Universities nationwide incorporate BLM, 'anti-racism' into their libraries
Universities across the U.S. have begun offering Black Lives Matter and "anti-racist" resources in their libraries.
Campus Reform identified just five instances at colleges from Arizona to South Carolina.
Across the country, college libraries have begun to offer “anti-racism” resources.
Campus Reform identified 5 instances of library anti-racist guides being offered at American colleges and universities. These guides seek to help students learn about the racism that is allegedly endemic to American society, as well as what to do about it.
George Mason University released a guide explaining “Anti-Racism, #BlackLivesMatter, and Civic Action.” The guide included categories such as “Anti-Racism and White Supremacy,” “Protest and Civic Action,” “Black Feminist Thought”, and “Prisons, Police, and Abolition.”
The Anti-Racism and White Supremacy category guides readers toward resources such as Me and White Supremacy, How to Be an Anti-Racist, and The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.
Within the Black Feminist category, GMU lists books such as Critical Race Theory, which describes the transformation of “law, race, and racial power” and How We Get Free.
Arizona State University released its “Black Lives Matter” guide to provide resources “for research as well as personal education.” In the library’s BLM statement, the college’s library argued that “libraries are not neutral in the fight against systemic racism and white supremacy.”
The guide provides “resources for behavior change”, “courses and talks”, “films”, “history of injustice and inequality in America”, “books,” and “resources for K-12 learners.”
The K-12 guide offers resources such as the Anti-Defamation League’s lesson and “action steps” in response to the death of George Floyd. BLM coloring pages are also on the page.
ASU’s book list includes readings from Boston University Center for Anti-Racist Research Director Ibram Kendi, former Communist Party leader Angela Davis, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors.
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3. University of Wisconsin - Madison
UW-Madison’s library has a section devoted to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This guide focuses on the “seemingly intractable” effect of “racism, bigotry, discrimination, and force.” The guide is created for “those who want to be deeply informed about matters of race, systemic racism and anti-racism.”
The guide points readers to several organizations and initiatives related to racism, as well as several UW-Madison resources like its diversity forum.
The guide directs individuals toward several books including White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Danyna Matthew, and I’m Still Here by Austin Brown.
It also provides links to several other book lists.
Illinois State University offers an extensive guide, saying that “Milner Library supports the anti-racist, anti-fascist activism driven into the national conversation by the Black Lives Matter movement.”
ISU heralds the guide as a “starting point: to introduce people to” queer; disability; intersectionality frameworks and feminist; critical theories.”
The guide offers book recommendations on anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti- Latino, anti-Arab, and anti-Asian racism history. It also provides links to several scholarly articles, movies, and BLM advocacy organizations.
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5. University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina introduced a slightly less extensive guide, giving readers a few different readings related to Race, “LGBTQIA+”, and diversity in higher education.
While it offers many common books, such as How to be an Antiracist, it also includes Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to do it, and So You Want to Talk About Race.
The guide directs readers to the New York Times’ debunked 1619 Project podcast, which falsely claimed that America was founded to preserve slavery.
Follow the author of this article: John Hanson
