{"id":13476,"date":"2020-06-01T12:28:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T16:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=13476"},"modified":"2022-03-21T16:15:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:15:01","slug":"systemic-racism-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/systemic-racism-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from President Gonzalez on Systemic Racism and Injustice in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear K Community,<\/p>\n

As an institution that puts civic engagement at the heart of its mission, and as a community that works tirelessly toward justice, the senseless killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others hits us at our core.<\/p>\n

When we watch the images in the news of George Floyd\u2019s murder, we are witnessing the deadly consequences of systemic racism on the Black community and other communities of color. The outrage, pain, fear and sorrow are immeasurable. To all of our Black students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members, we mourn with you, and we stand in solidarity with you against racism, violence and injustice.<\/p>\n

As we reflect on the protests this weekend and all the work that needs to be done, I am committed to continuing our efforts on diversity and inclusion at K. Creating institutional and cultural change is a slow process\u2014often too slow\u2014and it\u2019s imperative that we continue to work toward a community where everyone feels welcome and safe on campus.<\/p>\n

It is also important that we carry on with community partnerships and curricular and co-curricular experiences that address structural barriers and inequality in our larger society. Our graduates are among leading voices fighting for issues like access to health care, solutions to gun violence, job access, food and farming justice\u2014and their experiences as K students formed the foundation of so much of their work. Our educational mission to foster enlightened leadership has never felt more critical.<\/p>\n

More immediately, I encourage everyone in the K community to support our students, colleagues and friends of color. Take care of one another. Speak out against racism and bias. Listen to and lift up voices of color. And students, please don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to the Counseling Center<\/a> if you need someone to talk to during these difficult times. You can call them at 269.337.7191, or you can contact Dr. Kenlana Ferguson at Kenlana.Ferguson@kzoo.edu<\/a>. Resources are also available to employees through our Employee Assistance Program. Connect confidentially by calling 1.800.854.1446 (multi-lingual) or by visiting www.unum.com\/lifebalance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Saludos,<\/p>\n

Jorge G. Gonzalez<\/a><\/p>\n

President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear K Community, As an institution that puts civic engagement at the heart of its mission, and as a community that works tirelessly toward justice, the senseless killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others hits us at our core. When we watch the images in the news of George Floyd\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":13481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-13476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institutional-announcements"],"yoast_head":"\r\nRacism and Injustice in the U.S. - News and Events - Kalamazoo College<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When we watch the images in the news, we are witnessing the deadly consequences of systemic racism on the Black community and other communities of color.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/systemic-racism-statement\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Message from President Gonzalez on Systemic Racism and Injustice in the U.S.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we watch the images in the news, we are witnessing the deadly consequences of systemic racism on the Black community and other communities of color.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/systemic-racism-statement\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-01T16:28:58+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T20:15:01+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/06\/stand-against-racism.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Message from President Gonzalez on Systemic Racism and Injustice in the U.S.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/systemic-racism-statement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/systemic-racism-statement\/\",\"name\":\"Racism and Injustice in the U.S. - 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The outrage, pain, fear and sorrow are immeasurable. To all of our Black students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members, we mourn with you, and we stand in solidarity with you against racism, violence and injustice.<\/p>\n<p>As we reflect on the protests this weekend and all the work that needs to be done, I am committed to continuing our efforts on diversity and inclusion at K. Creating institutional and cultural change is a slow process\u2014often too slow\u2014and it\u2019s imperative that we continue to work toward a community where everyone feels welcome and safe on campus.<\/p>\n<p>It is also important that we carry on with community partnerships and curricular and co-curricular experiences that address structural barriers and inequality in our larger society. Our graduates are among leading voices fighting for issues like access to health care, solutions to gun violence, job access, food and farming justice\u2014and their experiences as K students formed the foundation of so much of their work. Our educational mission to foster enlightened leadership has never felt more critical.<\/p>\n<p>More immediately, I encourage everyone in the K community to support our students, colleagues and friends of color. Take care of one another. Speak out against racism and bias. Listen to and lift up voices of color. And students, please don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to the <a href=\"https:\/\/counseling.kzoo.edu\/\">Counseling Center<\/a> if you need someone to talk to during these difficult times. You can call them at 269.337.7191, or you can contact Dr. Kenlana Ferguson at <a href=\"mailto:Kenlana.Ferguson@kzoo.edu\">Kenlana.Ferguson@kzoo.edu<\/a>. Resources are also available to employees through our Employee Assistance Program. Connect confidentially by calling 1.800.854.1446 (multi-lingual) or by visiting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unum.com\/lifebalance\">www.unum.com\/lifebalance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Saludos,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/about\/gonzalez\/\">Jorge G. Gonzalez<\/a><\/p>\n<p>President<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13476"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13480,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13476\/revisions\/13480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13476"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=13476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}