The Department of Spanish and Portuguese honors the memories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, João Pedro (Brazil), and other victims of police brutality and systemic oppression that continue to target Black communities in the U.S. and other parts of the world. We condemn the racist and violent acts committed against African Americans and people of color and we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We strive to uplift Black communities both in Bloomington and throughout the world. We as a department are not immune to those same prejudices. We are committed to confronting racism whenever it is manifested and to educate others and ourselves to continue fighting against institutional racism.

We reaffirm that as an interdisciplinary, multi-ethnic, and multicultural community, we strive for racial equality at all levels of our work. We embrace our diversity as an enriching opportunity to understand the relativity of our own cultural norms and their intersectional relationship with the struggle for racial justice in the current moment. We celebrate education as a vehicle for more inclusive practices in our research, teaching, and service. We recognize that racism is a societal concern that implicates all of us in our professional and personal lives, and we acknowledge our responsibility in creating and maintaining an academic community in which all feel welcome. 

The following links provide additional anti-racist statements from professional associations with which our department is affiliated, along with links with resources

NOTE: statements and resources should be hyperlinked via the organization or website name.  

Latin American Studies Association: 
(https://lasaweb.org/en/news/lasa/contra/racismo/sistematico/americas/)

Linguistics Society of America:
(https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/lsa-statement-race) 

Academics for Black Survival and Wellness (https://www.academics4blacklives.com/)

Modern Language Association:
(https://www.mla.org/About-Us/Governance/Executive-Council/Executive-Council-Actions/2020/MLA-Statement-Deploring-Systemic-Racism)

The following links provide information about various initiatives at IU in which departmental members have participated: 

Confronting Racism: Conversations on Systemic Racism and Protest (https://artsandhumanities.indiana.edu/virtual-ah/confronting-racism.html)