Dear English Majors and Minors, I hope you are all safe and well during these trying times. I wanted to let you know that the English Department just posted a statement on our website in response to recent events. You can see it here: http://english.qc.cuny.edu/ And I'm pasting it below. Please take care and stay safe. all my best, Karen Weingarten Acting Chair and Associate Professor English Department Klapper Hall 602 Queens College, CUNY http://english.qc.cuny.edu ​ The English Department at Queens College condemns all forms of violence that target the lives of Black Americans and other people of color. As academics who study the literature, rhetoric, and writing of different periods and peoples, we recall the words of James Baldwin, who wrote “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we are literally criminals.” We therefore hold ourselves accountable for remembering the history of Black oppression in this country, and naming its connection to police brutality that targets Black people. We also see a direct link between the devaluing and defunding of public urban institutions of higher education, like CUNY, and state racism. As a department affirm our commitment to the work of anti-racism, through our teaching, service, and research. Black lives matter.​