Black Lives Matter - Reading List

It’s up to all of us – Black, white, everyone

Michelle Obama

The Library, along with the rest of the University, have been shocked and saddened by the death of George Floyd and moved by the impact of the global Black Lives Matter action. We echo the sentiments of our VC Helen Marshall who has said “I stand in solidarity with anti-racism supporters across the world.” The Library supports the Black Lives Matter movement, standing up against racism and racial injustice, and an end to white supremacy. We are here to listen to our BAME students and staff and have a team of Equality, Diversion and Inclusion champions working together to challenge discrimination and promote equality. But we recognise we have a lot more to do, starting with the resources below.

During this time, many of you will want to help and get involved - one of the strongest steps we can all take is educating ourselves about racism and the anti-racist movement. To help, the Library have created a Black Lives Matter Reading List which contains ebooks, videos, websites and articles which you can access from home. Please share with us any other anti-racism resources you’d like us to consider adding to the list. Wendy, one of our colleagues in the Library, commented on the title Me and white supremacy: how to recognise your privilege, combat racism and change the world by Layla Saad

“I found it both enlightening and though provoking: it’s an excellent , practical tool and helped me to recognise and understand how white privilege works, how it can be challenged and the work I need to do on own prejudices and behaviour to become not just not racist but truly anti-racist.”

The University of Salford Students' Union have also issued a statement on BLM which gives suggestions of how to be an ally to the Black Lives Movement and provides links to the support available to our students and how you can report experiences of discrimination. Further support, counselling and wellbeing services are also available for students by contacting askUS. Staff support is available on the Wellbeing pages on Sharepoint.

We stand in solidarity with the BLM movement and believe by working together we can bring about real change – as Michelle Obama has said “It’s up to all of us – Black, white, everyone.”