Access to scientific literature and resources
International Weeks Against Racism are marked in Heidelberg this year from 17.3. to 8.4. with extensive program organized by Interkulturelles Zentrum Heidelberg.
To support engagement against racism, Szilárd Library brings variety of books on this topic. Books are on display at the Library Corner in Cafeteria, together with promotional material from Interkulturelles Zentrum Heidelberg.
The foundations of this initiative lay in The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that is observed annually on 21.3., marking the day the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid “pass laws” in 1960.
This UN initiative has a significant perspective for scientific community, as even today, scientific racism continues to exist.
“Scientific racism is a historical pattern of ideologies that generate pseudo-scientific racist beliefs….Leading scientists across scientific institutions in the 19th and early 20th centuries were proponents of such ideologies”, describes Vence L. Bonham Jr., J.D., (Acting Deputy Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute).
Awareness of this history, reflection on its impact and discussions about these topics within community are all part of recognizing the damage that science has done to perpetuate inequality and taking steps to move toward more equitable and anti-racist systemic practices.
By Keon West
In this frank, funny, and meticulous book, a leading social scientist lays out the striking facts we know about racism, how we have uncovered them, and how we can start to fix them: studies and surveys show, time and again, that about 50 percent of people believe that racism is no longer an issue today.
By Shoumita Dasgupta
In this accessible, myth-busting book, geneticist Shoumita Dasgupta weaves together history, current affairs, and cutting-edge science to correct common misconceptions about how much of our social identities are actually based in genetics, how genetic concepts are misused and how we can approach scientific evidence in a socially responsible way.
By Jennifer Patrice Sims
Accessibly written and full of concrete examples, this book will be of great value to anyone who wants to understand the common misunderstandings about racism that frustrate contemporary politics, classrooms, workplaces, and dinner tables.
By Jonathan Marks
Every arena of science has its own set of ethical issues: chemistry and poison gas, physics and the atom bomb, and genetics has had a troubled history with race. As Jonathan Marks reveals, this dangerous relationship rumbles on to this day, still leaving plenty of leeway for a belief in the basic natural inequality of races.
By Harshad Keval
This book unravels how liberal progressive ‘acts’ of universities that have adopted new roles as ‘anti-racist’ and ‘decolonial’ beacons of hope, actually hide a much deeper racialised logic of whiteness-framed structural narcissism, producing insidiously powerful and difficult to trace forms of racialised harm.
By Crystal Celestine Hall and Mindy Hernandez
Written for anyone who wants to make the world a more just place, Hall and Hernandez use scholarly research alongside accessible stories (from Mozart and Chris Rock to the TV show Insecure) to illuminate ways we can drive racial justice forward.
By George M. Fredrickson
With a rare blend of learning, economy, and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present.
By George A. Yancey and Hayoung David Oh
In the summer of 2020 when protests were mobilizing for social justice, the term “antiracist” started getting more traction. This book provides a systematic approach to understanding the motivations and intentions of racial progressives as well as the impact of political ideology on antiracism.
By Sheena Michele Mason
In this books, author Sheena Michele Mason argues that to end racism, we must end the very idea of “race” itself, our practice of racialization, and the attending power imbalances that are part and parcel of race/ism.
An overview of the latest book acquisitions in the Szilárd Library is prepared using textual description provided by publishers.