Over the past year, 357 faculty, staff and other Creighton community members have attended a book club centered on speaking out against racism.
The How to Be an Antiracist series was created last spring to help empower, educate and promote racial healing nationally, locally and on campus. It has served as an opportunity for the community to engage in challenging reading and thoughtful discussion about dismantling racism.
“In some ways, the book club is a call to action for members of our Creighton community. You will be tasked with reflecting, being proactive, and challenged with what you can do in order to make change,” said Sarah Walker, PhD, professor in the Heider College of Business and interim vice president for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion.
Written by Ibram X. Kendi, PhD, New York Times bestselling author and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, How to Be an Antiracist points out the need, although painful, for people to be proactive, abandoning neutrality, to help end the perpetuation of racism and inequalities.
Lou Jensen, OTD, OTR/L, associate professor and director of faculty and staff development in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, said participating in the book club has been a meaningful experience.
“It has helped me become more comfortable engaging in discussions about subjects that can be difficult to talk about,” she said.
“Our Creighton mission asks us all to engage in reflection and critical dialog that seeks truth and justice in an increasingly complex world. Taking what we learned from this book club and rising to the challenges we face is truly our mission in action.”
Laura Gill, EdD, instructor in Communication Studies and director of the Communication Center, said she began reading the book this past winter and revisited it again this summer as part of the book club.
“I am even more mindful of my words, our family seeks inclusive bedtime stories to help have important conversations with our girls, and I’m working to develop how my students will not only listen to diverse speakers, to discuss the perspectives presented, and hopefully our students will be empowered to take anti-racist actions,” she said.
Gill said the subject matter is applicable to the courses she teaches, including Talk Like TED Critical Issues, designed for first- and second-year students focused on finding, listening and learning from a variety of voices about social justice issues.
Faculty and staff also have participated in department-led anti-racist clubs within social work, law and information technology, and attended supplemental programming – virtual tours of the Great Plains Black History Museum in Omaha and film discussions on the documentary 13th.
Organizers from the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, Creighton Intercultural Center, A.F. Jacobson Endowed Chair in Communication and the Schlegel Center for Service and Justice are continuing the discussion this fall with a new book club series. This upcoming book club series will focus on The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola, by the Rev. Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ, PsyD, of Creighton. Watch for more information on dates and times to come in Creighton Today.
Overcoming racism and the longstanding policies that support inequalities is hard work, Walker said, but there is hope in the impact of a collective interest and effort.
“I, too, struggled with some of the content,” she said. “That said, these struggles are necessary. I believe they help us grow. I do not think a book club is the sole remedy for the 400-year pandemic. It does, however, provide us a common language to start the work of becoming anti-racist.”
