06/16/2020

Connecting by Reading

A selection of books about race and racism, part 1

As scholarly communicators, we know that we learn from each other and about each other through reading. There is no shortage of books about racism and anti-racism. Today and tomorrow we will feature reviews of books for your consideration in this time of listening and reflection. Please also read last week’s statement from the SSP Board of Directors and Co-Chairs of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, “Reaffirming our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Jocelyn Dawson: How to Be Less Stupid about Race by Crystal Fleming, has a title that speaks to what seems to be, from a look at The New York Times bestseller list, the collective goal of much of book-buying society today. Fleming’s book addresses, in an accessible, witty and unsparing way, the unconscionable gaps in the teaching of race and history in the United States.

Fleming offers the reader crash courses in critical race theory, dismantling white supremacy, intersectionality, neoliberalism in the age of President Barack Obama, and the importance of listening to black women. She writes, “as long as the endemic, systemic nature of white supremacy is successfully minimized or denied, as long as ‘conversations about race’ are mainly about individual attitudes, prejudice, or the actions of a few extremists, then attention is drawn away from the structures and pattern of racial inequality hiding in plain sight.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Scholarly Kitchen.