Anti-Racism Statement

ANTI-RACISM STATEMENT

The School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte affirms its commitment to recognizing, addressing and eradicating all forms of racism and ethnic oppression. We focus on engaging and collaborating in teaching, service and scholarship that challenge oppressive and unjust forces. We work to reduce racial injustices both within the academy and the broader community. The School of Social Work faculty, staff and administrators are united in the pursuit to end racial and ethnic bias and to empower our students towards this collective goal.

We acknowledge that regardless of one’s own race or ethnicity, individuals are at various points along an anti-racist journey. We also understand that bias can be unconscious or unintentional and that racism is the combination of social and institutional power plus racial prejudice. Identifying these two specific forms of oppression and disparate outcomes do not automatically mean that those involved intended negative impact and having these conversations require courage, respect and compassion, and may not always be or seek to be comfortable. However, as an anti-racist and ethnically unbiased community, we will purposefully strive to identify, discuss and challenge issues of race, color, ethnicity and the impact(s) they have on students, faculty, and staff members.

WE STAND COMMITTED:

1. To affirm explicitly and in united solidarity our identity as an anti-racist academic unit.

2. To individual and institutional exploration and examination of implicit bias and systemic advantage/oppression such that our anti-racism commitment be reflected in the life and culture of the School of Social Work through our policies, programs, and practices as we continue to learn about racism and ethnic oppression.

3. To the development and implementation of strategies and best-practices that dismantle racism and ethnic oppression within all aspects of our academic unit, college, university, community and society.