Best of
Social-Justice

1992

A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story


Elaine Brown - 1992
    More than a journey through a turbulent time in American history, this is the story of a black woman's battle to define herself.

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination


Toni Morrison - 1992
    She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Black Looks: Race and Representation


bell hooks - 1992
    In these twelve essays, bell hooks digs ever deeper into the personal and political consequences of contemporary representations of race and ethnicity within a white supremacist culture.

Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism


Derrick A. Bell - 1992
    These essays shed light on some of the most perplexing and vexing issues of our day: affirmative action, the disparity between civil rights law and reality, the “racist outbursts” of some black leaders, the temptation toward violent retaliation, and much more.

Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Impacts)


Paulo Freire - 1992
    Pedagogy of Hope represents a chronicle and synthesis of the ongoing social struggles of Latin America and the Third World since the landmark publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Here, Freire once again explores his best-known analytical themes--with even deeper understanding and a greater wisdom. Certainly, all of these themes have to be analyzed as elements of a body of critical, liberationist pedagogy. In this book, we come to understand the author's pedagogical thinking even better, through the critical seriousness, humanistic objectivity, and engaged subjectivity which, in all of Freire's books, are always wedded to a unique creative innovativeness. Pedagogy of Hope is a testimonial to the inner vitality of generations that have not prospered, and to the often silent, generous strength of millions who refuse to let hope be extinguished: people throughout the world who have been empowered by Pedagogy of the Oppressed and all of Paulo Freire's writings.

Race: How Blacks And Whites Think And Feel About The American Obsession


Studs Terkel - 1992
    In a rare and revealing look at how people in America truly feel about race, Terkel brings out the full complexity of the thoughts and emotions of both blacks and white, uncovering a fascinating narrative of changing opinions. Preachers and street punks, college students and Klansmen, interracial couples, the nephew of the founder of apartheid, and Emmett Till's mother are among those whose voices appear in Race. In all, nearly one hundred Americans talk openly about attitudes that few are willing to admit in public: feelings about affirmative action, gentrification, secret prejudices, and dashed hopes.

Race-Ing Justice, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality


Toni Morrison - 1992
    Yet even as the televised proceedings shocked and galvanized viewers not only in this country but the world over, they cast a long shadow on essential issues that define America.In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, Toni Morrison contributes an introduction and brings together eighteen provocative essays, all but one written especially for this book, by prominent and distinguished academicians—black and white, male and female. These writings powerfully elucidate not only the racial and sexual but also the historical, political, cultural, legal, psychological, and linguistic aspects of a signal and revelatory moment in American history.With contributions by:Homi K. Bhabha, Margaret A. Burnham, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Paula Giddings, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Claudia Brodsky Lacour, Wahneema Lubiano, Manning Marable, Nellie Y. McKay, Toni Morrison, Nell Irvin Painter, Gayle Pemberton, Andrew Ross, Christine Stansell, Carol M. Swain, Michael Thelwell, Kendall Thomas, Cornel West, Patricia J. Williams

Rescuers: Portraits in Moral Courage in the Holocaust


Gay Block - 1992
    Most of those interviewed felt their actions were done out of friendship and for people caught in a web of hatred and anti-Semitism.

The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans


Kathy Russell - 1992
    A courageous, humane, and provocative examination  of how differences in color and features among  African Americans have played and continue to play a  role in their professional lives, friendships,  romances, and families.

The Measure of Our Success: Letter to My Children and Yours


Marian Wright Edelman - 1992
    It struck a deep chord in me as a mother trying to raise a daughter in difficult times."  — Hillary ClintonThe Measure of Our Success is a book to turn lives around: a compassionate message for parents trying to raise moral children, a tough and searching book that ought to be required reading for every young American.The book speaks powerfully to the author's three sons about the mothering Marian Wright Edelman gave them—mothering, she explains, that could not ignore other people's children who were in greater need. In the book's centerpiece, "Twenty-Five Lessons for Life," we're invited to listen as a loving and extraordinarily committed mother gives her children lessons to live by. The Measure of Our Success is an open letter to all America, and a timely message of hope and purpose for everyone.

Native Land and Foreign Desires: Pehea Lā E Pono Ai? How Shall We Live in Harmony?


Lilikalā K. Kame'eleihiwa - 1992
    In the end, everything and everyone goes back to the aina (land). Have a good read. It's the truth about what happened in Hawaii over a hundred years ago and why Hawaiians still struggle in the aftermath of greed.

Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution


Oren Lyons - 1992
    European philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Jean Jacques Rousseau had begun pressing for democratic reforms in Europe on the basis of glowing reports by early settlers about the New World and its native inhabitants. The founding fathers of the United States, in turn, were inspired to fight for independence and to create the great American documents of freedom through contact with Native American statesmen and exposure to American Indian societies based on individual freedom, representative government and the democratic union of tribes.Yet American Indians have never been acknowledged for their many contributions to the founding of the United States of America, and they have never been permitted to fully share the benefits of the freedoms they helped establish. Exiled in the Land of the Free is a dramatic recounting of early American history and an eloquent call for reform that will not be ignored.Written by eight prominent Native American leaders and scholars, each a specialist in his area of expertise, Exiled in the Land of the Free is a landmark volume, sure to be read by generations to come. An aspect of American history that has been ignored and denied for centuries is the extent to which we are indebted to Native Americans for the principles and practices on which our democratic institutions are based. This is the first work to recognize that legacy and trace our model of participatory democracy to its Native American roots.This book, which was written into the Congressional Record, has major implications for future relations between Indian tribes and the governments of the United States and other nations. It presents the strongest case ever made for Native American sovereignty. American history has finally been written--not from the European point of view--but from an Indian perspective.

Still Loved by the Sun: A Rape Survivor's Journal


Migael Scherer - 1992
    In moving detail, Migael Scherer describes the external facts of her attack - she was grabbed from behind with a knife at her neck one morning in a Seattle laundromat, raped, and strangled - as well as the ordeal of reporting and testifying. Incredibly, the more compelling drama is her internal struggle to recover from these events. When Scherer is raped, her sense of time and purpose is shattered. She collapses into a confusion of images and feelings, most of them terrifying, all of them unpredictable. Years of coastal cruising with her husband of twenty years had taught her that safety at sea often depends on an accurate sense of position. Just as sailors keep a log of their voyages, she keeps a journal to help her navigate the uncharted waters. Reading over her shoulder, we journey with her through the aftermath of violence toward the slow emergence of the self. As with some books that have come from the experiences of war and illness, Still Loved by the Sun transcends the brutal facts to reveal underlying emotional truths, giving dignity back to the survivor. An inspiring story of personal triumph and recovery, it is also a story of love and the tests of love that a crisis brings. Rape leaves a wake of trauma, fear, and powerlessness - and for a very long time. By sharing her story and her gifts as a writer, Scherer helps us understand what this feels like for survivors and for those who help and comfort them.

Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement


Craig Scharlin - 1992
    Their efforts led to the creation of the United Farm Workers union under Cesar Chavez, with Philip Vera Cruz as its vice-president and highest-ranking Filipino officer.Philip Vera Cruz (1904-1994) embodied the experiences of the manong generation, an enormous wave of Filipino immigrants who came to the United States between 1910 and 1930. Instead of better opportunities, they found racial discrimination, deplorable living conditions, and oppressive labor practices. In his deeply reflective and thought-provoking oral memoir, Vera Cruz explores the toll these conditions took on both families and individuals.Craig Scharlin and Lilia V. Villanueva met Philip Vera Cruz in 1974 as volunteers in the construction of Agbayani Village, the United Farm Workers retirement complex in Delano, California. This oral history, first published in 1992, is the product of hundreds of hours of interviews. Elaine H. Kim teaches Asian American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context.

Calling: Essays on Teaching in the Mother Tongue


Gail B. Griffin - 1992
    through her first sabbatical, this provocative collection also wrestles with larger issues of contemporary campus life including sexual harassment, faculty politics, male vs. female development, and classroom pedagogy.These moving essays show teaching to be a powerful, dangerous intersection of lives at critical moments, and contribute to the picture of academe not as an "ivory tower", but as a world of conflict and change.

No Hiding Place: Empowerment and Recovery for Our Troubled Communities


Cecil Williams - 1992
    Photographs.

The Issue Is Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence and Resistance


Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz - 1992
    essays on women, Jews, violence, and resistance