Dear White Academic Colleague: Black Faculty Lives Matter: Towards Avoiding the Crime of Silence

Abstract

In this article, motivated by the unjustified and brutal killing of George Floyd by police officers, I write an open letter to faculty members in general and to White faculty members in particular. In the first part of this letter, I recount some of my past traumatic experiences of institutionalised racism, which begun at an early age in England—experiences that led me to leave England for the United States in a naïve attempt to find a place where institutionalised racism was much less. In the second part of my letter, I discuss kneeling as a symbolism for institutionalised racism. In the third part, I personalise institutionalised racism in academia. In the fourth section, I provide a framework for White colleagues looking to promote anti-racism in academia. I conclude with a cautionary tale as well as a message of hope for addressing institutionalised racism.