Rutgers professor begins diversity book club
The School of Communication and Information recently began hosting a book club focusing on diversity.
Dafna Lemish, associate dean for programs and distinguished professor of Journalism and Media Studies, said she began this program to facilitate a conversation about diversity between full-time faculty members, part-time lecturers, graduate students and undergraduate students.
“The school is very much committed to social justice, in many ways. It is even in the description of our mission, so it’s not because we’ve encountered specific issues here or we have complaints, on the contrary. The point is even if you have a work environment that is very positive, self-aware and devoted to social justice, we still have issues that we can improve and do better,” Lemish said.
Lemish also said there will always be a need to talk about diversity and referenced how Asian students may be facing discrimination due to the novel coronavirus, how Muslims were persecuted after 9/11 and other groups that have been ostracized due to a lack of understanding.
Lemish wanted to expand the school’s existing initiatives, such as bias training workshops, supporting faculty of color and programs for Black History Month, she said.
Lemish began the program by sending out a mass email to colleagues asking for recommended books to read. She assigned the first nonfiction book, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism” by Robin DiAngelo, to be read by those interested in the book club. Lemish focused on creating a safe space to discuss the book and reactions to it, she said.
The book is meant for white audiences, Lemish said, and how language can affect people of color in Black, Latinx, Indigenous or other communities.
“In the book, she talks about racism in the book. Not about not hiring people who are Black, not that kind of racism, but the subtle ways we are being racist without being aware that we are. She makes a distinction between our common language of seeing someone racist as bad and non-racist as good. So it is hard for us to accept that we are doing something racist because we perceive ourselves as good people,” said Lemish.
Eighteen people attended the club meeting, which Lemish said was a good turnout, particularly because she did not think that busy faculty members and students would take the time to read an extra book after all their work.
Lemish said she hopes the 18 people who are a part of the book club will spread what they have learned from the club and the message of diversity will spread to more people on campus.
The book club will assign two books a semester for all members to read, one being nonfiction and the other being fiction, Lemish said. The next meeting will be on April 29, focusing on the fiction book “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng. The book focuses on a biracial Chinese-white family, Lemish said.
In the future, the club will discuss books about all forms of inequality, such as sexual orientation, gender, religion and other identity markers, Lemish said.
