Tag: racism

Why do you see why people working in offices and black, Latino and Chinese working in dining halls or cleaning bathrooms…. even in the library I only see who’re people… what’s wrong with BC???

It IS pretty noticeable who does what on campus. It reflects national trends (https://bit.ly/bc-labor) and trends in higher education (https://bit.ly/3brUpgf). But that doesn’t make it OK. BC’s Office of Institutional Diversity is dedicated to addressing those sorts of problems (http://bit.ly/bc-oid) and many departments and programs have expressed similar goals. The Libraries are in the process of finalizing a strategic plan to implement our Values Statement on diversity and inclusion. (https://libguides.bc.edu/edi). Thank you for your feedback, and we’d love your continued help in keeping us accountable.

It sounds like you’ve had a bad experience here, and I’m sorry about that. A core Jesuit value is “cura personalis,” care for the person. If you’ve been subjected to racism you’ve felt the pain of that value failing you. Another core Jesuit value, Magis, involves striving to be better. To be better, we have to examine the places where we fail. BC is a school with thousands of people, each with their own feelings and experiences about race. It is likely there are individuals at BC who are racist. It is also likely that others participate unwittingly in structural racism. We all need to examine our own behaviors and rise to the challenge of caring for each other more mindfully.

BC definitely has it’s own problems with race. And it has a culture of preferring not to talk about problems. But BC is probably equally racist as most other long-extant institutions in America, no more or less – it’s a fundamental part of the makeup of this country unfortunately. The school is doing work to improve itself. The Office of Student Affairs is acting on a recent student survey that showed differences in satisfaction with BC life between students that identified as black vs. other races. Many departments (including ITS, the Provost, the Libraries, Res Life, and others) are at different stages of undertaking a renewed focus on how to better serve AHANA and other minority populations. It’s hard work that takes a long time unfortunately. But we want to be better.

BC probably doesn’t support systemic racism more or less than most other American institutions. Assumptions about race are inevitable in a nation with several hundred years of chattel slavery followed by 100 years of legally enforced racial laws (that ended during the living memories of Americans over 60). These assumptions take active attention to bring to light, and often take difficult conversations to dismantle. BC does make efforts through the Office of Institutional Diversity (bit.ly/BC-OID), and has publicly stated a commitment to nondiscrimination (bit.ly/BC-nondiscrimination). Please help BC maintain its promise by talking to the OID & other offices about deficiencies you’ve seen.

Systemic racism is endemic to the US and institutions in it. I’m not sure quite what acknowledging that fact at BC would look like. BC has an Office for Institutional Diversity (bit.ly/BC-OID) that grapples with institutional racism with programs & resources, and recognizes that faculty and staff of color and students of color deserve additional support to contend with living with racism, through diversity and affinity groups. Of course, there’s always more that can be done; that’s the nature of institutional racism. Please contact the OID or other campus offices with your ideas about what should be done.