The Elephant We Don't See Diversity Dialogue
The Elephant We Don't See Diveristy Dialogue is a partnership series between the Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, in which staff from each agency read a social justice-themed book and discuss what they learned. Modeling how to hold difficult conversations, the series invites viewers to join in the reading, the discussion, and in considering takeaways from the books. We are often asked for our reading list. In order, the books highlighted so far are:
2020
What If I Say the Wrong Thing? 25 Habits For Culturally Effective People by Vernā Meyers. Although not technically part of the series, the discussion of this book between PGCMLS COO Michelle Hamiel and OHR's Kyla Hanington was the catalyst for the formation of the series.
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
What If? Short Stories to Spark Diversity and Inclusion Dialogue by Steve L. Robbins
Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
2021
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism by Lee Maracle
The Mis-education of the Negro by Carter G Woodson
Pass With Care by Cooper Lee Bombardier
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Gramm
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
2022
The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison
The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World by Steve Pemberton
The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity by Sally Kohn
A Most Beautiful Thing by Arshay Cooper
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed edited by Saraciea J. Fennell
Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz
2023
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Out of Place by Edward Said
Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
There There by Tommy Orange