Mission Statement of \u27Black at Whittier\u27 Instagram, Summer 2020

This Instagram post serves as a mission statement for the Black at Whittier page, a non-affiliated forum meant for all Black Whittier College students, alumni, and community. This statement outlines the purpose and significance of the page: to magnify voices who describe the Black experience at Whittier College. We consider the time of the first post (June 24th) in relation to concurrent events in 2020—namely the Covid-19 pandemic and protests in response to the police killings of Black Americans—, and the content of the submissions to posit that race, discrimination, and patterns of institutional racism all contributed to the page’s existence. The striking aspect of this Instagram page—besides its creation during a time where no students were on campus—, is the similarity to previous Black Whittier College students’ grievances, particularly in 1968