Dr. Sterling Coleman, director of library services at Clark State College, has been selected by the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) to host a webinar entitled “Tackling Racism One Book at a Time.”
Coleman will discuss how to run a successful topic-driven virtual book club by achieving goals set by an institution. He will provide tips on how to moderate difficult conversations, provide reading recommendations, and discuss the positive outcomes from the book club he conducted in 2020.
While he credits Clark State president Dr. Jo Alice Blondin for the book club idea, Coleman said he took the idea and ran with it. SOCHE approached him about hosting a lunch-and-learn after learning about the book club.
“During the sessions of that (summer) book club, we addressed the issue of systemic racism and the role it plays in our daily lives,” said Coleman. “SOCHE was fascinated by the concept of using a book club to address systemic racism and asked me to deliver a presentation on how we pulled it off.”
The topics Coleman will cover in the webinar include how to set up a book club that addresses the issue of systemic racism, which books would be appropriate for such a book club, what intrinsic qualities a facilitator should have to manage a successful book club on this topic and what outcomes can be expected from a successful book club.
“I hope the audience will listen to my presentation, adapt the book club approach to confronting systemic racism, modify the book clubs to meet the needs of their respective academic communities and develop their book clubs into institutions that regularly address the topic of systemic racism and what book club participants can do to combat it,” he said.
Coleman said this topic is important because the social, economic and political price that people of color--in this country and throughout the world--have paid and are currently paying under the weight of systemic racism is becoming too great to bear.
“All of us have lived with it for too long and more needs to be done to address this issue in a meaningful way,” he said.
Coleman hopes the "take aways" for participants will include three things: 1) A fundamental understanding that systemic racism is a very real problem in our country and throughout the world; 2) A book club is one means among several that can allow participants to see systemic racism for the problem that it really is, to see how they contribute to the perpetuation of it, and to identify concrete actions that they can take in their everyday lives to help bring about its end.
Mindy Claggett, senior manager of events and meeting engagement for SOCHE, said the commitment of Clark State College president Dr. Jo Blondin to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on the school’s campuses has led to a host of changes and a plethora of creative initiatives.
“Perhaps one of the most unique and constructive programs was the formation of the Clark State Summer Library Book Club,” she said in a statement. “Created in the spring of 2020, the club featured small groups of Clark State faculty and staff who came together during summer months to read Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. The groups then held meaningful, in-depth discussions about racism that gave participants the opportunity to speak their minds and ask questions with no recriminations. The club was so wildly successful, plans are already in motion for this summer’s reading.”
The SOCHE virtual lunch-and-learn will be held Friday, March 26, from 12-1 p.m.