Loyola University Maryland’s Department of English promotes a ‘Commitment to Anti-Racism’; claims that literature and the literary canon are steeped in ‘whiteness’ and used to ‘validate white supremacy’

SUMMARY

The Department of English at Loyola University Maryland promotes a “Commitment to Anti-Racism” which states that the “literary canons have been used to validate white supremacy,” that “whiteness” has been central to the “history and evolution of literary canons,” the idea of an “English Department” is rooted in “imperialism and Eurocentrism,” and the Department will “avoid centering the experiences of white students” in their teaching by “interrogating the presumed invisibility of whiteness in the classroom and the concept of the ‘universal reader’ as always being white and male.”

COMITTMENT TO ANTI-RACISM

The Department website states that it recognizes the “role faculty play in creating inclusive spaces” and in “actively challenging any form of white supremacy.” It goes on to say that “racism is based in white supremacy” and that the “literature and literary canons have been used to validate white supremacy.”

The Department lists “steps toward justice” including the acknowledgment of the “centrality of whiteness in the history and evolution of literary canons,” reflecting on “what it means to be called an ‘English Department,’ given the discipline’s roots in imperialism and Eurocentrism,” and “avoid centering the experiences of white students in our teaching by interrogating the presumed invisibility of whiteness in the classroom and the concept of the “universal reader” as always being white and male.”