Inclusion and Anti-Racism

The Honors College strives to promote full participation in the academic and social life of Mason and the Honors College community. We value diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, and all members of our community commit to a sense of purpose in treating everyone in a fair and equitable manner. 

The Honors College is committed to anti-racism and inclusive excellence. An anti-racist approach to higher education acknowledges the ways that individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural manifestations of racism against Black individuals and other people of color contribute to inequality and injustice in our classrooms, on our campuses, and in our communities. The Honors College aims to interrupt cycles of racism and to cultivate a more equitable, inclusive, and just environment for students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of all racial backgrounds.

To be anti-racist means:

• To make constant, conscious decisions to interrupt racism and cultivate equity, inclusion, and justice for people of all racial backgrounds, and in particular those from Black communities and other communities of color, who are most likely to bear the direct and indirect costs of systems of white supremacy;
• To interrogate histories of white supremacy and examine the ways in which these histories have impacted our individual beliefs, our interpersonal relationships, our institutional and structural policies and processes, and our entire society;
• To cultivate a practice of self-awareness and self-reflection that allows us to critically evaluate our own role in upholding white supremacy and identify the ways we can interrupt cycles of racism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels.

We acknowledge that racism can be unconscious or unintentional, and that identifying racism as an issue does not automatically mean those involved in the act are racist or intended the negative impact. And we acknowledge that, regardless of intent, racism impacts members of our community. We expect all members of our community to work to better understand these impacts and to address them.

We commit to cultivating an anti-racist approach to research, scholarship, and practice, and to developing a skillset rooted in principles of equity, inclusion, and justice that will carry our students, alumni, staff, and faculty throughout their lives.

The Honors College's antiracism statement was adapted from a statement prepared by Dr. Charles Chavis, Assistant Professor in the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter School of Peace and Conflict Resolution.