May 25, 2021

Dear Students and Colleagues,

One year ago today, the brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer captured on video for the nation and world to witness the racist violence that has long been a daily threat to Black and brown people in our country. It energized the Black Lives Matter movement and helped bring about an overdue national reckoning with the enduring legacy of slavery and racial segregation that reaches back centuries. The Drexel community joined this national effort to both see our past more clearly and do the hard work it will take for us to live up to our nation’s founding promise of democracy, justice and true equality for all.

Despite some hopeful progress over the past year, the systemic racism so starkly revealed in the Floyd case, and far too many others, remains very much with us. So we understand that this anniversary may renew the anger, frustration and fear many rightly feel over the enduring racial injustice and inequality both reflected and worsened by the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and brown communities in our city and country.

At a moment when we are also seeing the disturbing rise of both antisemitic and anti-Asian harassment and violence, we can only become the “beloved community” that the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis envisioned by collectively embracing what we know will be the ongoing work of not only recognizing the history of marginalization and pain felt by so many, but also supporting one another as a community dedicated to building a more just, inclusive and peaceful future for everyone.

Sincerely,

John Fry
President