Racial Reckoning

Collecting the Mason community's experiences

Racial Reckoning is a response to the mass protests following the police-involved killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks this spring and summer of 2020. These events are part of a long history of racism in the United States. The end of the Civil War and American slavery did not bring equality for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Today, unarmed BIPOC encounter individual, institutional, and systemic racism in their everyday lives, and compared to white people, are disproportionately likely to be stopped, falsely arrested, and killed by the police.

This Omeka site seeks to collect, preserve, and present the stories from  the broader George Mason community. These narratives will highlight the personal memories and digitally-born materials generated or inspired by protest actions against racism and white supremacy.  Since COVID-19 dispersed the community, and also due to academic intercessions, documenting this moment means capturing experiences on- or off-campus, in another city, state, or country.

So if you are a Mason student, staff, of faculty member and experienced a protest away from campus, your experience is part of this story.

Here are some digital artifacts you could contribute

• An audio recording, like a short voice memo, that records a memory of your experience

• Photos of Black Lives Matter Plaza murals, fencing, and signs in Washington, DC,  or of Confederate statues in Richmond with graffiti

• A PDF of an article about these events that moved you

• Materials that show reactions to statues or memorials of slaveholders, such as the George Mason IV statue on campus, or efforts to reclaim or reinterpret these spaces and monuments

• An image of a book or resource that helped you learn about the history of racism, discrimination, or white privilege

• A screenshot of your own social media posts from the time relating to these events

• Pictures of protest posters, masks, and other material

Let's respect everyone's privacy. Please do not add materials that show someone else's likeness.

Contribute your experience here.