Northwestern University Athletics
Letter To The Wildcats Community
6/3/2020 12:30:00 PM | General
Wildcats,
It is enraging and unfathomable that it took the senseless death of another unarmed black man, George Floyd, to initiate challenging, revealing and essential conversations across the nation, around the world and here at home.
On Friday, I privately shared my personal thoughts with our Northwestern family of student-athletes, coaches and staff.
Since that time, we listened.
We heard many of our Black student-athletes and other members of our community share horrifying, deeply personal experiences with racism in their lives.
And it has become clear that our department often has failed.
Whether they've been small, quiet mistakes or large, loud missteps, we must be better at identifying and eliminating the frequent indignities which define white privilege.
Racism, racial violence, police brutality and systemic injustice toward the Black community cannot be tolerated, and cannot be ignored. They will not go away until each of us acknowledges and accepts our individual responsibility to dismantle deeply entrenched systems of oppression. Make no mistake: we must be active participants in this fight, and it starts with us.
Silence is unacceptable but words are worthless without action. We do not have all the answers yet, but we are committed to continue listening, learning and, most importantly, acting.
We will not stand quietly on the sidelines.
James J. Phillips, Ph.D
Combe Family Vice President
Athletics and Recreation
Northwestern University
It is enraging and unfathomable that it took the senseless death of another unarmed black man, George Floyd, to initiate challenging, revealing and essential conversations across the nation, around the world and here at home.
On Friday, I privately shared my personal thoughts with our Northwestern family of student-athletes, coaches and staff.
Since that time, we listened.
We heard many of our Black student-athletes and other members of our community share horrifying, deeply personal experiences with racism in their lives.
And it has become clear that our department often has failed.
Whether they've been small, quiet mistakes or large, loud missteps, we must be better at identifying and eliminating the frequent indignities which define white privilege.
Racism, racial violence, police brutality and systemic injustice toward the Black community cannot be tolerated, and cannot be ignored. They will not go away until each of us acknowledges and accepts our individual responsibility to dismantle deeply entrenched systems of oppression. Make no mistake: we must be active participants in this fight, and it starts with us.
Silence is unacceptable but words are worthless without action. We do not have all the answers yet, but we are committed to continue listening, learning and, most importantly, acting.
We will not stand quietly on the sidelines.
James J. Phillips, Ph.D
Combe Family Vice President
Athletics and Recreation
Northwestern University
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