Anti-Racism at UD

In response to the continuing occurrence of violence and systemic racism throughout the nation and the ever-growing racial justice movement, Black Lives Matter, University of Delaware faculty, staff, and students came together to create a grassroots initiative, the UD Anti-Racism Initiative (UDARI), in order to address instances of racial prejudice and implicit bias on campus.

If you are interested in joining the Anti-Racism Initiative, please complete the UDARI Interest Form.

Goal: The goal of the UD Anti-Racism Initiative is to bring together like-minded individuals and groups to take action against systemic racism and contribute to the reduction of racial disparities on campus and in the larger community.

Mission: The UD Anti-Racism Initiative contributes to the University’s strong tradition of research, teaching, artistic practices, community engagement, and service by promoting racial equality and equity by challenging systemic racism and promoting antiracism.

Objectives: 

• Research: The Initiative will research and study how behavior, culture, history, and traditions contribute to and reinforce racism and racist ideologies. It will foster research that dismantles systemic racism in education, housing, health care, mass incarceration & criminal justice, climate, and environmental injustice, among others.
• Academic: It will utilize UD’s academic resources and creative activities to educate about anti-racism, to train about racial awareness and inclusivity, and serve as an information and resource collection and distribution hub.
• Interpersonal Development: The UD Anti-Racism Initiative will promote an environment that encourages intellectual curiosity and promotes critical thinking about racism and anti-racism at UD and larger society.  It will create opportunities for individuals to explore their racial self by thinking and acknowledging their own racialized behavior.
• Community Engagement: The Initiative will engage the University in addressing racial injustices in ways that will increase mutual reciprocity and respect among its growing ethnically and racially diverse student, faculty, and staff populations and with local, national, and global communities.
• Policies and Practices: UDARI aims to foster change and make the University more racially inclusive by identifying and eradicating structural and systemic institutional policies and practices that contribute to racial disparities in educational outcomes.

UDARI’s American Indian and Indigenous Relations committee has proposed a Living Land Acknowledgement for UD developed in consultation with tribal leadership of the Delaware watersheds, including: the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in 2021. We thank these leaders for their generosity.