SIAT Anti-Racism Statement

 
The School of Interactive Arts and Technology condemns all forms of racism. We stand with all Indigenous, Black, Asian, South Asian, Latin American, Latinx, Muslim, and all People of Colour—including our students, our colleagues, their families, friends and communities—who bear the weight of systemic racism. 

We recognize that the myriad of anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, anti-Asian, and anti-Muslim attacks that jammed our daily news and social media feeds in 2020-2021 are not new. We recognize that these acts of racial violence have been perpetrated for centuries, systematically obscured, omitted, silenced or erased from our historical and cultural records. 

As Simon Fraser University commits to the challenging work of EDI, Reconciliation and Decolonization, our school too must look inward. We recognize that anti-racism work is an on-going process. We recognize the limitations of our language and categories. We recognize that symbolic gestures are not enough. We recognize that this work is important and necessary for the psycho-social-emotional well-being of the school. We recognize this work is ongoing. 

We commit to building and sustaining an inclusive and safe community for our students, faculty and staff. This requires each of us to examine our own privilege - be it race, age, sexual orientation, religion, disability, gender, mental health, marital status, socioeconomic status. We must recognize the ways our society privileges some communities over others and how those assumptions find their way into our work and workspaces. 

We commit to addressing systemic inequities across our curriculum, classrooms and workplaces. We commit to the ongoing work necessary to dismantle colonial structures and systems of racism that exist in our school, Simon Fraser University, and the communities we live in. 

Resources

• SFU Stands in Solidarity Against Racism: Statement from the President
• SFU's Resources and calls to action against anti-Black racism and violence
• SFU’s Resources and calls to action against anti-Asian racism and violence
• SFU Department of English's Black Lives Matter Reading List