MRC Book Club
Since 2020, the Multicultural Resource Center and the ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó College Library have collaborated to select and distribute a book that is representative of multicultural and LGTBQ+ authors and perspectives to the campus community. The purpose of the MRC Book Club is to support students of color and LGBTQ+ students by creating equity of access to multicultural literature and exposing students to diverse literature, perspectives, and stories. Multicultural books help students deepen their understanding of their own culture and the culture of others. Additionally, the MRC Book Club program is an important partnership between the MRC and ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó Library, both with a shared mission of empowering students to feel equal ownership of academic spaces. Students nominate books and then vote on the book selection for that semester/year. Books are distributed to community members who are interested in engaging with the book club.
Spring 2025 Selection: Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging by Ben McBride.
Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging by Ben McBride asks us "What would it take to truly belong to each other?" Radical belonging, McBride argues, means looking at our implicit biases, at our faulty understandings of power, and at how we "other"--or "same"--people. Sometimes it even means troubling the waters―speaking hard truths in situations that appear calm but that cloak injustice.
With a blend of provocation and good humor, McBride leads us beyond inaction on the one hand and polemic on the other. What results is an indelible manifesto--a troublemaking reverend's call to the most urgent task of our time. As inequality, racism, and alienation weaken our common life, well-meaning people ask: What do I need to do to create a world where all can belong? But McBride asserts that instead, we need to ask: Who do I need to become?
Helping us answer these questions, Ben McBride, will be coming to campus on Tuesday, February 25th.