Black Lives Matter

  Reflect and Respond
  • How can this principle guide your efforts to support Black students and their experiences in your classroom or workplace?
  • What changes can you make to incorporate the mission of Black Lives Matter into your educational or professional practices?

, founded in 2013 by , is a global human rights movement addressing violence against Black communities and advocating for systemic change. With 40 chapters and programs like #WhatMatters2020 and Arts+Culture, the movement works to combat white supremacy, support Black innovation, and center Black joy.

The Movement for Black Lives (), launched in 2014, unites Black organizations to develop strategies for political, cultural, and policy change.


In the Classroom

Educators like and emphasize bringing the Black Lives Matter movement into classrooms to create inclusive, equitable spaces that validate and support Black students' experiences. This is particularly vital at traditionally White institutions (TWIs*), where addressing racial inequities can benefit all students.

Tuitt, Haynes, and Stewart propose a framework for inclusive teaching, guided by principles such as:

  • Intentional praxis
  • Amplifying lived experiences
  • Diverse and interdisciplinary content
  • Anti-racist, equity-driven approaches
  • Identity-affirming learning environments

Resources like the , , and provide essential historical context for understanding race relations.

Creating inclusive spaces requires educators to engage in self-education, listen to Black students, and address racial equity explicitly in syllabi, course content, and classroom policies. This ongoing work demands both courage and resilience.

Engaging in this work, instead of standing by and leaving students to navigate the racially charged moments by themselves, involves reading, self-educating, and deeply reflecting on the cultural conditioning that has led us to this moment. Listen to Black students on our campus, who are asking for learning environments free of microaggressions and tokenizing, and for anti-racist training for faculty and staff. Explicitly address your commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement in your syllabus, your rules of engagement and the content for your course. And lastly, as the principles above illustrate, remember that this work requires courage as well as resilience. 


*Tuitt advocates for the use of “traditionally” as opposed to “predominantly” white institutions because “PWI" [predominantly White institution] would not include those higher education institutions whose campus populations have been predominantly white but now have students of color in the numeric majority. I argue that even though institutions like MIT and Berkeley have more students of color than Whites on campus, the culture, tradition, and values found in those institutions remain traditionally White. From