#IntegrateAmherst: Explicit Protocols for Racial Justice and Equity

To the Members of the Amherst College Community: We write as the faculty of the Black studies department in support of the Black Student Union’s call for Amherst College to do more to address racial violence within our community. Acts that harm one member of our community harm us all. They undermine our moral obligations towards each other if they remain unaddressed. We consider it especially important to affirm our commitment to cultivating an anti-racist teaching and learning community in thi

A Letter from the Department of Black Studies Regarding Disability and Inclusion

This letter was written by the Department of Black Studies in response to an opinion article [../08/invisibility-disability-amherst.html] by students on the college’s disability policies published in The Amherst Student on March 8. Dear Students, We, the faculty of the Department of Black Studies, applaud the courage and commitment you showed to issues of diversity, disability and inclusion in your recent editorial. While we were saddened to hear you give voice to the challenges you face, we

Letter from the Department of Black Studies

Dear students, We in the Department of Black Studies were moved by Thursday’s walkout and sit-in at Frost Library. Initially an expression of solidarity with students at Missouri, Yale, and elsewhere, it quickly turned into an intense, fiery event, full of compelling stories of struggle, friendship, insistence on belonging, and an overwhelming demand that the institution change. Spoken directly to the Dean of Faculty, those words bore truths that are as old as the presence of students of color

Letter from the Department of Black Studies

We in the Department of Black Studies were extremely dismayed to learn that posters reading #BlackLivesMatter were torn down or postered over this past weekend. The #BlackLivesMatter campaign is of particular and urgent concern for our fellow humans who suffer disproportionately from police violence, but it should be of concern to any and all who care about racial justice and basic human decency. The disrespect toward this campaign expressed in the tearing down, defacing, or covering of posters