Theory of Transformation: Anti-Racism Aspirations
Students, faculty, and staff will demonstrate knowledge, values, and skills for identifying and dismantling racist structures, systems, and behaviors.
“The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’… The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it—and then dismantle it.” – Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Anti-Racist
A St. Olaf education aims to build capacity for systemic change. Students can develop knowledge, values, and skills for the work of anti-racism through their engagement with the St. Olaf curriculum, the co-curriculum, their own core commitments, and their communities. Faculty and staff can develop their capacities through professional development, personal practice, and collective action. The focus of this outcome is not only on what individuals come to know, understand and value with respect to racism and anti-racism, but also on how they use what they have learned to transform institutions – including our own.
Additional details about the college’s work to develop individual and institutional capacity for anti-racism are available in the “Action Domains” section of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Theory of Transformation.