This Sunday, 21 March marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
We, as a University, are committed to the principles of equality of opportunity for all, of fairness and of inclusion and we accept that to be “not racist” is not enough, instead we must be actively anti-racist. To support this view, the Library has been doing important work to help challenge and dismantle racism.
We each have an individual responsibility to reflect and examine ourselves in the context of racial inequality and with the wonderful support of our students, the Library has created an Anti-Racist Reading List. Every book on the list was recommended by you, our students, to help you engage with this process. This idea originated as part of the University’s Good Global Citizen module during Foundation Week and was inspired by the work of Layla F Saad and the Chicago Public Library.
The list is made up of e-books and audio books with titles ranging from non-fiction materials to help us to address and reflect on our own behaviours and biases such as Ibram X. Kendi’s ‘How to Be an Antiracist’, to fictional novels that address the important issues of anti-racism and racial discrimination.
We encourage you to continue to engage with this reading list by exploring the titles, and if you have any further recommendations that you would like the Library to purchase, whether it is a text you have already read, or one you wish to read, please email ARreadinglist@liverpool.ac.uk.
The Library are also committed to supporting the work of academic departments in decolonising their curricula. Furthermore, as part of our commitment to supporting our collective aim of becoming an anti-racist University, the department of Libraries, Museums and Galleries has also secured funds to start a review of our Heritage collections located in the University’s Special Collections & Archives and our Museums and Galleries. This process includes reviewing the provenances, associated metadata, and discoverability of the collections in the context of the legacies of slavery and colonialism.
This project is still in the early stages of development, but we are committed to the importance of this work and will keep you informed of our progress. Watch this space.