#AntiracismatRIT urges RIT community members to pledge to take action

Rochester Institute of Technology is launching a social media campaign to urge members of the RIT community to take a stand against racism, demonstrate ways to be antiracist, or explain what steps they will take to become antiracist. The campaign, devised by RIT Director of Diversity Education Taj Smith, launched on Monday with the hashtag #AntiracismatRIT.

The campaign will include a series of statements by white men faculty and staff committing to be antiracist. Smith said there are several important reasons for asking white men on campus to make this pledge. He said that white men tend to participate less frequently in diversity and inclusion training and education opportunities on campus. He also said it is important for RIT to continue to demonstrate our institutional and individual commitments to diversity for the long haul in concrete ways and to provide more positive antiracist white men role models for our undergraduate population.

“The events of this spring and summer have shown it’s not enough for white people, especially white men, to just claim they are not racist,” said Smith. “To eradicate racism, we need to take a stand, to be actively antiracist. So the campaign is simple. We have reached out to people who we consider allies and asked them to publicly demonstrate that they are or plan to be antiracists.”

All members of the RIT community who are sincere in their commitment can join the campaign with a special Facebook frame. When updating your Facebook profile picture, click “Add Frame” and search for “antiracism” and “RIT.”