The Past is Present
Dismantling Living Legacies of White Supremacy
In this issue of Athenaeum Review, the School of Arts and Humanities’ “Dismantling Living Legacies of White Supremacy” teach-in collective offers a glimpse of its recent anti-racist work on and beyond campus. The teach-in series was created at UT Dallas during a time of global activism for anti-racism and racial justice. The fact that white supremacy’s legacy is alive in higher education and on our own campus was accentuated at a university town hall following George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. At that town hall, university leadership responded to a student question about the under-recognition of Juneteenth in a way that appeared to draw an equivalence between this holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved persons in Texas, and the state-mandated recognition of “Confederate heroes.” What lessons does our own institution need to learn about the histories of race and racism in Texas?, we wondered. What lessons do we need to learn about present efforts to support racial and other forms of justice in our own communities? The teach-in organizers recognize that the academy has much to learn about the living legacies of white supremacy, including in higher education at large and on our own campus in particular. We also recognize the wealth of knowledge in our communities: the practical expertise of people doing anti-racist work and the historical and cultural knowledge of scholars and artists. The teach-in series taps into this wealth, featuring conversations and calls to action with faculty, staff, students and community leaders.