Best of
Social-Justice

2002

Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays


June Jordan - 2002
    The essays in this collection, which include her last writings and span the length of her extraordinary career, reveal Jordan as an incisive analyst of the personal and public costs of remaining committed to the ideal and practice of democracy. Willing to venture into the most painful contradictions of American culture and politics, Jordan comes back with lyrical honesty, wit, and wide-ranging intelligence in these accounts of her reckoning with life as a teacher, poet, activist, and citizen.

Communion: The Female Search for Love


bell hooks - 2002
    She continued her national dialogue with the bestselling Salvation: Black People and Love. Now hooks culminates her triumphant trilogy of love with Communion: The Female Search for Love.Intimate, revealing, provocative, Communion challenges every female to courageously claim the search for love as the heroic journey we must all choose to be truly free. In her trademark commanding and lucid language, hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by feminist movement, by women's full participation in the workforce, and by the culture of self-help.Communion is the heart-to-heart talk every woman -- mother, daughter, friend, and lover -- needs to have.

Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope


bell hooks - 2002
    Now comes Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope - a powerful, visionary work that will enrich our teaching and our lives. Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences. Teaching, she explains, can happen anywhere, any time - not just in college classrooms but in churches, in bookstores, in homes where people get together to share ideas that affect their daily lives.In Teaching Community bell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.Teachers of vision know that democratic education can never be confined to a classroom. Teaching - so often undervalued in our society -- can be a joyous and inclusive activity. bell hooks shows the way. "When teachers teach with love, combining care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust, we are often able to enter the classroom and go straight to the heart of the matter, which is knowing what to do on any given day to create the best climate for learning."

Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination


Robin D.G. Kelley - 2002
    Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From 'the preeminent historian of black popular culture' (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society.

The Culture of Make Believe


Derrick Jensen - 2002
    What begins as an exploration of the lines of thought and experience that run between the massive lynchings in early twentieth-century America to today's death squads in South America soon explodes into an examination of the very heart of our civilization. The Culture of Make Believe is a book that is as impeccably researched as it is moving, with conclusions as far-reaching as they are shocking.

This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation


Gloria E. Anzaldúa - 2002
    Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating have brought together an ambitious new collection of over 80 original contributions offering a bold new vision of women-of-color consciousness for the 21st century.Through personal narratives, theoretical essays, textual collage, poetry, letters, artwork and fiction, this bridge we call home examines and extends the discussion of issues at the center of the first Bridge, such as classism, homophobia, racism, identity politics, and community building, while exploring the additional issues of third wave feminism, Native sovereignty, lesbian pregnancy and mothering, transgendered issues, Arab-American stereotyping, Jewish identities, spiritual activism, and surviving academe. Written by women and men---both 'of color' and 'white,' located inside and outside the United States---and motivated by a desire for social justice, this bridge we call home invites feminists of all colors and genders to develop new forms of transcultural dialogues, practices, and alliances.Building on and pushing forward the revolutionary call for transformation announced over two decades ago, this bridge we call home will challenge readers to rethink existing categories and invent new individual and collective identities.

Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem


bell hooks - 2002
    With visionary insight, hooks exposes the underlying reality that it has been difficult—if not impossible—for our nation to create a culture that promotes and sustains healthy self-esteem. Without self-esteem people begin to lose their sense of agency. They feel powerless. They feel they can only be victims. The need for self-esteem never goes away. But it is never too late for any of us to acquire the healthy self-esteem that is needed for a fulfilling life. hooks gets to the heart and soul of the African-American identity crisis, offering critical insight and hard-won wisdom about what it takes to heal the scars of the past, promote and maintain self-esteem, and lay down the roots for a grounded community with a prosperous future. She examines the way historical movements for racial uplift fail to sustain our quest for self-esteem. Moving beyond a discussion of race, she identifies diverse barriers keeping us from well-being: the trauma of abandonment, constant shaming, and the loss of personal integrity. In highlighting the role of desegregation, education, the absence of progressive parenting, spiritual crisis, or fundamental breakdowns in communication between black women and men, bell hooks identifies mental health as the new revolutionary frontier—and provides guidance for healing within the black community.

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism


Bushra Rehman - 2002
    Now a new generation of brilliant, outspoken women of color is speaking to the concerns of a new feminism, and their place in it. Daisy Hernandez of Ms. magazine and poet Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to their experience—to the strength and rigidity of community and religion, to borders and divisions, both internal and external—and address issues that take feminism into the twenty-first century. One writer describes herself as a “mixed brown girl, Sri-Lankan and New England mill-town white trash,” and clearly delineates the organizing differences between whites and women of color: “We do not kick ass the way the white girls do, in meetings of NOW or riot grrl. For us, it’s all about family.” A Korean-American woman struggles to create her own identity in a traditional community: “Yam-ja-neh means nice, sweet, compliant. I’ve heard it used many times by my parents’ friends who don’t know shit about me.” An Arab-American feminist deconstructs the “quaint vision” of Middle-Eastern women with which most Americans feel comfortable. This impressive array of first-person accounts adds a much-needed fresh dimension to the ongoing dialogue between race and gender, and gives voice to the women who are creating and shaping the feminism of the future.

Under the Quilt of Night


Deborah Hopkinson - 2002
    She follows the moon into the woods, leading her loved ones away from their master under the quilt of night. Guided by the stars, they head north in the direction of freedom. At last, the girl sees a quilt with a center square made from deep blue fabric and knows it's a signal from friends on the Underground Railroad, welcoming her into their home. Can she bravely step forward and lead her family to freedom?

I'd Rather Teach Peace


Colman McCarthy - 2002
    In 1982, when he was invited to teach a course on writing in a public school in Washington, D.C., he responded, "I'd rather teach peace." What began as an experiment became a full-time career.McCarthy went on to teach his course on peace in a range of schools from a suburban high school in Chevy Chase to a juvenile prison, as well as Georgetown Law Center. I'd Rather Teach Peace tells the story of what goes on in these classrooms as McCarthy not only introduces the theory and practice of creative peacemaking but constantly surprises and challenges his students, subverting expectations about what education and life are really about.

Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare


Dorothy Roberts - 2002
    foster care system and its effects on black communities and the country as a whole. Tying the origins and impact of this disparity to racial injustice, Dorothy Roberts contends that child-welfare policy reflects a political choice to address startling rates of black child poverty by punishing parents instead of tackling poverty's societal roots. Using conversations with mothers battling the Chicago child-welfare system for custody of their children, along with national data, Roberts levels a powerful indictment of racial disparities in foster care and tells a moving story of the women and children who earn our respect in their fight to keep their families intact.

Navigating the Space Between Brillance and Madness: A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds


The Icarus Project - 2002
    We assembled the beautiful and jagged pieces of our collective experience, the lessons and the scars, to create an atlas of alternative maps to the particular breed of madness that gets called bipolar, and the ways people are making it through. Traveling through subconscious and waking worlds, from hospital waiting rooms to collective house kitchens, from the desert to the supermarket, these pages chart some of the underground tunnels beneath the mainstream medical model of treatment and the pathologizing language that alienates so many of us. These are maps made up of ideas and stories and examples from many people's lives. Some of these maps will help you to navigate through the existing architecture of the mental health establishment; some of them might help you figure out for yourself where you stand in relation to the larger ecosystem of the earth and the people who inhabit it.We've drawn stories from letters, journals, articles, and the forums of the Icarus Project website to create 80 pages of art, imagination, and mutual aid. Originally published in March, 2004, Navigating the Space is currently in its 5th printing.

Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle


Manning Marable - 2002
    It is organized chronologically in five sections with introductory essays and narrative captions by two noted scholars, Manning Marable and Leith Mullings. This selection of photographs, many never seen before, reveals the journey in all its complexity and nuance, covering the struggle in its many different aspects - political, social, economic and cultural. Still relevant today, the photographs tell of the tremendous courage, determination and power of a people fighting for a common goal.

Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor


Gary N. Smith - 2002
    The only thing that makes sense to me is to use them in the service of the poor. It is at their feet that I find myself.”For almost ten years, Gary Smith, S.J., lived and worked among the poor of Portland, Oregon. With this memoir, he invites us to walk with him and meet some of the abandoned, over-looked, and forgotten members of our society with whom he has shared his life. Just as Smith found a deeper, truer understanding of himself and of the heart of God through his work, these people and their stories stand to transform us. “Although its subject matter is bleak, the book is not. Smith has found love amid the despair. His book is touching, at times hopeful, and the kind of book that is hard to put down, that fascinates, horrifies, and rivets one’s attention.”—Booklist “Smith takes us where we would rather not go, the heart of the poor, the lonely, and the abandoned. In true Ignatian fashion, he finds God there. An unforgettable experience for those who have the courage to walk with him.”—Michael L. Cook, S.J. Professor of theology Gonzaga University “Smith performs modern-day miracles of compassion, and his book sets a new standard for writing about the rich faith of those who are materially poor. His stirring prose and utter honesty will change the hearts and minds of many readers.”—Gerald T. Cobb, S.J. Chair, department of English Seattle University

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace


Howard Zinn - 2002
    It is time now for the human race to hold still, to delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both ancient and modern.--Arundhati RoyThe Power of Nonviolence, the first anthology of alternatives to war with a historical perspective, with an introduction by Howard Zinn about September 11 and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks, presents the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the last 2,500 years of human history. Arranged chronologically, covering the major conflagrations in the world, The Power of Nonviolence is a compelling step forward in the study of pacifism, a timely anthology that fills a void for people looking for responses to crisis that are not based on guns or bombs.Included are some of the most original thinkers about peace and nonviolence-Buddha, Scott Nearing, Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Jane Addams, William Penn on the end of war, Dorothy Day's position on Pacifism, Erich Fromm, and Rajendra Prasad. Supplementing these classic voices are more recent advocates of peace: Albert Camus' Neither Victims Nor Executioners, A. J. Muste's impressive Getting Rid of War, Martin Luther King's influential Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam, and Arundhati Roy's War Is Peace, plus many others.

Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy


James S. Hirsch - 2002
    In the aftermath, as many as 300 were dead, and 6,000 Greenwood residents were herded into detention camps.James Hirsch focuses on the de facto apartheid that brought about the Greenwood riot and informed its eighty-year legacy, offering an unprecedented examination of how a calamity spawns bigotry and courage and how it has propelled one community's belated search for justice. Tulsa's establishment and many victims strove to forget the events of 1921, destroying records pertaining to the riot and refusing even to talk about it. This cover-up was carried through the ensuing half-century with surprising success. Even so, the riot wounded Tulsa profoundly, as Hirsch demonstrates in a compelling combination of history, journalism, and character study. White Tulsa thrived, and the city became a stronghold of Klan activity as workingmen and high civic officials alike flocked to the Hooded Order. Meanwhile, Greenwood struggled as residents strove to rebuild their neighborhood despite official attempts to thwart them. As the decades passed, the economic and social divides between white and black worlds deepened. Through the 1960s and 1970s, urban renewal helped to finish what the riot had started, blighting Greenwood. Paradoxically, however, the events of 1921 saved Tulsa from the racial strife that befell so many other American cities in the 1960s, as Tulsans white and black would do almost anything to avoid a reprise of the riot.Hirsch brings the riot's legacy up to the present day, tracing how the memory of the massacre gradually revived as academics and ordinary citizens of all colors worked tirelessly to uncover evidence of its horrors. Hirsch also highlights Tulsa's emergence at the forefront of the burgeoning debate over reparations. RIOT AND REMEMBRANCE shows vividly, chillingly, how the culture of Jim Crow caused not only the grisly incidents of 1921 but also those of Rosewood, Selma, and Watts, as well as less widely known atrocities. It also addresses the cruel irony that underlies today's battles over affirmative action and reparations: that justice and reconciliation are often incompatible goals. Finally, Hirsch details how Tulsa may be overcoming its horrific legacy, as factions long sundered at last draw together.

Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge


Cheech Marin - 2002
    This text features the work of 26 Chicano artists and marks the transition of this unique and exciting movement into the critical fold of contemporary art.

A Cry from the Streets: Rescuing Brazil's Forgotten Children (International Adventures)


Jeannette Lukasse - 2002
    From the streets of Amsterdam to remote Pacific islands to the jungles of Ecuador and beyond, each international adventure that emerges is a dramatic episode that could be directed only by the hand of God. A dramatic story of rescue and restoration unfolds when a young couple goes to live among the street children of Brazil.

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future


Margaret J. Wheatley - 2002
    Such change will not come from governments or corporations, she argues, but from the ageless process of thinking together in conversation. Turning to One Another encourages this process. Part I explores the power of conversation and the conditions-simplicity, personal courage, real listening, and diversity-that support it. Part II contains quotes and images to encourage the reader to pause and reflect, and to prepare for the work ahead-convening truly meaningful conversations. Part III provides ten "conversation starters"-questions that in Wheatley's experience have led people to share their deepest beliefs, fears, and hopes.

Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy Of Love


Antonia Darder - 2002
    Freire believed that education should be used for liberation by helping learners reflect on their experiences historically, giving immediate reality to issues of racism, sexism, and the exploitation of workers. Known as one of the most influential theoretical innovators of the twentieth century, his views have left a significant mark on progressive thinkers about education and liberation. Reinventing Paulo Freire is an homage to him by protégé Antonia Darder. Here, she explores the legacy of Freire, interviews eight teachers who studied his work, and reflects on the act of teaching as demonstrated by Freire himself. The interviews take the form of first person narratives; the epilogue consists simply of a letter and a poem. Reinventing Paulo Friere was selected as a Featured Publication by Kellog Fellows Leadership Alliance in 2003.

The Critical Pedagogy Reader


Antonia Darder - 2002
    Since its first publication, The Critical Pedagogy Reader has firmly established itself as the leading collection of classic and contemporary essays by the major thinkers in the field of critical pedagogy.

Troubling Education: Queer Activism and Antioppressive Pedagogy


Kevin K. Kumashiro - 2002
    Few books have addressed research for teachers to turn to as a resource for classroom practice but here Kumashiro draws on interviews with gay activists as a starting point for discussion of models of reading and challenging oppression.

Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination


Scott Plous - 2002
    Interdisciplinary in scope and approach, this anthology combines research articles, opinion polls, legal decisions, news reports, personal narratives, and more. It focuses on perpetrators, bystanders, and social institutions.

Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South


Catherine Fosl - 2002
    One of the few white people, particularly from the South, to join the southern black freedom movement in its nascent years in the 1950s, Braden became a role model and inspiration for the thousands of young white people that joined the mass movement a decade later. Braden stands nearly alone among other women of her race, class, region, and generation in her dedication to social change. Born in 1924, Braden came of age after the women's rights and social reform crusades of the early part of the 20th century, and after the young activist women of the 1960s launched the civil rights, student, and women's liberation movements. Yet Braden's life has intersected on some level with most of the great social movements of her lifetime, and represents a central link that connects the southern protest movements of the 1930s and 1940s to the mass civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The aWAKE Project: Uniting against the African AIDS Crisis


Jenny EatonGeorge W. Bush - 2002
    What can you do to help?"Today, this very day, 5,500 Africans will die of AIDS. If this isn't emergency, what is?" -Bono (U2)The aWAKE Project is a collection of stories and essays geared toward educating and mobilizing Americans to help with the AIDS crisis in Africa. Action is needed for a continent on which five people die every minute from the deadly AIDS virus. aWAKE stands for: AIDS-Working toward Awareness, Knowledge and Engagement. Compiled of articles written by significant speakers on the AIDS issue, ranging from Nelson Mandela to Kevin Max, The aWAKE Project provides poignant stories and compelling statistics, encouraging the reader to care and even take action to battle this horrific crisis.A significant portion of the proceeds from The aWAKE Project will be donated to Jubilee 2000 and World Vision's Hope Iniative for Africa.Contributors include: Johanna McGreary, Nelson Mandela, Senator Bill Frist, Mary Graham, Desmond Tutu, Margaret Becker, Jimmy Carter, Jeffrey Sachs, Kevin Max, Jesse Helms, Kofi Annan, Out of Eden, Dikembe Mutombo, Luci Swindoll, Michael Tait, Charlie Peacock, President Olusegun Obsanjo of Nigeria, Bono, Nadine Gordimer, President George W. Bush, Danny Glover, Ambassador Rachel Gbenyon-Diggs, Mark Schoofs, Greg Barz, Paul O'Neill, Noelina Nakumisa, World Bank Report, and others."As featured on the official U2 website."

Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment


Susan Starbuck - 2002
    In this book, Hazel herself tells the stories. From twenty years of taped conversations, Susan Starbuck has fashioned both a biography and a historical document, the tale of a century's forces and events as played out in one woman's extraordinary life.Hazel Wolf earned a national reputation as an environmentalist and was awarded the National Audubon Society's Medal of Excellence, an honor she shared with Rachel Carson and Jimmy Carter. She laid the groundwork for a unique coalition of Native Americans and environmentalists who are now working together on issues related to nuclear energy, fisheries, and oil pipelines. She lectured and taught at schools and universities all over the United States. She lobbied Congress on irrigration, labor rights, nuclear energy, and peace, and she corresponded with a global network of environmental leaders. But for all her influence, she never held a political post higher than precinct committee officer in Seattle's 43rd legislative district, and her highest office in the environmental movement was that of secretary in the Seattle Audubon Society, where she served for thirty-five years.This book follows Hazel Wolf from childhood to old age, a lifetime of burning with a fierce desire for justice. She saw the quest for justice as a collective responsibility. Time and again, she met that challenge head on. Whether organizing for labor rights or founding chapters of the Audubon Society, battling to save old-growth forests or fighting deportation to her native Canada as a communist, over and over she put herself in the line of fire. "I was just there," she said, "powerless and strong, someone who wouldn't chicken out."

Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887


Jonathan Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio - 2002
    Making extensive use of legislative texts, contemporary newspapers, and important works by Hawaiian historians and others, Osorio plots the course of events that transformed Hawaii from a traditional subsistence economy to a modern nation, taking into account the many individuals nearly forgotten by history who wrestled with each new political and social change. A final poignant chapter links past events with the struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty today.

Writings from Commonweal


Dorothy Day - 2002
    They range from the personal to the polemical; from youthful enthusiasm to the gratitude of an aged warrior; sketches from works in progress; portraits of prisoners and dissidents; and a gifted reporter's dispatches from the flash points of mid-twentieth-century social and economic conflict. Day's writing offers readers not only an overview of her fascinating life but a compendium of her prophetic insights, spiritual depth, and unforgettable prose.Chapters are *The Brother and the Rooster, - *Guadalupe, - *Letter From Mexico City, - *Spring Festival in Mexico, - *Bed, - *Now We Are Home Again, - *Notes From Florida, - *East Twelfth Street, - *Review: Saint Elizabeth by Elizabeth von Schmidt-Pali, - *Real Revolutionists, - *Review: The Catholic Anthology by Thomas Walsh, - *For the Truly Poor, - *Saint John of the Cross, - *Houses of Hospitality, - *The House on Mott Street, - *Tale of Two Capitals, - *Letter: 'In the Name of the Staff,'- *King, Ramsey and Connor, - *It Was a Good Dinner, - *About Mary, - *Tobacco Road, - *Review: In the Steps of Moses by Louis Golding, - *Review: Our Lady of the Birds by Louis J.A. Mercier, - *Peter and Women, - *Letter: 'Things Worth Fighting For?'- *The Scandal of the Works of Mercy, - *Traveling by Bus, - *Letter: 'Blood, Sweat and Tears,'- *The Story of Steve Hergenhan, - *Priest of the Immediate, - *We Plead Guilty, - *Letter: 'From Dorothy Day,'- *Pilgrimage to Mexico, - *In Memory of Ed Willock, - *Southern Pilgrimage, - *A.J., - *On Hope, - and *A Reminiscence at 75. -Patrick Jordan, managing editor of Commonweal, is a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker. He resides in Staten Island, New York."

Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice


Mab Segrest - 2002
    As she moves from place to place, she speculates on the effects of globalization and urban development on individuals, examines the struggles for racial, economic, and sexual equality, and narrates her own history as a lesbian in the American South. From the principle that we all belong to the human community, Segrest uses her personal experience as a filter for larger political and cultural issues. Her writings bring together such groups as the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, fledging gay rights activists in Zimbabwe, and resistance fighters in El Salvador. Segrest expertly plumbs her own personal experiences for organizing principles and maxims to combat racism, homophobia, sexism, and economic exploitation.

Reflections Of A Citizen Teacher: Literacy, Democracy, And The Forgotten Students Of Addison High


Todd Destigter - 2002
    

Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World


Bill Bigelow - 2002
    The book alerts readers to the challenges we face--from child labor to sweatshops, from global warming to destruction of the rain forests--and also spotlights the enormous courage and creativity of people working to set things right. This essential resource includes role plays, interviews, poetry, stories, background readings, and hands-on teaching tools. A winner of the World Hunger Year Media Award.

Mercy at Midnight: How One Courageous Woman Set Prisoners Free


Lois Hoadley Dick - 2002
    Referred to as a 'friend of prisoners,' she started visiting prisons in Finland at the age of 20. Mercy at Midnight offers a good story, an inspiring Christian example, and an interesting look at Finland and its culture.

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People


Carole Boston Weatherford - 2002
    Weatherford's poems, together with haunting black-and-white images, create portraits of captured Africans, slaves on the auction block, heroes of freedom, craftsmen and storytellers. These are the men and women, ordinary folks as well as legendary heroes, who made their people proud and strong and built the bridge to a promising future. Readers of all ages and cultures will treasure Remember the Bridge.

Famous African-American Women Coloring Book


Cal Massey - 2002
    Forty-five illustrations portray activist Coretta Scott King, educator Mary McLeod Bethune, actresses Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters, singers Marian Anderson and Ella Fitzgerald, writers Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston, athletes Althea Gibson and Wilma Rudolph, as well as: Sojourner Truth; Phillis Wheatley; Oprah Winfrey; Toni Morrison; Whitney Houston; Shirley Chisholm; Leontyne Price; Jackie Joyner-Kersee; Rosa Parks; and 26 other notable figures.Informative captions highlight the remarkable achievements of these women.

Anti-Racist Social Work


Lena Dominelli - 2002
    It contextualises and considers changes in anti-racist practice since the first edition to situate its narratives within the globalising world that social work is currently embedded. It addresses the current disillusionment with attempts to create social relationships that transcend racial divides to create egalitarian social relations. The complexity of racialisation processes, identity politics, the contemporary sites for the enactment of racist dynamics and roles that social workers can play in stemming the unfolding human drama of misery that racism produces through its impact on their profession are explored in different practice settings and policy provisions. The book ends on an optimistic note, contrary to the pessimism of postmodern analysts. It argues that by understanding how racist practices at the personal, institutional and cultural levels impede endeavours aimed at securing racial justice, and forming alliances and partnerships aimed at promoting equality with a range of stakeholders, social workers can do much to enhance social justice and people's well-being in their own practice and the broader society.

A New Weave of Power, People and Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation


Lisa VeneKlasen - 2002
    It breaks down the traditional boxes separating human rights, rule of law, development, and governance, and reconnects them in order to create an integrated approach to rights-based political empowerment. A New Weave of Power, People & Politics combines concrete and practical 'action steps' with a sound theoretical foundation to help users understand the process of advocacy planning and implementation. This is an 'Action Guide' that builds on the authors' 50 years of combined experience in advocacy, gender, human rights, popular education, and social change. These collective experiences were gathered in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and North America, and they range from participatory research and community development, to neighbourhood organizing and legal rights education, to large-scale campaign advocacy. It goes beyond the first generation of advocacy manuals to delve more deeply into questions of citizenship, constituency-building, social change, gender, and accountability.http://developmentbookshop.com/a-new-...

Supreme Justice: Speeches and Writings: Thurgood Marshall


Thurgood Marshall - 2002
    Clay Smith, Jr., focus on the Detroit riots of the 1940s and 1950s, one of the most important periods of Marshall's life, culminating in his arguments before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, which in 1954 struck down de jure segregation in public education. Throughout the materials from the next four decades, Marshall comes to life as a teacher, leader, and strategist, explaining, preaching, and cajoling audiences to stand up for their rights. The addresses collected by Smith present a less formal picture of Marshall, from which one can learn much about the depth of his skills and strategies to conquer racism, promote democracy, and create a world influenced by his vision for a just and moral society.Supreme Justice reveals Marshall as a dogged opponent of unequal schools and a staunch proponent of the protection of black people from violence and the death penalty. Through his own words we see the genius of a man with an ability to inspire diverse crowds in clear language and see him also demonstrate his powers of persuasion in formal settings outside the court. His writings not only enhance our understanding of his groundbreaking advocacy in law and social conflicts, they reveal the names of men and women of all races who made significant contributions leading to Brown v. Board of Education and beyond.