{"id":103665,"date":"2015-08-04T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T13:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=103665"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:07:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:07:44","slug":"race-in-america-uconn-reads-the-long-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/08\/race-in-america-uconn-reads-the-long-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Race in America: UConn Reads, The Long List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since its launch in 2011, the UConn Reads initiative has consistently featured books that both engage the diverse viewpoints of our university community and refract contemporary issues and debates. From Half the Sky <\/em>by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s The Great Gatsby<\/em>, from Marjane Satrapi\u2019s Persepolis <\/em>to The Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma<\/em> by Michael Pollan, the UConn community has chosen books that reflect present-day concerns over human rights, class inequalities, gender disparities, and environmental catastrophes.<\/p>\n

Continuing in the tradition of these previously selected works and their ability to prompt conversation and<\/em> stimulate reflection, this year\u2019s nominations perhaps more urgently reflect an issue that remains all-too-real and all-too-relevant: race in America. Situated within the context of a never-ending news cycle in which stories of race-based violence dominate, and set adjacent to national conversations about racial discrimination and disenfranchisement, this year\u2019s theme is not so much prescient as it is timely.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1976. (Library of Congress)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is unfortunately a pervasive feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu <\/em>with regard to the current state of racial affairs. Despite the election of the nation\u2019s first African American president; despite the fact that Asian Americans comprise the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States; and despite the fact that America\u2019s Latino population has increased almost nine-fold since 1960, race remains contested and racism unresolved.<\/p>\n

This sense of profound non-progress was eloquently accessed in a speech delivered by Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, on July 4, 1992, and it remains pertinent today. At the time, Marshall was accepting the Liberty Medal, awarded annually by the National Constitution Center of the United States in recognition of leadership in the pursuit of freedom. Alluding to the Los Angeles Riots that took place that year, Marshall noted:<\/p>\n

\u2026 as I look around, I see not a Nation of unity but of division \u2013 Afro and White, indigenous and immigrant, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. \u2026 I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to blow away. \u2026 We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.<\/p>\n

Such dissension is evident in the nominations made this year by alumni, staff, students, and faculty, which repeatedly point to histories and legacies of racialized segregation and oppression.<\/p>\n

The UConn Reads Steering Committee has, as indicated by the following \u201clong list,\u201d a wonderfully difficult challenge ahead with regard to selecting the 2015-2016 book.<\/p>\n