The University of St. Thomas Libraries are deeply supportive of the Action Plan to Combat Racism and make the campus welcoming to all. As we ponder ways that we can support and enhance campuswide efforts, we first think of insuring that the libraries themselves are safe and welcoming places. We also work from one of our strengths: our collections, which represent the voices and perspectives of all, including those who have been silenced in the past.
If you were present at the all campus meeting one month ago, and heard Dean Vischer’s comments illustrating the many facets of structural racism in the United States and Minnesota, you might have noted that he was citing extensively data from Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Revised edition with a new foreword by Cornel West, New Press, 2012.) The University Libraries own several print copies of the book, as well as an electronic edition (usable by three readers at the same time.) Alexander recently wrote an article for the New York Times (where she is a regular columnist) in which she describes the implications of certain sentencing reforms which may be worse than the systems they intend to reform.(“The Newest Jim Crow”, New York times, 11/8/18.)
Other titles that support research in this area include:
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. (Richard Rothstein.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .R8185 2017
Author presentation (video)
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery & the Making of American Capitalism (ebook.) (Edward E. Baptist.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Author presentation (video)
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. (Carol Anderson.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .A5438 2016
Author presentation (video)
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. (Ibram X. Kendi.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .K358 2016
Author presentation (video)
White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race, 10th Anniversary Edition (ebook.) (Ian Haney Lopez.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Law Library: KF4755 .H36 2006
Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos, and Reality (ebook.) (Donald L. Fixico.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Author presentation (video)
The Libraries will be providing suggestions for readings that connect with the subjects covered by Tuesday Teach-Ins (sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences)
