To the Lafayette Community:
As the nation awaits the outcome of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, the shooting on Sunday of another unarmed Black man, Daunte Wright, by a suburban Minneapolis police officer has been an additional source of shock and horror. The calls for racial justice that began last summer have continued unabated and swell each time we face a fresh tragedy.
We recognize that this event is traumatizing for members of our community who have experienced the impacts of systemic racism, and we stand in solidarity with them in expressing our outrage at this event.
The efforts we have made this year to try to address racism within our own community are ongoing, and we recognize we are at the beginning of a long journey. You can learn more at https://belong.lafayette.edu/anti-racism. We hope that some of these programs or resources may be helpful.
Next week, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council will host an open meeting focusing on a discussion of race and the criminal justice system. It will be held on April 21 at 1 p.m., facilitated by our colleague Viet Trinh in the Africana Studies Program. We hope many of you will choose to participate in this important discussion.
President Alison Byerly
Dean Jamila Bookwala, Chair, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council