Salem High Wants All To Join In Antiracist Summer Reading Program

SALEM, MA — Salem High School has put together a summer reading list that school officials hope the entire city will embrace as the district looks to combat social injustice and promote diversity.

The "Reading For Change: Antiracist Summer Reading 2021" program includes three titles chosen by Salem High Student Equity Interns. All students will be asked to read at least one of the books this summer with Superintendent of Schools Steve Zrike saying that he hopes many adults in the city will join in the program as well.

"This is something we'd like the entire community to try to embrace," he said during his final Facebook Live session of the school year on Tuesday. "We appreciate Salem High in taking the lead on that and the (work of) the Student Equity Interns.

"These are important texts. They are really rich and will help generate the kinds of conversations we need to have both as a city, as a school system and certainly as a country that is grappling over issues of race, and privilege, and class in our society."

The chosen titles are: "Stamped" by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi – a non-fiction book about the course of racism in America, "Punching The Air" by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam – a novel about a wrongly incarcerated youth, and "I Was Their American Dream" by Malaka Gharib – a graphic memoir of a first-generation Filipino-Egyptian-American living in California.

"This is a citywide opportunity to do some reading and learning about the historical and societal factors that lead to the racism that some of our students experience in their own lives and the lives of their families, or are witnesses to," said Emily Flores, Academic Dean at Salem High School.

Flores said the antiracist summer reading program will culminate with a large community discussion planned for Sept. 15.

Zrike said there may also be plans for summer book club-type events where students and members of the community can get together and share their thoughts on one of the books with community leaders.

The books can be found both at the Salem High Library and Salem Public Library as well as online and retail booksellers.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)