Statement on Systemic Racism

We, the staff of the PLU Counseling Center, stand against systemic racism, police brutality, and the injustice visited upon the bodies, hearts, and minds of people of color individually and in our communities.

We recognize these injustices are rooted in longstanding history, perpetuated by systems, and insidious throughout our nation, our local communities, and our beloved PLU.

We acknowledge that our discipline of psychology and our community of mental health practitioners have participated in and been complicit in this process and, therefore, we are responsible to make actionable changes.

PLU Counseling Center staff commit to facing the reality of racism and our systemic and personal participations in it, embracing the discomfort of engaging it, and holding each other accountable to concrete actions that lead to change.

We commit ourselves to:

  • Working to adopt an anti-racist lens in our clinical work;
  • Reviewing our policies and practices within our Counseling Center to ensure that they increase diversity and inclusion;
  • Implementing on-going training and accountability for knowledge, understanding and skills for the work of anti-racism.

We recognize that these commitments are steps in a longer road.  It is not one day, one statement, or one act that will be sufficient for the needed transformation.  It will require our ongoing humility, learning, and action.