The students, faculty, and staff of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame stand in solidarity with the local, national, and global movements against systemic racism and state and police violence against Black communities in the United States. As anthropologists, it is our responsibility to actively dismantle false ideas about race within and outside of academia, and to remove systemic barriers that exclude Black people in our field and dehumanize them in our work.
We are angered by and condemn the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Logan, and countless others as a result of systemic oppression of Black Americans, and we mourn for them. All members of our department, in particular non-Black members, must reflect upon the ways in which we contribute to oppression and benefit from and reinforce white supremacy.
We affirm that All Black Lives Matter and that the fight for transformative and restorative justice and equity is of utmost importance. We support our fellow Black students, alumni, faculty, and staff and recognize that the daily burden of navigating racism is even more unbearable than ever. We stand with you in allyship.
It’s important to note that beyond words, we are also committed to centering the voices and experiences of the most marginalized among us in our department, in the field of anthropology, and beyond. We dedicate ourselves to learning from, listening to, and uplifting Black communities. We must also be kind to ourselves – engage in acts of healing, participate in forms of communal care and mutual aid, and do what is necessary for our personal health and wellness.
For those hoping to learn more about the fight against injustice, you will find a reading list below with resources.
University of Notre Dame’s Black Student Association Statement
‘Collaboration among Black Clubs at Notre Dame: Hear our Voices’
Association of Black Anthropologists Statement
‘ABA statement against police police violence and anti-Black racism.’
American Association of Physical Anthropologists Statement
‘An Open Letter to Our Community in Response to Police Brutality Against African-Americans and a Call to Antiracist Action’
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
‘How can we help students understand George Floyd’s death in the context of institutionalized racism?’
Critical Race & Digital Studies Syllabus
"[The Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies] designed this syllabus to provide a broader context for understanding current conversations around technology and democracy by centering the voices and scholarship of people of color. The set of readings included here focus primarily on racial formations in a U.S. context and provide a curated introduction to the myriad ways that race has shaped aspects of our digital world—from the infrastructures and policies that support technological development, to algorithms and the collection of data, to the interfaces that shape engagement."
Black Lives Matter Syllabus
Syllabus designed by Professor Frank Leon Roberts (NYU) in response to the Black Lives Matter network and social movement centered on the institutional and systemic assault on Black and Brown bodies in the form of police brutality. "The BLM syllabus provides a historical context for Black social movements, as well as an emphasis on the relationship to BLM and mass incarceration, the politics of disposability, Black feminism, and more."
Racial Justice Syllabus
‘Our syllabi series highlights articles, books, and journal issues that encourage discussion of today’s most pressing issues. Selections in this syllabus explore racial justice. Topics include racial protests, justice movements, racial power, and racial justice history.’
Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind.
‘In three decades of advocating for prison abolition, the activist and scholar has helped transform how people think about criminal justice.’
Prison Culture
‘Prison Culture is an attempt to document how the current prison industrial complex operates and to underscore the ways that it structures American society.’
Learning Together (while staying apart): Online Event Schedule
‘Haymarket Books is determined to offer a political response to the crisis, believing that our mission to support struggles for social and economic justice is more vital than ever. In collaboration with our authors and a range of partners, we are organizing an ongoing series of events to allow us to respond both to the coronavirus crisis itself, and to maintain our collective political, cultural, and social life in a manner that fosters struggle, solidarity, and debate.’
Cite Black Women
‘In November 2017, I started the Cite Black Women campaign—a movement that engages with social media and aesthetic representation (t-shirts) in order to push people to critically rethink the politics of knowledge production by engaging in a radical praxis of citation that acknowledges and honors Black women’s transnational intellectual production.’
the undercommons
fugitive planning & black study
‘In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique.’
Black Study, Black Struggle
‘What I offer here are a few observations and speculations about the movement, its self-conception, and its demands, many of which focus on making the university more hospitable for black students.’
Books to read about anti-racism
‘Several Antiracist Books Are Selling Out. Here's What Else Black Booksellers and Publishers Say You Should Read’
The Case for Reparations
‘Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.’