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Dear All,
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<div class="">If you were not able to participate in the vigil on June 2, I highly encourage watching the talks. Many of the speakers were powerful and moving.</div>
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<div class="">Alan<br class="">
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Alan D. Grossman<br class="">
Professor and Head<br class="">
Department of Biology<br class="">
Building 68-530<br class="">
M.I.T.<br class="">
Cambridge, MA 02139<br class="">
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(617) 253-1515<br class="">
<a href="mailto:adg@mit.edu" class="">adg@mit.edu</a><br class="">
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<div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div>
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">From:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">"L. Rafael Reif" <<a href="mailto:office-of-the-president@mit.edu" class="">office-of-the-president@mit.edu</a>><br class="">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Last night's vigil</b><br class="">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">June 3, 2020 at 4:51:59 PM EDT<br class="">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">To:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">Alan D Grossman <<a href="mailto:adg@mit.edu" class="">adg@mit.edu</a>><br class="">
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">To the members of the MIT community,</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Our community held<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AUgAAAKKB_sAAcrjY_QAAAA86r0AAAAAGqoAJMDbAAiQzwBe2A1v0kw6uUqiS2qJryNbqU-fNQAIIWc/1/0V3EYJOoJPg9hV71rAoTYA/aHR0cDovL3dlYi5taXQuZWR1L3dlYmNhc3QvdmlnaWwv" style="text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(0, 86, 238); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class=""><u class="">a
vigil last night</u></span></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that felt historic. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">The voices of the 15 community members who spoke were so intensely moving that I write now to encourage any of you who did not have the opportunity to watch
the live vigil to take the time to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AUgAAAKKB_sAAcrjY_QAAAA86r0AAAAAGqoAJMDbAAiQzwBe2A1v0kw6uUqiS2qJryNbqU-fNQAIIWc/2/atqHoWnoMkRyQCf3nptS1w/aHR0cDovL3dlYi5taXQuZWR1L3dlYmNhc3QvdmlnaWwv" style="text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(0, 86, 238); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class=""><u class="">watch
the recorded webcast</u></span></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">I am deeply grateful to all the students, staff and faculty who spoke with such power, and especially to our Institute Community and Equity Officer, John
Dozier, for leading the team that brought us the gift of this gathering.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">On the subject of institutional racism and systemic injustice, this is a moment of reckoning for our nation, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AUgAAAKKB_sAAcrjY_QAAAA86r0AAAAAGqoAJMDbAAiQzwBe2A1v0kw6uUqiS2qJryNbqU-fNQAIIWc/3/YyzxxgXKp7e4MTeC1ufDvw/aHR0cDovL3ByZXNpZGVudC5taXQuZWR1L3NwZWVjaGVzLXdyaXRpbmcvbWlubmVhcG9saXMtb3VyLW5hdGlvbi1hbmQtb3VyLWNvbW11bml0eQ" style="text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(0, 86, 238); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class=""><u class="">we
continue to have serious work to do at MIT</u></span></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Below my signature and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AUgAAAKKB_sAAcrjY_QAAAA86r0AAAAAGqoAJMDbAAiQzwBe2A1v0kw6uUqiS2qJryNbqU-fNQAIIWc/4/TrgTf6H1jdyEOhxsoetZjQ/aHR0cDovL3ByZXNpZGVudC5taXQuZWR1L3NwZWVjaGVzLXdyaXRpbmcvbWl0LWNvbW11bml0eS12aWdpbA" style="text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(0, 86, 238); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class=""><u class="">here,
you will find my remarks from the vigil</u></span></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">. They begin to frame the challenges before us.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Now, I expect us to intensify our ongoing work – drawing on findings, advice and recommendations contributed by members of our community over many years,
and most recently by a group of student leaders – to develop a strategic plan on diversity, equity and inclusion and put it into practice. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Living up to our ideals as a community is work we can only do together – and I believe we must.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Sincerely,</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">L. Rafael Reif</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;" class=""><b class="">Remarks at the MIT Community Vigil </b></span><br class="">
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;" class=""><b class="">June 2, 2020</b></span></h1>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">I am deeply honored and humbled to be asked to speak today. In the face of tragedy, it is always important to come together. And coming together
has never felt more important than now, when we must be so far apart. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">I wish more than anything that I could be in person with all of you. And I wish especially that you could be in person with each other, because
it may be the deepest human comfort, in a time of suffering, to know that we are not alone.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">We come together now because we know, and we insist, that black lives matter. That black lives are worthy and complex and inspiring. That every
black person is unique and beautifully human, and that every black person of every age, everywhere, deserves dignity and decency and respect.</span></p>
<p class="text-build-content" style="display: block; margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 22px;">
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">And of course, we come together because we know that these truths, and the basic humanity of people of color, are violated in our nation every
day. Last week, the example that shocked the nation was the brutal killing of George Floyd. But so many have suffered before him over weeks and decades and centuries. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Our nation is in terrible trouble. And part of that trouble is the systemic racism that is destroying us from the inside. A society that tolerates
official brutality thereby, of course, encourages it. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">If we hope to live in a society that is better than its worst impulses, we must use this awful moment to drive and accelerate positive change. </span></p>
<ul class="">
<li class=""><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">We must begin by insisting on full accountability for the officers involved in killing Mr. Floyd. </span></li><li class=""><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">We need to make clear to anyone who doubts it that the rage and anguish unleashed by his murder are deeply justified. </span></li><li class=""><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">We need to support the current protests, which are, overwhelmingly filled with peaceful people begging for justice and peace. </span></li><li class=""><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">And, to address systemic racism in policing and criminal justice, we must press for systemic reform. </span></li></ul>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">I hope we can join together in doing those outward things. But we also have work to do closer to home.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">All of us who can count on the advantages of education, money, power and even safety in our homes and neighborhoods – all of us with those advantages
benefit, every day, from a society with a racist history and a racist present. And MIT is part of that society. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">This is our community. I believe it is a wonderful community. But it is our responsibility to make it better. So it is more important than ever
that we continue and accelerate the efforts that are already underway with the leadership of our ICEO, John Dozier, to develop a strategic plan for diversity, equity and inclusion, so that as a community we can live up to our highest ideals.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">I have enormous faith in and love for the MIT community. In our online graduation celebration last week, I was overwhelmed by the images of our
old familiar life together and of the incredible beauty of all those faces. Faces of every complexion. Your faces. On campus. Working and playing and thinking and making together. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">It is difficult to face this moment in our forced separation without even the consolation of being able to embrace or to wipe each other’s tears. </span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">To those of you who are African American or of African descent: I know that I cannot know what you are feeling. But I can stand with you. I do
stand with you. And I am certain all the people of MIT do too.</span></p>
<p class="text-build-content" style="display: block; margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 22px;">
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" class="">Mine is not the voice that most needs to be heard today. So we will turn now to our elected student leaders.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" class="">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span><br class="">
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" class="">77 Massachusetts Ave | Cambridge, MA 02139</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" class="">This e-mail has been sent to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:adg@mit.edu" class="">adg@mit.edu</a>.</span></p>
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