Originally published June 9, 2020

Statement of Solidarity

We, the undersigned members of the UMSL English Department, express outrage over the recent murders of Black people: George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmuad Arbery. We say their names and mourn their losses. We grieve these recent losses further because we know they are part of a long history of state-sanctioned violence against Black people (and other minoritized communities) in the United States.

We remember, too, the 2014 killing of unarmed teenager Mike Brown by police officer Darren Wilson (who faced no consequences). The Ferguson Uprising happened in UMSL’s backyard; injustice and inspiring activism are never far from us, often as close as the students in our classrooms, in fact. We have learned since 2014 that we must do more, turning words of grief and support into sustained, public action.

We recognize that observing continued violence against Black lives has a traumatic effect on our Black students and colleagues, as well as our community as a whole. With this trauma in mind, we write to express unequivocal solidarity with and gratitude for the Black Lives Matter movement. We fully support ongoing action to address systemic racism in policing and other public and private spheres and call for change in the St. Louis area and far beyond.

We realize that effecting change and intervening in systemic, structural, and institutional racism means fostering change within spaces of higher education like UMSL. We vow to use this moment to continue our own anti-racist education and action; we take to heart the wise words of Angela Y. Davis, who reminds us, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”

As scholars and teachers of literature, language, and writing, this means acknowledging the complicity of the study of English in systemic racism. White supremacy shapes the language we use, the modes of expression we value, the work we canonize and teach, and the policies and practices that emerge in all of our classrooms. With this complicity in mind, we affirm that, as an English department, we are uniquely positioned to do powerful anti-racist work, to reject marginalizing and gatekeeping as our function.

We believe in the power of English Studies to challenge, undermine, and ultimately overturn the systemic racism that shapes it. Our tools are critical thought, careful analysis, language, and imagination. Our commitment is to the ethical and just application of these tools to dismantle systems of oppression.

Commitment to Action

We provide below a list of action items the English department will undertake. We hold ourselves accountable to action that is immediate but also ongoing, revisited, and revised:

-Design and implement processes for listening to and creating feedback loops with our colleagues and students of color.

-Maintain a sensitivity to the particular stressors affecting our Black students and ensure that we are prepared to serve as mentors and allies, especially in times of crisis. This means committing to recruiting and hiring more Black faculty and creating programs, classes, and activities that are more inclusive and supportive.

-We will offer ongoing professional development for faculty on anti-racism. For example:

Sponsor reading and discussion groups of recent anti-racist books, such as Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be An Anti-Racist and Brittney C. Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpowers.

Host pedagogical workshops highlighting anti-racist educational practices and classroom policies. (Examples: valuing language variation; attendance and participation policies; grading contracts as anti-racist praxis; de-colonizing syllabuses.)

Hold critical review and discussion sessions of our own syllabuses, to creatively re-imagine what our classroom instruction can look like, in terms of content/texts, assignments, and policies. For example, English departments are often viewed as bastions of “correctness,” and our pedagogy can instead serve to explore how “correct” language use varies widely, and an insistence on Standard American English as “best” is often rooted white supremacy.

Contribute to, share, and learn from a collectively-composed and in-process bibliography of work that inspires us to fight racism inside and outside of the academy. We have just begun this bibliography, but it is a living document that members of the department will continue to contribute to, circulate, and learn from. Our focus will be on work related to English Studies writ large (research, theory, pedagogy, creative works), and we aim to amplify the work of scholars and writers of color.

Partner with other groups around the University undertaking similar endeavors, such as the Office of Diversity and Equity and Inclusion. Listen to BIPOC leaders on campus who are already heading this charge.

-We will seek opportunities to do anti-racist work at UMSL beyond our department, through College, University, and System service, as well as outreach to other departments, especially about anti-racist writing instruction.

-We will strengthen partnerships with existing organizations in the St. Louis area, amplifying and supporting the incredible anti-racist activist work happening in our region. We will listen to and follow leadership of these community partners, doing what they need (and not what we assume they need).

Signatures from the UMSL English Department

Shane Seely

Kim Welch

Lynn Staley

Benjamin Torbert

Jeanne Allison

Kate Watt

Lauren Obermark

Chris Schott

Suellynn Duffey

Tim Kemper

Jenna Alexander

Mary Troy

Glenn Irwin

Michael Smith

Heidi Hyun-Jin Lim

Deborah Maltby

Drucilla Wall

Frank Grady

Kurt Schreyer

Jane Zeni

Eamonn Wall

Blaine Milligan

Thomas “Scott” McKelvie

Barbara Van Voorden

Jennifer Gruenloh

Stacey Walker

John Dalton

Scott Peterson