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One Book, One U 2021

So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo

So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo

This year's One Book, One U selection is So you want to talk about race.

One Book, One U Common Reading Program

The One Book, One U program selects a book for each Spring semester to provide a shared educational experience in our university community.  Find information on upcoming events as well as research resources, dicussion guides, and more!

Find a copy of the book in a library!

If you are a member of the UM community, use the links below to get access to the ebook and audio book:
If you are a member of the South Florida community, check your local library to find a copy of the ebook available for check out.

Racial Justice Featured List

Find more resources on racial justice in the UML collections.

Events

We are still planning events for Spring 2021.  Please check back for updates.  Find the full list of events on the One Book, One U website.

Interview with Ijeoma Oluo

Databases

Search for research based on themes in So you want to talk about race.  Find research on race, culture, privelege, and related topics!
  • ProQuest Research Library
    ProQuest Research Library provides in-depth coverage of the top 150 core academic subject, including 5,060 titles -over 3,600 in full text- from 1971 forward. It features a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.
  • PsycINFO
    Abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, in behavioral science and mental health. Citations and summaries date back to early 1800s; journal coverage from 1887 to present. From the American Psychological Association.
  • Sociological Abstracts
    Sociological Abstracts indexes and abstracts research literature published worldwide in journals and other serial publications.Social Planning/Policy Development (SOPODA) is included as a subfile, providing additional literature on policy issues addressing violence, abuse, housing, the environment and other social issues.
  • Nexis Uni
    Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
  • Fight for Racial Justice and the Civil Rights Congress
    The records in this collection represent the files of the national office of the Civil Rights Congress, based in New York City, including several hundred case files; publications produced and received by the Congress; files of the Literature Department; Executive Director William Pattersons correspondence files; correspondence and other materials from Civil Rights Congress chapters around the country, including case files of the New York chapter; and files of the New York headquarters of the Communist Party of the United States of America, created during the trial of twelve Communist leaders, 1948-1949, including two black members, Benjamin J. Davis and Henry Winston, consisting of correspondence, transcripts, legal briefs, and printed material.

Faculty Reading Groups: Fall 2020

Are you interested in including the 2020-21 One Book, One U common reading selection, Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race in your teaching? Join us for a facilitated, three-session reading group to discuss how to teach So You Want to Talk About Race, for UM faculty, staff, and graduate students. Organized by the Office of Institutional Culture, Learning Innovation and Faculty Engagement team, and UM Libraries, this initiative allows interested instructors to explore opportunities to discuss how to incorporate the text into their classrooms.
Tuesday group (12:30-1:45pm):
  • Sep 15, 2020  
  • Sep 29, 2020  
  • Oct 13, 2020  
Register to Attend		 Wednesday group: (5:00-6:15pm)
  • Sep 16, 2020  
  • Sep 30, 2020  
  • Oct 14, 2020  
Register to Attend

Facilitators for Instructor Reading Groups: facilitator bios

Reading Guides

Curious about So you want to talk about race?  Check-out the guides below for more information!

Discussion questions

Using the Chapter Summaries document, select a chapter that relates to your class or group and host a discussion session.  Use some of the questions below, from Oluo's book (p. 254).  You can also adapt questions from the American Library Association Book Discussion Group online guide.

Questions to Discuss
  1. In chapter 1, "Is It Really About Race?," the author states: "It is about race if a person of color thinks it is about race. It is about race if it disproportionately or differently affects people of color. It is about race if it fits into a broader pattern of events that disproportionately or differently affect people of color." After reading the author's explanation of these points, can you think of social or political issues that many people currently believe are not about race, but actually maybe? Which of the above guidelines for understanding when it is about race fit those issues?
  2. The chapter about privilege is placed right before the chapter on intersectionality. The author has stated in interviews that she placed those chapters in that order because it is impossible to fully understand intersectionality without first comprehending privilege. How do the concepts discussed in the chapter "Why Am I Always Being Told to 'Check My Privilege'?" help deepen your understanding of intersectionality and help implement intersectionality into your life?
  3. The author states that she grew up in a majority white, liberal area and was raised by a white mother. How might that upbringing have influenced the way that she wrote this book? How might it have influenced the personal events she describes in the book? How might this book have been different if written by a black person with a different upbringing, or if written by a person of color of a different race?
  4. Throughout the book, the author makes it clear that this book is written for both white people and people of color. But does the author expect white people and people of color to read and experience this book in the same way? What are some of the ways in which the author indicates how she expects white people and people of color to react to and interact with portions of the book? What are some of the ways in which the author discusses the different roles that white people and people of color will play in fighting systemic racism in our society?
  5. In chapter 12, "What Are Microaggressions?," the author lists some of the racial microaggressions that her friends of color said that they often hear. What are some of the racial microaggressions that you have encountered or witnessed? What are some that you may have perpetrated on others?
  6. Chapter 15, "But What If I Hate Al Sharpton?," discusses the issue of respectability politics and tone policing. What burdens of "respectability" and "tone" do you see placed on different populations of color in our society?
  7. The final chapter, "Talking Is Great, but What Else Can I Do?," discusses some actions you can take to battle systemic racism using the knowledge you've gained from this book and from your conversations on race. What are some actions you can take in your community, your schools, your workplace, and your local government? What are some local anti-racism efforts in your community that you can join or support?

UM Instructional Designers

Want more ideas and activities?  Reach out to the Learning Innovation & Faculty Engagement team at Academic Technologies!  Contact them at life@miami.edu.  Find more information on the Academic Technologies website.

Guidelines for Classroom Discussions (From So you want to talk about race)

Basic Guidelines (p. 251, Oluo)
  1. If you are in a majority white space, talk with people of color in advance—in a private, safe setting—to hear their concerns about the upcoming discussion. Ask what subjects they are eager to discuss, and if there are subjects they do not want to discuss. Ask what would make them feel safe and comfortable. Then, incorporate these needs and boundaries into the agreed-upon parameters of the discussion. Be prepared to enforce them instead of waiting on the few people of color in the group to risk ostracization by speaking out
  2. Be aware of who in the group is given the most space to talk and try to center the conversation around voices of color—and, in particular, nonmale voices of color.
  3. Ask all attendees what they hope to get out of the book, and out of the group discussion. Encourage group members to verbalize their intentions so that everyone has a better chance of reaching aligned goals.
  4. Make space for the fear, anger, and hurt of people of color. Abuse is never okay, but what is often called "abuse" in heated discussions on race is often sim-ply people of color expressing very justified emotions about living in a white supremacist society. It's fine to maintain firm boundaries about what sort of language and behavior is and is not tolerated, but consider re-reading the chapter on tone policing (chapter 15:"But What If I Hate Al Sharpton?") before you decide what language is acceptable.
  5. Do not allow racist statements or slurs against people of color. When people of color finally feel safe enough to honestly talk about their experiences, nothing hurts more than to be answered with a racist reply. It is an act of violence against people of color and a betrayal of the group. Be very clear about this from the start, and be prepared to remove offenders if they are making people of color feel unsafe.
  6. Try to tie the discussion to issues that are happening in your group's community.
  7. Don't be afraid to pause conversations that are be-coming overly heated, or if you feel that people of color in the group are not feeling safe.
  8. Do not allow white group members to treat their discomfort as harm done to them. Remember, the primary focus of this book—and therefore, hopefully, your discussion group—is how we can talk about the systemic harm done to people of color by a white supremacist society. It is the instinct of our culture to center white emotions and experiences; don't let that happen in these discussions. The comfort of white attendees should be very, very far down on the priority list. If white attendees feel strongly that they need to center their feelings and experiences in the discussion, set up a space away from the group where they can talk with other white people. Do not let it take over the group discussion or become a burden that people of color in the group have to bear.
  9. Don't allow people of color to be turned into priests, therapists, or dictionaries for white group members. If you are white, you shouldn't be looking to the people of color in the group to absolve you of your past sins, process your feelings of guilt, or help you understand every phrase in the book that gives you pause.
  10. Acknowledge that your discussion is a very, very small step in your efforts to tackle issues on race. Even if you are reading this book to help you process a specific issue affecting your community, work-place, school, or organization, chances are that it will not be solved in a few gatherings. This book is meant to help you have better conversations in the hope that you will have many of them. Centuries-old constructs of race and generations of systems of op-pression are not torn down in a few hours. Appreciate the small moments of progress as you make them—because every bit of progress matters—and also know that you will still have more to do. Do not allow yourself to become overly discouraged by the task ahead of you.
  11. For people of color in the group: please know that you have every right to your boundaries, your feelings, your thoughts, and your humanity in this discussion. You have the right to be heard, and your experiences are real and they matter. Please remember that. And thank you—thank you for your generosity in joining yet another conversation on race. If you do not hear this from other members, please hear it from me. You are appreciated.

Contact Information

This guide is maintained by the following individual(s):

Subject Specialist