As a student-powered program, we strongly oppose bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination in all forms, including racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, and sizeism in the workplace and in the world. We are dedicated to fostering community, opportunity, and respect for all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, identities, and abilities. To demonstrate our commitment, we actively engage in ongoing dialogue addressing anti-bias and anti-racist learning.
We believe in creating safe and inclusive spaces for everyone, within our internship program, and in the broader community. We will not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, or any ideologies that seek to deny equal rights to all human beings.
While our program actively includes individuals with marginalized identities, we acknowledge that our team is predominantly white in a predominantly white university setting, which gives us privilege in our business relationships and daily work. We understand our responsibility to leverage our privilege to promote equitability in our industry by hiring, promoting, working with, and supporting Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized groups in our community.
We recognize that our program operates on Western Kentucky University’s campus: We are on the unceded lands of forcibly displaced Indigenous and immigrant peoples, and on land historically denied and forcibly taken from black businesses and homes including the community of Jonesville. We acknowledge these injustices and pledge to learn how we can help to alleviate their continuing effects.
We understand that we are not immune to making mistakes or causing harm as we navigate our privilege and socialization. We prioritize impact over intent and hold ourselves accountable for our actions and emotions. We commit to being open to feedback and critique, accepting opportunities to learn and do better, with gratitude and humility.
We believe that actions speak louder than words, and we are actively working on the following action items to demonstrate our commitment to promoting inclusivity and equity:
Actively seeking out and hiring BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized individuals
Providing learning opportunities to our team to promote anti-racist and anti-bias learning
Work to prevent the non-consensual and/or misappropriate use of cultural elements for commodification or profit purposes in our creative work – including symbols, art, language, customs, etc.
Regularly assessing and evaluating our practices for areas of improvement
Engaging in ongoing learning and education to better understand and address systemic oppression and injustice.
Imagewest works to align with these core values in all its interactions and operations, from mentoring and internships to client relationships and creative work.
Thoughts, feedback, and critique may be sent to kara.williamsglenn@wku.edu.