Campus Resources
- University MinistryUniversity Ministry’s first priority is to provide the Dominican community with opportunities and resources to support and grow in the Dominican Order’s four pillars—Community, Service, Study and Prayer. We aim to create a welcoming and integrated environment for our students and to reach out to the wider community.
- Center for Cultural LiberationThe Center for Cultural Liberation exists to retain, support, and celebrate students from historically marginalized backgrounds. By fostering an inclusive campus climate that educates and challenges, the CCL upholds the longstanding social justice values of Dominican University.
- The Office of Diversity, Equity, and InclusionThe Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) empowers individual members of the Dominican community in their efforts to create a just and humane campus; ODEI is dedicated to assisting the community in discovering how to live together, inclusively.
- The Wellness Center's Counseling ServicesWe offer free counseling, stress management and wellness services.
The counseling staff is part of an interdisciplinary team of licensed health professionals and graduate interns who work together to support your optimal health and well-being. - Help CentralHelp Central provides assistance for anyone at DU with questions or concerns about their safety, well-being or respect during their University experience and how to file a report.
- Campus Reporting OptionsIf you have an immediate concern, please contact 911 or call Campus Safety at (708) 524-5999. Otherwise, please review link for reporting options.
Guiding Principles of #BLM
We are expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front.
We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.
We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.
We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.
The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.
-Entry from blacklivesmatter.com
What is Black Lives Matter?
Black Lives Matter is a global, chapter-based, member-led movement that began as a hashtag, a response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer, George Zimmerman. #BlackLivesMatter was the social media rallying cry of three black radical organizers, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. According to blacklivesmatter.com, “Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.” In 2014, following the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO, Black Lives Matter galvanized and organized a collective response, called the Black Life Matters Ride. More than 600 people from all over the country gathered to make two commitments: to provide support to the teams in and around St. Louis, and to return to their respective homes to spearhead local activism. Since then, Black Lives Matter has used its protest strategies to disrupt local politics as well as the campaign events of presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; activists learned to create opportunities to swap strategies, to avoid government surveillance, and to encrypt their smartphone communications. Time Magazine salutes Black Lives Matter's transformation from “an organic uprising” to “organized blocs with specific demands” that attend to issues of police brutality and injustice. Black Lives Matter has about 30 official chapters and by upholding their principles, new chapters can acquire a charter; the network is growing. In 2015, Black Lives Matter was on the short list for Time ‘s Person of the Year. The movement and its local chapters have garnered a wide range of responses to their collective call, from #alllivesmatter to the tragic events at Charlottesville, VA. Despite the counter-protests, Black Lives Matter continues to effect change and to introduce a vocabulary for confronting American society's various social ills.
-CREDO Entry from Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
Must access on campus or have DOM ID for off campus access
An interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter | Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi
Born out of a social media post, the Black Lives Matter movement has sparked discussion about race and inequality across the world. In this spirited conversation with Mia Birdsong, the movement's three founders share what they've learned about leadership and what provides them with hope and inspiration in the face of painful realities. Their advice on how to participate in ensuring freedom for everybody: join something, start something and "sharpen each other, so that we all can rise."
Reference Sources
- Black Lives Matter Research StarterBy Michael Ruth, Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2020
- Black Lives Matter 2013-From Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
- A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter MovementWritten by founder Alicia Garza for Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
BLM Articles
- The Black Lives Matter movement, crime and police brutality: Comparative study of New York Post and New York Daily NewsArticle written by Brian Chama for European Journal of American Culture, September 2019. FROM ABSTRACT - It is a comparative study that analyses the reportage by the tabloids New York Post and the New York Daily News. It focuses on the shooting of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old African American killed by a police officer Jason Van Dyke. It engages literature mainly from scholars on African American studies. It also interviews African Americans on their perception.
- Cop Fragility and Blue Lives MatterBy Frank Rudy Cooper for the University of Illinois Law Review, 2020. This Article illuminates a heretofore unrecognized source of police resistance to criticism by utilizing diversity trainer and New York Times best-selling author Robin DiAngelo's recent theory of white fragility. "White fragility" captures many whites' reluctance to discuss ongoing racism, or even that whiteness creates a distinct set of experiences and perspectives. White fragility is based on two myths: the ideas that one could be an unraced and purely neutral individual--false objectivity--and that only evil people perpetuate racial subordination--bad intent theory. Cop fragility is an analogous oversensitivity to criticism that blocks necessary conversations about race and policing.
When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.
Michel Martin interviews Patrisse Khan-Cullors for NPR regarding her published memoir called "When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir." Patrisse Khan-Cullors is one of the three women who in 2013 started using #BLM as an organizing tool to express their frustration, anger and pain over the violent deaths of unarmed black children and adults.
Here's a sneak peek into the 7-minute interview:
What she says to those who perceive Black Lives Matter as anti-white
"It's unequivocally not true. Black Lives Matter is really Black Lives Matter Too. It is not a phrase that is about excluding — it's a phrase that is about focus. We are focusing on black people because time and time again, we become the subjects of neglect."
