A serious and professional presentation of the background and pros and cons of major issues that affect the lives of African Americans:

The major issues for African Americans today, such as poverty, low graduation rates, high rates of out-of wedlock births, and high rates of incarceration, are of critical importance. This volume provides a solid basis for students to understand and debate 9 crucial issues in the context of both the past and present. These issues are slavery reparations, crime and punishment, cultural assimilation, affirmative action, school vouchers, standardized tests, welfare-to-work, stereotypes, and election reform. The history of slavery, segregation, and racism continue to impact African Americans and the rest of American society. For the students of today, born after the major gains of the Civil Rights Movement, this book will reveal how much more progress is still needed. They will find an historical overview of the issues, learn about the main players, and read about the different sides. Under the topical chapters, readers will be able to consider the fuller spectrum of news items, such as whether Bill Cosby's famous comments about African Americans are on target, and what can be done about the voting disenfranchising that exists in practice in the current US political system. Hardback (185 pages). Author: Kevin D. Roberts

Level: A/Interdisciplinary projects/Library-Depot

In this tale of two Muslim sisters, Monica Ali explores their different lives and how they shape their fates. Nazneen, married off in her teens to an older man, lives in a tower block in London’s East End, keeping house and rearing children. Nazneen does what is expected of her, but into that fragile peace walks Karim, raising questions of longing and belonging that open her eyes. Her sister Hasina finds heartbreak with a “love marriage” back home in Bangladesh. (496 pages)
Level: Students writing papers/Linjefag

Based on Monica Ali's novel:
A young Bangladeshi woman arrives in 1980s Britain to an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a middle-aged man, Nanzeen finds it hard to accept her circumstances but tries to survive all that life throws at her. She is soon forced to face reality when fate takes a hand in the shape of young, hotheaded Karim.

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir (written even before Barack Obama had won his seat in the Senate), the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. The story begins in New York, where Obama receives a phone call from Nairobi: his father — a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man — has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey for Obama, determined to learn the truth of his father's life and his divided inheritance — first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Written at the age of thirty-three, Dreams from My Father is an unforgettable read which illuminates not only Obama's own journey, but also our universal desire to understand our history and what makes us the people we are. (442 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/Interdisciplinary projects/SRP

Nelson Mandela, the first African politician to acquire a world following, remains in the 21st century an iconic figure. What are the sources of his almost mythic appeal? Did Mandela deliberately create the status of political hero that he now enjoys? This highly praised biography examines these questions in detail. It presents a range of fresh insights about the shaping of Mandela's personality and public persona, from his childhood days and early activism, through his long years of imprisonment, to his presidency of the new South Africa. The book emphasizes the interplay between Mandela's public career and his private world and shows how his heroic status was a product both of his leading position within the anti-apartheid movement and of his own deliberate efforts to supply a form of quasi-messianic leadership for that movement. Mandela's huge international appeal is described as a compelling and unusual cocktail: of the sacred and the secular — of traditional African values and global media savvy — and of human vulnerablilty, interwoven with the grand narrrative of liberation. Author: Tom Lodge (274 pages)
Level: Gymnasiet/Library/Depot

Contents: 1. Childhood and Upbringing;  2. Becoming a Notable;  3. Volunteer-in-Chief;  4. Making a Messiah;  5. Trials;  6. Prisoner 466/64;  7. Leading from Prison;  8. Messianic Politics and the Transition to Democracy;  9. Embodying the Nation

A serious and professional presentation of the background and pros and cons of major issues that have been controversial in and out of the Native American community:

Are sports teams named after Native Americans a degrading phenomenon? Are tribal claims on ancestral remains and sacred objects in museums valid? The issues that Native Americans struggle with should be matters of concern for all of us. This volume presents six major divisive issues: Sports Mascots, Names and Images, Native American Treaty Rights, Native American Land Claims, Repatriation of Ancestral Remains and Sacred Objects, Native American Gaming, The Conflict between Economic Development and Environmental Protection. Students will learn about the varied cultural, political, social, and economic dimensions of contemporary Native America and will be prompted to consider the complexity and complications of ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States. This book raises questions about the very foundations of the United States and the rights of its original inhabitants' descendants. The range of issues encompasses Native Americans throughout the country. Views are included from a wide variety of sources, including newspaper op-eds, Supreme Court rulings, and more. A resource guide complementing each chapter includes an extensive listing of suggested reading plus videos/film, Web sites, and organizations. Hardback (185 pages). Author: Paul C. Rosier

Level: A/Interdisciplinary projects/Library-Depot

Now in a cheaper edition! The Oxford Companion to Black British History is an essential resource for understanding the long history of black people in the British Isles, from African auxiliaries stationed on Hadrian's Wall in the 2nd century AD to Mary Seacole, the “Black Florence Nightingale”, Walter Tull, footballer and First World War officer ... and our own day. 400+ articles consider key concepts such as Racism, Emancipation, and Reparations; historical events; literature; music; organizations; leading figures; publications; politics; religion; slavery and much more. This book provides a fine overview of the black presence in Britain and its contribution to British society. (562 pages)
Contents: Introduction; Editors, Advisory Editors, and Contributors; Note to the Reader; Thematic Contents List; A-Z entries; Timeline; Select Bibliography
Level: Library/Depot (partnership with: Historie)

In the first decades of the twentieth century, virulent racism lingered from Reconstruction, and segregation increased. Hostility met the millions of new immigrants from Eastern and southern Europe, and immigration was restricted. Still, even in an inhospitable climate, blacks and other minority groups came to have key roles in popular culture, from ragtime and jazz to film and the Harlem Renaissance. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: John F. McClymer. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Race relations in the 1920s ranged from an epidemic of lynchings of African Americans, race riots, and the execution of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti to citizenship for American Indians but not for Mexican immigrants. As the 1930s unfolded, there was more discrimination of Latinos and a legal lynching in the Scottsboro Boys trial, and German Jewish children were refused refuge from Hitler's Germany. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Leslie V. Tischauser. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

The 1940s and 1950s were decades of far-reaching change and mobilization in the United States. White culture strove to make nonwhites invisible with segregation and discrimination as Southern blacks continued the Great Migration north and the government brought in Mexican labor via the Bracero Program to take up labor slack while U.S. troops were overseas. The rise of the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education (which struck down segregation in schools 1954) were some results. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas J. Davis. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Few decades in American history were as full of drama and historical significance as the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, a revolution in race relations occurred, seeing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, the American Indian Movement, and the Latino labour movement. The focus in the 1970s was on carrying out the reforms of the previous decade, with the resulting white backlash. This volume is a source to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas Upchurch. Hardback. (180 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

From subtle discrimination in everyday life and scandals in politics, to incidents like lynchings in the American South, cultural imperialism, and 'ethnic cleansing', racism exists in many different forms, in almost every facet of society. But what actually is race? How has racism come to be so firmly established? Why do so few people actually admit to being racist? How are race, ethnicity, and xenophobia related? Racism: A Very Short Introduction incorporates the latest research to demystify the subject of racism and explore its history, science, and culture. It sheds light not only on how racism has evolved since its earliest beginnings, but also explores the numerous forms of racism, highlighting the paradox of its survival, despite the scientific discrediting of the notion of 'race' with the latest advances in genetics. (194 pages) Author: Ali Rattansi.

Contents: Introduction; 1. Racism and racists: some conundrums; 2. Fear of the dark? : blacks, Jews and barbarians; 3. Beyond the pale: scientific racism, the nation and the politics of colour; 4. Imperialism, eugenics and the Holocaust; 5. The case against scientific racism; 6. New racisms?; 7. Racist identities: ambivalence, contradiction and commitment; 8. Beyond institutional racism: 'race', class and gender in the USA and Britain; Conclusions: prospects for a post-racial future; References; Further Reading