STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY AND COMMMITMENT TO JUSTICE
Institutionalized racism and violence against African Americans and other minorities have been part of our society for centuries. The brutal killing of George Floyd was one of many acts of violence against black lives, but it has created a tipping point, sparking protests nationwide, and, along with them, the recognition that our minds, our society, and our institutions have to change fundamentally to address racial injustice. The Fordham Urban Consortium stands in solidarity with the protestors and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Fordham Urban Consortium is an interdisciplinary, university-wide research consortium, where we work to understand cities not from just one academic perspective, but from the recognition that it takes multiple disciplinary angles and perspectives to understand our cities’ challenges—and their promise. Cities are not just containers of social interaction, but they are true incubators of social relations, and, sometimes, of societal change. The current movement started in our nation’s biggest cities, but has since spread around the world, as well as into rural communities across the country, demanding justice and change. In the light of these protests and their focus on ending violence against black bodies, and the institutionalized racial disadvantages facing Black, indigenous, and people of color, we, the members of the Fordham Urban Consortium, reaffirm our commitment to confronting these injustices in our research and teaching, as well as in our daily lives.
