Statement of Solidarity from the Syracuse University Creative Writing Program

We the faculty of Syracuse University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing stand with our students against the structural racism in this country that has led to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, and the thousands who have preceded them in the last 400 years.

We stand in solidarity with our students, with the protests, and with the Black Lives Matter movement that demands accountability and resists the dehumanization inflicted on Black citizens at the hands of the police. We oppose an unjust system that threatens the lives of all people of color as well as LGBTQIA+ people. We also pledge to take a hard look at our own program, in order to root out any institutional racist policies and practices in our classroom communities, and to better serve all our students in their endeavors as writers.

We say all these things, and yet we know that we haven’t done enough—that we’ve been too passive, both now and during the #NotAgainSU movement. To fight white supremacy, we must educate ourselves, hire and retain new faculty of color, continue to recruit a diverse student body, and work to make things better rather than explain why they’re not. We’re here to listen to our students’ concerns, to bear witness, and to do the work necessary to build a community that is safe and welcoming to all students and faculty, and especially those of color and LGBTQIA+. We pledge to follow statements of conviction with commitment to action.