Aug 7, 2020
Dear Campus Community,
I am writing to follow up on Chancellor Gillman’s call to the campus community on May 31 to dismantle systemic anti-Black sentiment. I want to announce the creation of a dedicated website entitled Building a Culture Where Black People Thrive: Resources for Confronting Anti-Blackness.
Accountability for confronting anti-Blackness begins with understanding. Understanding the ways that bias, prejudice and bigotry impact the lives of Black people is a choice that we must make as individuals and as a campus community. As the national reckoning has demonstrated, the sense of grievance is deep and long standing. Anti-Blackness deprives Black people in society in general and Black students and employees in particular of their full participation in this great university. The accumulated and negative impacts not only call into question membership in our university community but also compromises UCI’s capacity to discover, innovate and serve the state, nation and world as a leading public research university.
The website is organized for the entire campus community. It provides information and tools for wherever one may be on their journey to accepting accountability for confronting anti-Blackness. It consists of three broad domains: Calling All Anteaters, Change the Culture, and Join Us. The domains explain why confronting anti-Blackness is an imperative. They provide a range of resources for understanding what anti-Blackness is and how to become an ally. And they encourage participation in local efforts in your school, division and campus. We must all be in this together.
In closing, I want to announce a new suite of courses that OIE will pilot this summer and fall on Anti-Blackness in the United States. They are: Black Protest Tradition, Structures and Mechanisms of De-Valuing Black People, and Allyship: Taking Action Against the Oppression of Marginalized Communities. For more information and to enroll, please visit inclusion.uci.edu/inclusive-excellence-certificate-program/modules.
Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. (Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his)
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
Director, ADVANCE Program
Professor of History, Humanities