police car with flashing lights at night in city

DEI Speaker Series panel discusses actions to address structural racism

On October 26, 2020, Philadelphia police fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man, after his family had called for an ambulance because he was having a mental health crisis. Wallace, who had a history of such episodes, held a knife. The killing set off angry protests in the city. It also spurred conversations about the intersection between structural racism in policing and the often inadequate way that cities handle emergency response to mental health situations.  In January, a panel of Temple faculty and guest experts discussed these issues in a video webinar...
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social justice
Alumni
Collaborative on Community Inclusion
Ashley Stewart

Q&A: Ashley Stewart explains how social workers can work against racial injustice and toward social change

For Ashley Stewart, assistant professor of instruction and MSW online program coordinator in the School of Social Work, the profession of social work is in a moment of unprecedented opportunity. She teaches and writes about issues such as race-based traumatic stress and identity-based oppression, and she tells her students that social work is all about social change. The upheavals over equal justice that the nation has been experiencing this year have brought to the forefront conversations about long-standing, racially oppressive social structures and institutions. Social work...
Racism
Faculty
School of Social Work
Social justice
philadelphia skyline

From the dean: On racism and public health

Recent events have laid bare the effects of centuries of unjust treatment of Black communities in the United States. The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor—among countless others, many of whom will never be known widely—and continued institutional violence aimed at Black individuals are deeply disturbing. At the Temple University College of Public Health, we are committed to social justice and stand in solidarity with those calling for equal rights and positive change. We unequivocally denounce racism, both structural and individualized. It has no plac...
Social justice
Racism