In 1867 an infant girl called Luli is born into a middle-class Chinese family on the mainland. Her fate is altered when instead of being put to the breast of her mother, her father declares her a misfortune and she is left at the famous Chaozhou wall where many parents and grandparents abandon their unwanted girls. But the child’s mother is desperate to save her and beseeches one of her sons to step in and deliver the baby to safety.At the same time in the affluent house of a scholar on the island of Hong Kong, house slaves Sun Ling and Jingwei are sworn sisters, bound by their shared struggles. When the hardship and abuse become too much too bear, the girls escape and make a run for freedom, then find themselves on a ship bound for the western coast of the Americas. When the paths of these three forgotten girls of China meet, the ocean journey is treacherous and not for the faint-hearted. In the midst of monumental difficulties, their lives converge, and they traverse many obstacles, but will do anything for one another in their oath to stay together and fulfill their hope for a better future in Chinatown, on the shores of San Francisco.

    These expectations are unrealistic, causing disenchantment and disengagement among citizens and increasing levels of burnout among many professionals. Rekindling Democracy is not just a practical guide; it goes further in setting out a manifesto for a more equitable social contract to address these issues. Rekindling Democracy argues convincingly that industrialized countries are suffering through a democratic inversion, where the doctor is assumed to be the primary producer of health, the teacher of education, the police officer of safety, and the politician of democracy. Through just the right blend of storytelling, research, and original ideas, Russell argues instead that in a functioning democracy the role of the professionals ought to be defined as that which happens after the important work of citizens is done. The primary role of the twenty-first-century practitioner, therefore, is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of more active citizenship and community building.

    Nelson Mandela used his voice to bring down Apartheid. Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birut� Galdikas gave a voice to the primates who couldn't speak for themselves. The Women of Greenham Common used their collective voice to fight against preparations for nuclear war. And today's youth--like Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, the students of Stoneman Douglas High School, and Greta Thunberg--unite their voices to stop gun violence, save the planet, and so much more.Through enlightening poems by award-winning poet and author George Ella Lyon and stunning portraits by artist Jennifer M. Potter, Voices of Justice introduces young readers to the groundbreaking work of people who fought--and continue to fight--to make the world a better place.Featuring those mentioned above along with Virginia Woolf, Dolores Huerta, Shirley Chisholm, Jasilyn Charger, Jeannette Rankin, and more, each portrait offers a vision of action and love that gets up and does something, no matter the forces ranged against it, no matter the odds.

    Bodies and Barriers informs health care professionals, students in health professions, policymakers, and fellow activists about these challenges, providing insights and a road map for action that could improve queer health. Through artfully articulated, data-informed essays by twenty-six well-known and emerging queer activists, Bodies and Barriers illuminates the ubiquitous health challenges LGBT people experience and challenges conventional wisdom about health care delivery. It probes deeply into the roots of these disparities and empowers activists with crucial information to fight for health equity through clinical, behavioral, and policy changes. The activist contributors in Bodies and Barriers look for tangible improvements, drawing lessons from the history of HIV/AIDS in America and from struggles against health care bias and discrimination.

    A young laywoman with almost no education, she became renowned for her intense mystical experiences, inspired preaching, and scathing criticism of corrupt political and ecclesial authorities. She is even recognized today as a Doctor of the Church—the only layperson to ever receive the title—yet comes across to us more as an apostle than an intellectual. Her work is like Aquinas’ Summa set on fire.But for all the fascination with Catherine, the distinguishing feature of her life has received surprisingly little attention: her preoccupation with freedom. Catherine had a keen sense of the “unspeakably crazy” love of God and the liberating power of his mercy. But she also knew the terrible bondage of sin—and the necessity of facing our own inner darkness if we are to overcome it. She had a passion for leading those enslaved by fear and oppression to self-knowledge in God—and ultimately, to true freedom. It is this “fire” that inflames almost every page she writes.In this profound book, the Irish Dominican poet and writer Fr. Paul Murray draws us into the fire of this great mystic’s love for God and humanity, reading her life and teaching not only in light of Dominican spirituality, but also the writings of Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the modern psychologist Carl Jung. What results is a portrait of a preacher of freedom who speaks to us, even today, with compelling authority.

    I'm a drop in America, but I'm also America. Every pain, every confusion, every good and every bad and ugly of America is in me. And as I transform myself and heal and take care of myself, I'm very conscious that I'm healing and transforming and taking care of America. I say this for American cynics, but this is also true globally. It's for real." So says Zen Buddhist teacher Dr. Larry Ward.Shot at by the police as an 11-year-old child for playing baseball in the wrong spot, as an adult, Larry Ward experienced the trauma of having his home firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France, the home in exile of his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, Dr. Ward found a way to heal. In these short reflective essays, he offers his insights on the effects of racial constructs and answers the question: how do we free ourselves from our repeated cycles of anger, denial, bitterness, pain, fear, violence? Larry Ward looks at the causes and conditions that have led us to our current state and finds, hidden in the crisis, a profound opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a human being. This is an invitation to transform America's racial karma.

    

    In the wake of recent contested elections, the suppression of the vote has returned to the headlines, as awareness of the deep structural barriers to the ballot, particularly for poor, black, and Latino voters, has called attention to the historical roots of issues related to voting access.Perhaps most notably, former state legislator Stacey Abrams's campaign for Georgia's gubernatorial race drew national attention after she narrowly lost to then-secretary of state Brian Kemp, who had removed hundreds of thousands of voters from the official rolls. After her loss, Abrams created Fair Fight, a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat voter suppression in twenty states.At an annual conference of the Organization of American Historians, leading scholars Carol Anderson, Kevin M. Kruse, Heather Cox Richardson, and Heather Anne Thompson had a conversation with Abrams about the long history of voter suppression at the Library Company of Philadelphia. This book is a transcript of that extraordinary conversation, edited by Jim Downs.Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections offers an enlightening, history-informed conversation about voter disenfranchisement in the United States. By gathering scholars and activists whose work has provided sharp analyses of this issue, we see how historians in general explore contentious topics and provide historical context for students and the broader public.The book also includes a "top ten" selection of essays and articles by such writers as journalist Ari Berman, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight, and civil rights icon John Lewis.

    In a time when the word feminism triggers all sorts of responses, many of them conflicting and misinformed, Professor Carol Hay provides this balanced, clarifying, and inspiring examination of what it truly means to be a feminist today. She takes the reader from conceptual questions of sex, gender, intersectionality, and oppression to the practicalities of talking to children, navigating consent, and fighting for adequate space on public transit, without deviating from her clear, accessible, conversational tone. Think Like a Feminist is equally a feminist starter kit and an advanced refresher course, connecting longstanding controversies to today’s headlines.Think Like a Feminist takes on many of the essential questions that feminism has risen up to answer: Is it nature or nurture that’s responsible for our gender roles and identities? How is sexism connected to racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression? Who counts as a woman, and who gets to decide? Why have men gotten away with rape and other forms of sexual violence for so long? What responsibility do women themselves bear for maintaining sexism? What, if anything, can we do to make society respond to women’s needs and desires?Ferocious, insightful, practical, and unapologetically opinionated, Think Like a Feminist is the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand the continuing effects of misogyny in society. By exploring the philosophy underlying the feminist movement, Carol Hay brings today’s feminism into focus, so we can deliberately shape the feminist future.

    Before she made history as the first deaf and blind person to graduate from college, Helen was a smart kid who loved learning. She overcame many challenges to learn how to read, write, and talk. She spoke up for other people with disabilities so they could get equal rights. Explore how Helen Keller went from being a young girl in Alabama to the world-famous First Lady of Courage.The Story of Helen Keller includes:**Word definitions—Find a helpful glossary for some of the more advanced words and ideas in the book.**Test your knowledge—Take a fun quiz that tests the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Helen’s life.**Lasting change—Learn about how Helen made the world a better place for future generations.How will the extraordinary journey of Helen Keller inspire you?

    What started as a peaceful labor strike quickly turned into a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses smoking ruins. By the time British troops had put down the rebels, more than a thousand Jamaicans lay dead from summary executions and extrajudicial murder.While the rebels lost their military gamble, their sacrifice accelerated the larger struggle for freedom in the British Atlantic. The daring and suffering of the Jamaicans galvanized public opinion throughout the empire, resulting in a decisive turn against slavery. For centuries bondage had fed Britain's appetite for sugar. Within two years of the Christmas rebellion, slavery was formally abolished.Island on Fire is a dramatic day-by-day account of this transformative uprising. A skillful storyteller, Tom Zoellner goes back to the primary sources to tell the intimate story of the men and women who tasted liberty for a few brief weeks. He memorably evokes the sights and sounds of the Caribbean in the 1830s, provides the first full portrait of its enigmatic leader Samuel Sharpe, and gives us a poignant glimpse of the dreams of the many Jamaicans who died for liberty.

    It’s a pervasive and deep-seated way of talking and thinking about morality, law, and politics in matters of blame and punishment; it’s a punitive impulse and retributive urge that runs so strong and deep in most Americans that taming it will take a revolution in consciousness.Through radical critiques of conventional morality, conventional legal theory, and conventional politics in criminal justice matters, this book fuels this revolution. Drawing on the phenomenon moral philosophers call moral luck, Armour’s book humanizes these most otherized, monsterized criminals by challenging the wide-spread belief that there is a deep and wide moral gulf between “them” and law-abiding, noncriminal, nonviolent “us.” Legally, N*gga Theory roots out where bias lives in the black letter law and adjudication of just deserts; that is, it shows how murderers and other morally condemnable criminals are not merely “found” in criminal trials like discoverable facts of nature, but rather they are socially constructed, often by racially biased prosecutors, judges, and jurors. And politically, Armour both examines and exemplifies the way a transgressive word or symbol, like the troublesome and disreputable N-word itself, can, when wielded with care and precision by critical black writers and artists, signal a sharp rejection of respectability politics, promote political solidarity with the most reviled black criminals, and spark a revolution in consciousness about racialized mass incarceration.

    Thank you Hilary and James for the precision of this analysis, and the true north of this star."--adrienne maree brown, author of Pleasure Activism and Emergent StrategyIn June 1977, a group of white anti-racist activists received an alarming letter from an inmate at a New York state prison calling for help to fight the Ku Klux Klan's efforts to recruit prison staff and influence the people incarcerated. Their response was to form the first chapter of what would eventually become a powerful, nationwide grassroots network, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, dedicated to countering the rise of the KKK and other far-right white nationalist groups.No Fascist USA! tells the story of that network, whose efforts throughout the 1980s--which included exposing white supremacists in public office, confronting neo-Nazis in street protests, supporting movements for self-determination, and engagement with the underground punk scene--laid the groundwork for many anti-racist efforts to emerge since. Featuring original research, interviews with former members, and a trove of graphic materials, their story offers battle-tested lessons for those on the frontlines of social justice work today.Praise for No Fascist USA! "Hilary Moore and James Tracy have written a magnificent book that not only corrects the record but helps explain the mercurial rise of white supremacist organizations in the 1970s, how the Klan was (temporarily) defeated, and why this period has been largely ignored. No Fascist USA! radically shifts our perspective, challenging the prevailing wisdom that racist terrorism rises in response to economic downturns, white downward mobility, or in a vacuum created by progressive alternatives. I love this book."--Robin D.G. Kelley, from the foreword"No Fascist USA! is not only timely, but also essential in the present period of accelerated white supremacist activity and anti-racist organizing to combat it. In telling the story of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, the authors, without romanticizing or condemning, draw important lessons from the fifteen-year history of the group."--Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment"With its savvy blend of youth culture and street confrontation, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee tried to stop Trumpism before Trump. They confronted the rise of white nationalism in prisons, workplaces, and music scenes when precious few paid attention to it . . . Hilary Moore and James Tracy have gifted us with an urgent read."--Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era"James Tracy and Hilary Moore deliver a searing, bold new work that examines another painful and complicated chapter in American race relations. In an eye-opening account, They are able to connect the dots of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, a band of contemporary predominantly white activists, and its efforts to expose white supremacist organizations. With a fresh eye and new research, their book uncovers with stunning precision how these groups remain active and exposes some of their unlikely alliances."--Laurens Grant, filmmaker, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Freedom Riders"We learned from history. You can too!"--Terry Bisson, author of Fire on the Mountain and former member of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee"This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the roots of what happened in Charlottesville, and the burgeoning white nationalist membership lists in the U.S. today. We cannot possibly take on the challenges we face without learning from the past. This book is a necessary and long overdue contribution to inform the way forward."--Carla F. Wallace, co-founder, Showing Up for Racial Justice"I've waited thirty years for this book! Our emergency hearts have always driven uprisings to stop white terrorism, but it always takes more than black-bloc tactics in the streets to stop fascists. No Fascist USA! firmly connects today's militant anti-fascist street-fighting movements with important living radical histories to disrupt the cycles that keep the spectre of fascism alive in the modern era. The struggles faced by the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee continue today in our difficult arc towards collective liberation."--scott crow, author of Setting Sights: Histories and Reflections on Community Armed Self-Defense

    Today’s social issues require a different mindset—one that builds on the expertise of both corporate social responsibility and marketing teams to achieve impact and public/consumer action for social change. This book helps corporate leaders design approaches that bring these crucial teams together by showing them how to build stronger campaigns, moments, and initiatives that positively change the world.The Corporate Social Mind helps leaders of both corporate social impact and marketing teams move beyond their own ways of thinking and come together to address social issues through a mindset that embeds key traits into daily work. Business as a whole, from research and innovation to marketing, can drive positive social change in society when it is integrated into the way we work. In The Corporate Social Mind, Derrick Feldmann and Michael Alberg-Seberich each bring together 20+ years of work on social issue campaigns, in marketing, in movements, and in social impact spaces to help companies leverage assets for positive social issue progress. You’ll see how key companies have done this and how every leader, no matter the industry, can establish a culture in which this is the mindset.

    Their grassroots organizing, writings, and political and cultural activities nurtured innovative traditions, ideas, and practices. These strategies facilitated new, often radical bonds between people from disparate backgrounds across the Black Diaspora. Tiffany N. Florvil examines the role of queer and straight women in shaping the contours of the modern Black German movement as part of the Black internationalist opposition to racial and gender oppression. Florvil shows the multifaceted contributions of women to movement making, including Audre Lorde’s role in influencing their activism; the activists who inspired Afro-German women to curate their own identities and histories; and the evolution of the activist groups Initiative of Black Germans and Afro-German Women. These practices and strategies became a rallying point for isolated and marginalized women (and men) and shaped the roots of contemporary Black German activism.Richly researched and multidimensional in scope, Mobilizing Black Germany offers a rare in-depth look at the emergence of the modern Black German movement and Black feminists’ politics, intellectualism, and internationalism.

    The 56 exercises include activities, discussions, and readings in which to engage during each of the four quarters of the school year. School leaders will discover how to facilitate learning through the four steps--awaken and assess; apply and act; analyze and align; advocate and lead--as you and your colleagues* Increase your awareness of privilege and bias. * Adapt your professional practices to meet the needs of all students. * Examine policies and practices that inhibit opportunities for marginalized populations. * Align resources to eradicate inequity in your school.Mayfield offers advice on establishing a safe environment for professional conversations, setting goals for cultural competency, overcoming resistance, reviewing school data and the school's vision and mission through the lens of race and culture, and strategically managing what can be a transformative yet uncomfortable change process. Cultural Competence Now responds to the urgent need to build the cultural competency of educators--for the sake of children and in the interest of supporting and retaining all educators.

    Lachmann explains why the United States will not be able to sustain its global dominance. He contrasts America’s relatively brief period of hegemony with the Netherlands’ similarly short primacy and Britain’s far longer era of leadership.Decline in all those cases was not inevitable and did not respond to global capitalist cycles. Rather, decline is the product of elites’ success in grabbing control of resources and governmental powers. Not only are ordinary people harmed, but also capitalists become increasingly unable to coordinate their interests and adopt policies and make investments necessary to counter economic and geopolitical competitors elsewhere in the world.Conflicts among elites and challenges by non-elites determine the timing and mould the contours of decline. Lachmann traces the transformation of US politics from an era of elite consensus to present-day paralysis combined with neoliberal plunder, explains the paradox of an American military with an unprecedented technological edge unable to subdue even the weakest enemies, and the consequences of finance’s cannibalisation of the US economy.

    American banks, to their eternal discredit, long played a key role in disenfranchising nonwhite urbanites and, through redlining, blighting the very city neighborhoods that needed the most investment. Banks long showed little compunction in aiding and abetting blockbusting, discrimination, and outright theft from nonwhites. They denied funds to entire neighborhoods or actively exploited them, to the benefit of suburban whites—an economic white flight to sharpen the pain caused by the demographic one. And yet, the dynamic between banks and urban communities was not static, and positive urban development, supported by banks, became possible. In After Redlining, Rebecca K. Marchiel illuminates how, exactly, urban activists were able to change some banks’ behavior to support investment in communities that they had once abandoned. The leading activists arose in an area hit hard by banks’ discriminatory actions and politics: Chicago’s West Side. A multiracial coalition of low- and moderate-income city residents, this Saul Alinsky–inspired group championed urban reinvestment. And amazingly, it worked: their efforts inspired national action, culminating in the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the Community Reinvestment Act. ​ While the battle for urban equity goes on, After Redlining provides a blueprint of hope.

    

    "Ain't I an American?" the famous words of Langston Hughes, is a question every Black person unwittingly asks themselves. The playing field for Whites and Blacks is not equal, whether in education, science and technology, life expectancy, earning, or social strata. Blacks have been discriminated against and excluded based on their skin color, which creates the question of what their place is in America.There exist persistent Black inequalities in the structural make up of America; inequalities not inherent due to the differences in the abilities of Whites and Blacks but instead, due to the differences in access to opportunities between the two groups.Black workers in corporate America have to grapple with racial microaggressions in the workplace, which often involves White workers assuming that their Black counterparts are intellectually inferior to them. Thus, Blacks are passed over when important decisions are being made because of the belief that they have nothing intellectual to bring to the table; a phenomenon that is an obstacle to the upward mobility of Blacks in different organizations."Thriving While Black" portrays that Blacks are Americans too and should not have to be seen as less and unequal! Their humanity should not be reduced to mere negative stereotypes. If America truly prides itself in diversity, there shouldn't be a forced need for Blacks to adopt mainstream White culture, hair styling, speech mannerisms, dress codes, etc., and neglect their own African-American identity just to fit into corporate America. The beauty of diversity is not gathering different and diverse people and trying to make them act the same way. Instead, it is bringing diverse people together and allowing their diversity to thrive. This is the focus of this book.

    On one hand, we cannot possibly transition off fossil fuels without the financial might and entrepreneurial talent market forces alone can unlock. On the other, without radical changes to the way markets operate, capitalism will take us right off the climate cliff.Rejecting the old Left/Right ideologies, Rand develops a more pragmatic view capable of delivering practical solutions to this critical problem. A renewed capitalism harnessed to the task is the only way we might replace fossil fuels fast enough to mitigate severe climate risk. If we leave our dogma at the door, Rand argues, we might just build an economy that survives the century.