in the ways Black folks are given heavier court sentences for small petty crimes compared to white folks and are dying at a disproportionate rate due to COVID-19. Pretending all of these specific issues do not exist is not only counterproductive but implies a sense of willful ignorance. We can not, in good conscience, tell Black folks that they are valued in our society and not follow through with actions to support them. Here are some things we can all do right now:

Read texts written by Black scholars, activists, and thinkers who have written works on anti-racism and implicit bias
Educate yourself on UGA and higher education’s history regarding the disenfranchisement of Black students by reading “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia”
Sign petitions, call elected officials, and vote in local, state, and national elections
Contact the UGA LGBT Resource Center to learn about how Black identity intersects with gender identity and sexual orientation
Engage with Black-led student programs and organizations who are already doing this work, such as UGA NAACP, Black Affairs Council, and the Black Student Union and many others listed on the UGA Multicultural Services and Program website

As future educators, counselors, allied health professionals, sport managers, and countless other professionals, we challenge everyone, especially White people and those who benefit from light-skin privilege, to educate ourselves by staying informed, listening with empathy, having courageous conversations, and being allies for the Black community. As future educators, we all play a pivotal role in dismantling the systems of oppression within education. The actions we take in our academic and work settings will either dismantle these systems or reinforce them. No matter our future career path, our response to issues like these changes the landscape for our world. We must not be complacent. We have a voice. We encourage you to use it to fight for a more racially-just and equitable world.

In February, The Mary Frances Early College of Education was named after the first Black graduate of the University of Georgia. Mary Frances Early’s vigilance and vigor along with the first Black students to attend UGA, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes, are what paved the way for Black students to attend the university today. We can not proudly and consistently honor the sacrifices that these trailblazers made for Black students by remaining silent and not continuing their efforts of supporting Black students in every way possible. We can not name our College after Ms. Early and not recognize the hardships that come with being Black in America. We can not empower, uplift, honor, and encourage Black lives if we are not absolutely clear that there is not just simply racial injustice in our country, but also institutionalized racism that leads to lives lost and that disproportionately affects Black people. We refuse to allow this naming to be performative. Black lives matter.

For those seeking additional resources and information about diversity, equity, and inclusion, please visit the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Aderhold Hall Room G9. Follow this Zoom link to attend the DEI Racial Healing Sessions led by Anneliese Singh, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which will be held Thursday, June 4 from 1-2 p.m.

In solidarity,
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Student Ambassadors

Staff Representative Group

To the students, faculty, staff, and community members of the Mary Frances Early College of Education,

As members of the staff of the Mary Frances Early College of Education, we are a diverse group, made of individuals who vary in terms of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, ability, and race. While we are diverse in both our identities and experiences, we are unified in the mission of promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for all individuals. We are unequivocally united in the fight against injustice and discrimination against Black people and People of Color. Although we understand that systemic racial inequity is not a new issue, we are collectively horrified, angered, ashamed, and saddened by the recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many others. These acts of insidious and overt racism are appalling. We as staff members will honor these murders by taking new actions as staff within the Mary Frances Early College of Education.

As Mary Frances Early College of Education staff members:

We commit to speaking up and speaking out about racial injustice.
We commit to advocating for Black people, People of Color, or anyone else’s voices that are systematically marginalized.
We commit to confronting our own personal racial preconceptions and continuously striving to make a lasting difference within ourselves.
We commit to looking for ways in which we can actively and collectively combat racial inequity and anti-Blackness.
We commit to being brave enough to have hard conversations as we know we encounter implicit and explicit bias related to racism.
We commit to partnering with the MFE COE Faculty Senate, Leadership, and Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to create spaces for faculty members, staff members, students, and other community members in which to discuss racial equity issues, specifically, but not limited to, violence perpetrated against Black people and People of Color, anti-racism, and white privilege.
We commit to recognizing and honoring the dignity and humanity of each individual person.

In solidarity,
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Staff Representative Group

Faculty Senate

Statement denouncing racism and killings of Black adults and children across all genders

As members of the Faculty Senate, we stand in solidarity with the Black community to obtain equity and justice for the ongoing killings of Black adults and children across the nation. We continue to bear witness to violent and horrific killings that stem from systemic racism and oppression, white supremacy, white privilege, racial injustices, and anti-Blackness in the U.S. American justice system and throughout the world. These racist systems have dehumanized Black adults and children through deficit storytelling, imagery, and negative stereotypes.

On Monday, May 25, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was violently killed by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer who knelt on his neck, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, as he pleaded “I can’t breathe.” In addition, on March 13, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed in her home by Louisville, Kentucky police who raided her home. In Brunswick, Georgia, Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by white men who hunted him down after seeing him running past their house. While these recent events have traumatized the nation with senseless killing after senseless killing, we are also reminded of other Black adults and children whose lives have been taken violently: Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Philando Castile, Terence Crutcher, Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Botham Jean, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Stewart, and countless others. We express our deepest and sincere condolences to these families as we mourn their loss of Black lives to police or vigilante violence.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” We understand that all silence about racism is complicity. Silence about racism will continue to perpetuate the racial injustices and atrocities that continue to plague our nation. Therefore, we unequivocally denounce racism and white supremacy in all its manifestations both within and outside the College and university. We refuse to sit in silence and ignore these issues that have also been a source of contention in the Mary Frances Early College of Education among faculty, staff, and students over time.

We call for the College and the University to take bold actions to affirm racial justice across all colleges. We call for the College to initiate studies, reports, special justice-focused sessions, and curriculums, and to elicit courageous conversations with faculty, staff, and students and across the community about effective ways to understand and address white supremacy and its tremendous impact on vulnerable and underrepresented populations.

To start, we include a list of actionable items that will ensure we continue these conversations in the midst of this global pandemic and to begin healing from these racial incidents.

We are committed to advocate for a university and a nation built on equity, love, and the promises of justice.

In solidarity,
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Faculty Senate

Action steps

Create justice-focused curriculum for MFECOE faculty and student candidates on working across racial boundaries.
Develop a more robust and mandatory equity-minded training program for members of search committees.
Form policies to encourage the continuing study and discussion of UGA’s whole history in relation to the Black community from slavery to present.
Work with local public schools to de-escalate the adultification of young Black students (based on police presence and hyper scrutiny of their actions and bodies).
Develop best practices policies for UGA and Athens groups on ways to be anti-racist and incorporate such behaviors in classes and groups across UGA and public schools.
Develop curriculum schools can use to incorporate kindness, empathy, ethics in student behaviors.
Formulate monthly/quarterly advisory committee meetings with the UGA/Athens-Clarke county police concerning police brutality with faculty, staff, students, and school administrators.

Leadership Council

Dear members of the Mary Frances Early College of Education community,

We are sickened, saddened, and angered by the recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many other members of Black and Brown communities as well as the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, both medically and financially, on communities of color. In these difficult times, it is more important than ever that we embrace and enact our ideals in the Mary Frances Early College of Education by coming together as one community to support each other and to take action to challenge beliefs and practices that are counter to our namesake.

We must not simply make performative statements about not tolerating racism. We must work actively to become anti-racist, both as individuals and as a collective. For individuals, we offer two suggestions:

First, recognize that our Black community members and those of color are hurting right now. As allies, we can listen to this pain and learn how it shows up in our work and learning settings. It is critically important that we learn from our colleagues of color, but now is not the time to increase their burden with requests to educate us.
Second, ensure we are taking the next steps in our racial justice journeys as change agents. We are all at different points in our journeys, and each of us must honestly assess where we are and commit to taking steps to move forward. The DEI Office has compiled a list of anti-racist resources that you will find at the bottom of this series of statements. Please avail yourself of these resources, and, if you are ready, connect with others in our College to discuss some of these resources together.

As a community we must identify and change the structures that exist within our College that perpetuate racial and other inequities for our students, staff, and faculty. We must look at the curriculum we are offering and ask how we can better prepare our students to be change agents in their workplaces, communities, and families. We must partner with the organizations where we place our students for internships, the places where we conduct research, and the people and agencies to whom we provide public service and outreach, to examine our relationships, our motivations, and to really listen to the needs of those organizations. The link below offers one lens through which we can look at our work as a College and strive to move toward being a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural organization.

Moving ourselves as individuals and our College along this continuum will be hard work, both intellectually and emotionally, and it is work that will never be finished. We are fortunate to have a wealth of resources in our College for doing this work, and the naming of our College for Mary Frances Early inspires us to redouble our efforts to create a more equitable and just world. We commit to joining together to take action to support our College community members who are hurting right now by learning and engaging in anti-racism and racial healing work.

In solidarity,
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Leadership Council

Thank you to the leaders of the groups who came together to write these statements. Let us not lose the passion of this moment and forget the actions to which we have committed. Let us support one another, learn from one another, and hold one another accountable for keeping this work at the forefront of our commitments.

Resources on white privilege and anti-racist solidarity are available on the College’s Internal Resources website.