Departmental Statement on Racial Violence and Systemic Racism

The Department of Sociology at Boston College shares in the global public outrage over the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, following those of many others at the hands of police officers. We condemn these acts of violence and the systemic racism that perpetuates such injustices. It is especially unbearable that these murders have occurred as coronavirus is disproportionately targeting Black, Latinx and Indigenous Americans, who are already suffering and grieving. And we note that these attacks come while increasing unemployment and economic collapse also hits with disparate impact. Rich bodies of sociological research document the long history that brings us to the current moment—the imperial project, the enslavement of Africans, the genocide of Indigenous people, the replacement of one system of enslavement with a second based on Jim Crow, the terror of lynching, mass incarceration and police violence. We stand against systemic racism in the strongest possible terms. It is time to build a truly equal society.