| Title | Last Name | First Name | Description | Publication Date | Key Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This Bridge Called My Back, Fortieth Anniversary Edition: Writings by Radical Women of Color | Morage & Anzaldúa | Cherrie & Gloria | Originally released in 1981, This Bridge Called My Back is a testimony to women of color feminism as it emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, “the complex confluence of identities—race, class, gender, and sexuality—systemic to women of color oppression and liberation.” | November 1, 2021 | Radical feminism, intersectionality, women of color, social justice, activism |
| We Are Not Broken | Johnson | George M. | This is the vibrant story of George, Garrett, Rall, and Rasul — four children raised by Nanny, their fiercely devoted grandmother. The boys hold each other close through early brushes with racism, memorable experiences at the family barbershop, and first loves and losses. And with Nanny at their center, they are never broken. George M. Johnson captures the unique experience of growing up as a Black boy in America through rich family stories that explore themes of vulnerability, sacrifice, and culture. Complete with touching letters from the grandchildren to their beloved matriarch and a full color photo insert, this heartwarming and heartbreaking memoir is destined to become a modern classic of emerging adulthood. | September 7, 2021 | Mental health, resilience, healing, trauma, black identity |
| Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self Determination | Boyd | Herb | The author of Baldwin’s Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit – a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city’s past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation’s fabric. Herb Boyd moved to Detroit in 1943, as race riots were engulfing the city. Though he did not grasp their full significance at the time, this critical moment would be one of many he witnessed that would mold his political activism and exposed a city restless for change. In Black Detroit, he reflects on his life and this landmark place, in search of understanding why Detroit is a special place for black people. With a stunning eye for detail and passion for Detroit, Boyd celebrates the music, manufacturing, politics, and culture that make it an American original. | June 5, 2018 | Black empowerment, self-determination, detroit history, social movements, racial justice |
| How to Raise an Antiracist | Kendi | Ibram X. | The tragedies and reckonings around racism that are rocking the country have created a specific crisis for parents, educators, and other caregivers: How do we talk to our children about racism? How do we teach children to be antiracist? How are kids at different ages experiencing race? How are racist structures impacting children? How can we inspire our children to avoid our mistakes, to be better, to make the world better? These are the questions Ibram X. Kendi found himself avoiding as he anticipated the birth of his first child. Like most parents or parents-to-be, he felt the reflex to not talk to his child about racism, which he feared would stain her innocence and steal away her joy. But research and experience changed his mind, and he realized that raising his child to be antiracist would actually protect his child, and preserve her innocence and joy. He realized that teaching students about the reality of racism and the myth of race provides a protective education in our diverse and unequal world. He realized that building antiracist societies safeguards all children from the harms of racism. Following the accessible genre of his internationally bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi combines a century of scientific research with a vulnerable and compelling personal narrative of his own journey as a parent and as a child in school. The chapters follow the stages of child development from pregnancy to toddler to schoolkid to teenager. It is never too early or late to start raising young people to be antiracist. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. | June 14, 2022 | Antiracism, parenting, education, racial awareness, social justice |
| How to be an Antiracist | Kendi | Ibram X. | Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes listeners through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help listeners see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. | August 13, 2019 | Antiracism, racial equity, systemic racism, identity, social justice |
| An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World | Khan-Cullors | Patrisse | In An Abolitionist’s Handbook, New York Times bestselling author, artist, and activist Patrisse Cullors charts a framework for how everyday artists, activists, and organizers can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives, and real-life anecdotes from Cullors, An Abolitionist’s Handbook asks us to lead with love, fierce compassion, and precision. Readers will learn 12 steps to change yourself and the world. | January 25, 2022 | Abolition, social change, activism, justice reform, empathy |
| An African American and Latinx History of the United States | Ortíz | Paul | Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the “Global South” was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations like “manifest destiny” and “Jacksonian democracy”, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism. Drawing on rich narratives and primary source documents, Ortiz links racial segregation in the Southwest and the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the 20th century, to May 1, 2006, known as International Workers’ Day, when migrant laborers – Chicana/os, Afrocubanos, and immigrants from every continent on earth – united in resistance on the first “Day Without Immigrants”. As African American civil rights activists fought Jim Crow laws and Mexican labor organizers warred against the suffocating grip of capitalism, Black and Spanish-language newspapers, abolitionists, and Latin American revolutionaries coalesced around movements built between people from the United States and people from Central America and the Caribbean. In stark contrast to the resurgence of “America First” rhetoric, Black and Latinx intellectuals and organizers today have historically urged the United States to build bridges of solidarity with the nations of the Americas. Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights. | January 30, 2018 | African American history, Latinx history, racial justice, colonialism, social movements |
| This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism | Applewhite | Ashton | In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world, and elders should just step aside for the new generation. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs, too, until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from apprehensive Boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and offers a rousing call to action. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride! | March 5, 2019 | Ageism, social justice, aging, activism, equality |
| Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero | Weinstein | Simcha | Barricade Books re-introduces Up, Up, and Oy Vey to the book publishing world. From the birth of Krypton in Cleveland to the Caped Crusader, the Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, the X-Men and more, Up, Up, and Oy Vey chronicles the story about the origins of the most famous superheroes. Jewish contribution to pop-culture is well-documented, but the Jewish role in the creation of action comic superheroes has not been ― until now! | June 16, 2009 | Jewish history, comics, superheroes, culture, representation |
| Pageboy: A Memoir | Page | Elliott | “Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back. With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare. As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Until enough was enough. | June 6, 2023 | Memoir, identity, LGBTQ+, gender, personal journey |
| Where Is the Middle East?: Geography of the Middle East Grade 3 | Children’s Geography & Cultures Books | Professor | Baby | Locate the Middle East on a map. But don’t just stop there because with the information included in this book, you can really be in the Middle East. This book includes definitive information such the physical geography, culture, and traditions of the region. How and why do people there live the way they do? Know the answers by listening. | November 22, 2021 | Middle east, geography, culture, education, children’s book |
| The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys | Moore Jr. | Eddie | Schools that routinely fail Black boys are not extraordinary. In fact, they are all-too ordinary. If we are to succeed in positively shifting outcomes for Black boys and young men, we must first change the way school is “done.” That’s where the eight in ten teachers who are White women fit in . . . and this urgently needed resource is made specifically for them as a way to help them understand, respect and connect with all of their students. So much more than a call to action—but that, too!—The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys brings together research, activities, personal stories, and interviews to help us all embrace the deep realities and thrilling potential of this crucial American task. If you are a teacher who is afraid to talk about race, that’s okay. Fear is a normal human emotion and racial competence is a skill that can be learned. We promise that reading this extraordinary guide will be a life-changing first step forward . . . for both you and the students you serve. | March 30, 2023 | Education, race, equity, teaching, social justice |
| How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance | Solomon | Akiba | This celebration of Black resistance, from protests to art to sermons to joy, offers a blueprint for the fight for freedom and justice – and ideas for how each of us can contribute. Many of us are facing unprecedented attacks on our democracy, our privacy, and our hard-won civil rights. If you’re Black in the US, this is not new. As Colorlines editors Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin show, Black Americans subvert and resist life-threatening forces as a matter of course. In this book, leading organizers, artists, journalists, comedians, and filmmakers offer wisdom on how they fight White supremacy. It’s a must-read for anyone new to resistance work, and for the next generation of leaders building a better future. | March 26, 2019 | Activism, Resistance, Racial Justice, Black Empowerment, Social Change |
| Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America | Benson | Michael | As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back—until an organized resistance of notorious mobsters waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst. Gangland-style. . . . In this thrilling blow-by-blow account, acclaimed crime writer Michael Benson uncovers the shocking truth about the insidious rise of Nazism in America—and the Jewish mobsters who stomped it out. | April 26, 2022 | History, Jewish Resistance, World War II, Organized Crime, Anti-Fascism |
| Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities | García | Gina Ann | In Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Gina Ann Garcia explores how institutions are serving Latinx students, both through traditional and innovative approaches. Drawing on empirical data collected over two years at three HSIs, Garcia adopts a counternarrative approach to highlight the ways that HSIs are reframing what it means to serve Latinx college students. She questions the extent to which they have been successful in doing this while exploring how those institutions grapple with the tensions that emerge from confronting traditional standards and measures of success for postsecondary institutions. Laying out what it means for these three extremely different HSIs, Garcia also highlights the differences in the way each approaches its role in serving Latinxs. Incorporating the voices of faculty, staff, and students, Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions asserts that HSIs are undervalued, yet reveals that they serve an important role in the larger landscape of postsecondary institutions. | March 12, 2019 | Higher education, hispanic-serving institutions, diversity, equity, inclusion |
| Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference | Stevenson | Howard C. | Based on extensive research, this provocative volume explores how schools are places where racial conflicts often remain hidden at the expense of a healthy school climate and the well-being of students of color. Most schools fail to act on racial microaggressions because the stress of negotiating such conflicts is extremely high due to fears of incompetence, public exposure, and accusation. Instead of facing these conflicts head on, schools perpetuate a set of avoidance or coping strategies. The author of this much-needed book uncovers how racial stress undermines student achievement. Students, educators, and social service support staff will find workable strategies to improve their racial literacy skills to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful encounters when they happen. | January 3, 2014 | Education, racial literacy, diversity, equity, inclusion |
| Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations That Last | Miranda-Wolff | Alida | Clear, actionable steps for you to build new values, experiences, and perspectives into your organizational culture, infusing it with the diversity, inclusion, and belonging employees need to feel accepted, be their best selves, and do their best work. Bypass the faulty processes and communication styles that make change impossible in so many other organizations; access these practical tools and ideas for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in your company. Filled with actionable advice, Alida Miranda-Wolff learned through her own struggles being an outsider in a work culture that did not value inclusion, and having since worked with more than 60 organizations to prioritize DEI initiatives and all the value and richness they add to the workplace. | Febuary 15, 2022 | Inclusion, workplace culture, diversity, leadership, organizational development |
| Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America | Longoria | Margarita | In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, and poetry, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today’s young listeners. A powerful exploration of what it means to be Mexican American. | May 10, 2022 | Identity, immigration, Mexican American experience, culture, belonging |
| Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition | Kushner | Tony | This new edition of Tony Kushner’s masterpiece is published with the author’s recent changes and a new introduction in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of its original production. One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages. | December 24, 2013 | LGBTQ+, AIDS crisis, identity, politics, social justice |
| Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School | Pollock | Mica | The groundbreaking book on race in schools that has become an essential handbook for teachers working to create antiracist classrooms In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and nationwide protests against police brutality, it’s never been more important for educators and parents to ensure they’re cultivating antiracist learning environments. For years, teachers who recognized the importance of cultural responsiveness in the classroom have turned to Everyday Antiracism, the essential compendium of advice from some of America’s leading educators. Pathbreaking contributors—among them Beverly Daniel Tatum, Sonia Nieto, and Pedro Noguera—describe concrete ways to analyze classroom interactions that may or may not be “racial,” deal with racial inequality and “diversity,” and teach to high standards across racial lines. Topics range from using racial incidents as teachable moments and responding to the “n-word” to valuing students’ home worlds, dealing daily with achievement gaps, and helping parents fight ethnic and racial misconceptions about their children. Questions following each essay prompt readers to examine and discuss everyday issues of race and opportunity in their own classrooms and schools. Everyday Antiracism is an essential tool for all of the educators and parents who are determined to create not only more just classrooms, but also a more just world. | June 1, 2008 | Education, antiracism, racial equity, schools, social justice |
| A Black Women’s History of the United States: ReVisioning American History | Berry & Gross | Daina Ramey & Kali Nicole | An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country. In centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women’s unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today. A Black Women’s History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation. | Febuary 4, 2020 | Black women, history, social justice, feminism, civil rights |
| Gender Queer: A Memoir | Kobabe | Maia | In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. | May 7, 2024 | Gender identity, LGBTQ+, memoir, self-discovery, nonbinary |
| Young, Gifted, and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration | Wise Rowe | Sheila | “Young, gifted and black, Open your heart to what I mean…” Nina Simone’s popular anthem from the civil rights movement speaks to both the celebrations and trials of the Black experience. Young, Gifted, and Black gives voice to the real-life stories of Black millennials and younger adults. If life was a race, it’s assumed that every runner has a fair shot at winning. However, it’s not always the case for young, gifted, and Black folks. Sheila Wise Rowe goes beyond the common narrative that focuses solely on their success or struggle. Her stories of celebration and lament point toward hope, joy, and healing. Drawing from her years of experience in counseling trauma and abuse survivors, she provides stories, reflections, and tools for Black listeners of all ages and their allies. These stories offer an opportunity to explore, reflect, and journey toward healing from the barriers that affect their lives, the lives of their children, and their communities. | March 15, 2022 | Black identity, faith, resilience, social justice, celebration |
| Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education | Gorski & Pothini | Paul C. & Seema G. | Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education offers pre- and in-service educators an opportunity to analyze and reflect upon a variety of realistic case studies related to educational equity and social justice. The accessibly written cases allow educators to practice the process of considering a range of contextual factors, checking their own biases, and making immediate- and longer-term decisions about how to create and sustain equitable learning environments for all students. This revised edition adds 10 new cases to offer greater coverage of elementary education, as well as topics such as body-shaming, Black Lives Matter, and transgender oppression. Existing cases have been updated to reflect new societal contexts, and streamlined for ease-of-use. The book begins with a seven-point process for examining case studies. Largely lacking from existing case study collections, this framework guides readers through the process of identifying, examining, reflecting on, and taking concrete steps to resolve challenges related to diversity and equity in schools. The cases themselves present everyday examples of the ways in which racism, sexism, homophobia and heterosexism, class inequities, language bias, religious-based oppression, and other equity and diversity concerns affect students, teachers, families, and other members of our school communities. They involve classroom issues that are relevant to all grade levels and content areas, allowing significant flexibility in how and with whom they are used. Although organized topically, the intersections of these issues are stressed throughout the cases, reflecting the complexities of real-life scenarios. All cases conclude with a series of questions to guide discussion and a section of facilitator notes, called “Points for Consideration.” This unique feature provides valuable insight for understanding the complexities of each case. | October 12, 2023 | Education, diversity, social justice, equity, inclusion |
| Combat Vet Don’t Mean Crazy: Veteran Mental Health in Post-Military Life | France | Duane K. L. | When it comes to veteran mental health, there are some preconceived notions about what it means. After over a decade and a half of sustained combat operations and high operational tempo, the topic of veteran mental health has emerged into the public consciousness.This book is a collection of articles that first appeared on the Head Space and Timing blog, which can be found at www.veteranmentalhealth.com . They range from reflections on how to raise accurate awareness about veteran mental health, both in the individual and the community, to discussions about how to see veteran mental health as mental wellness instead of mental illness. Developing a greater understanding about the importance of and the need for stable and positive veteran mental health can lead to a post-military life that all service members desire. | April 17, 2018 | Veterans, mental health, PTSD, military transition, well-being |
| Racism: A Brief History | Press | University | Racism is the belief that different races possess certain qualities or abilities that make them inferior or superior to one another. Racism is nothing new, of course. Trade, migration, and war have introduced different races of people to each other for thousands of years. Some of those introductions have resulted in peaceful alliances, joint business ventures, and life-saving innovations. But many of those introductions have revealed common human weaknesses: cowardly fear, willful ignorance, and unspeakable cruelty. From the proto-racism of the ancient Greco-Roman world, to medieval antisemitism, to racism in America, to the Armenian Genocide, to the Holocaust, to the Soviet deportations from Lithuania, to the Rwandan Genocide, to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, racism has managed to grotesquely disfigure billions of human minds with hate while unleashing soul-crushing, life-destroying violence on an industrial scale. Yet, there is progress. And there is hope. This short book peels back the veil and provides a brief glimpse into the heart-wrenching history of racism – a glimpse that you can read in about an hour. | April 9, 2021 | Racism, history, social justice, discrimination, power dynamics |
| From Tokenism to Inclusion: A Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace | Luberisse | Josh | From Tokenism to Inclusion: A Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace is an essential resource for leaders, HR professionals, and anyone committed to creating truly inclusive environments where all employees can thrive. In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is no longer just a goal—it’s a business imperative. However, many organizations still struggle with moving beyond surface-level diversity efforts, leaving employees feeling undervalued and unheard. This book goes beyond the buzzwords to offer practical, actionable strategies for building a diverse workforce and fostering a culture of belonging. With clear insights into the challenges of tokenism, this guide shows how to create meaningful DEI initiatives that go deeper than mere representation, empowering every employee to contribute and succeed. Perfect for small businesses and large corporations alike, From Tokenism to Inclusion offers tailored strategies for industries like tech, healthcare, and finance, with tools for measuring DEI progress, creating intersectional DEI frameworks, and adapting to the unique challenges of global workplaces. This guide is designed to inspire and equip professionals at every level to take ownership of DEI efforts, foster allyship, and build organizations that reflect the diverse, inclusive, and equitable future that employees and customers demand. Whether you’re a leader seeking to drive real change, an HR professional tasked with creating a more inclusive hiring process, or an employee who wants to contribute to a culture of equity, From Tokenism to Inclusion offers the tools, strategies, and inspiration to make a lasting impact. | March 8, 2023 | DEI, workplace culture, leadership |
| American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear | Beydoun | Khaled A. | “I remember the four words that repeatedly scrolled across my mind after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. ‘Please don’t be Muslims, please don’t be Muslims.’ The four words I whispered to myself on 9/11 reverberated through the mind of every Muslim American that day and every day after…. Our fear, and the collective breath or brace for the hateful backlash that ensued, symbolize the existential tightrope that defines Muslim American identity today.” The term Islamophobia may be fairly new, but irrational fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims is anything but. Though many speak of Islamophobia’s roots in racism, have we considered how anti-Muslim rhetoric is rooted in our legal system? Using his unique lens as a critical race theorist and law professor, Khaled A. Beydoun captures the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the frightening resurgence of Islamophobia in the US. Beydoun charts its long and terrible history, from the plight of enslaved African Muslims in the antebellum South and the laws prohibiting Muslim immigrants from becoming citizens to the ways the war on terror assigns blame for any terrorist act to Islam and the myriad trials Muslim Americans face in the Trump era. He passionately argues that by failing to frame Islamophobia as a system of bigotry endorsed and emboldened by law and carried out by government actors, US society ignores the injury it inflicts on both Muslims and non-Muslims. Through the stories of Muslim Americans who have experienced Islamophobia across various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, Beydoun shares how US laws shatter lives, whether directly or inadvertently. With an eye toward benefiting society as a whole, he recommends ways for Muslim Americans and their allies to build coalitions with other groups. Like no work before it, American Islamophobia offers a robust and genuine portrait of Muslim America then and now. | July 18, 2018 | Islamophobia, discrimination, racism, social justice, U.S. history |
| The Questions of Diversity: Assessment Tools for Organizations & Individuals | Simons & Abramms | Dr. George F. & Dr. Bob | The Questions of Diversity is a collection of tools that have been found useful for exploring an organization’s willingness and ability to function effectively in a multicultural environment. Since its first appearance as a diagnostic tool, we have expanded The Questions of Diversity to include insightful text material as well as activities and exercises for the training room. It is now a collection of “questions” in the broadest possible context. | November 1, 1994 | DEI, assessment, organizational development |
| The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together | McGhee | Heather | Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out? McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game. | Febuary 16, 2021 | Racism, economic justice, social equity, community, systemic inequality |
| Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education Corporealities: Discourses of Disability) | Dolmage | Jay T. | Academic Ableism brings together disability studies and institutional critique to recognize the ways that disability is composed in and by higher education and rewrites the spaces, times, and economies of disability in higher education to place disability front and center. For too long, argues Jay Timothy Dolmage, disability has been constructed as the antithesis of higher education, often positioned as a distraction, a drain, a problem to be solved. The ethic of higher education encourages students and teachers alike to accentuate ability, valorize perfection, and stigmatize anything that hints at intellectual, mental, or physical weakness, even as we gesture toward the value of diversity and innovation. Examining everything from campus accommodation processes, to architecture, to popular films about college life, Dolmage argues that disability is central to higher education and that building more inclusive schools allows better education for all. | June 12, 2020 | Disability, higher education, accessibility, ableism, inclusion |
| Another Place at the Table | Harrison | Kathy | The startling and ultimately uplifting narrative of one woman’s 13-year experience as a foster parent. For more than a decade, Kathy Harrison has sheltered a shifting cast of troubled youngsters – the offspring of prostitutes and addicts; the sons and daughters of abusers; and teenage parents who aren’t equipped for parenthood. All this, in addition to raising her three biological sons and two adopted daughters. What would motivate someone to give herself over to constant, largely uncompensated chaos? For Harrison, the answer is easy. Another Place at the Table is the story of life at our social services’ front lines, centered on three children who, when they come together in Harrison’s home, nearly destroy it. It is the frank first-person story of a woman whose compassionate best intentions for a child are sometimes all that stand between violence and redemption. | September 11, 2018 | Foster care, child welfare, parenting, social work, memoir |
| The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Alexie | Sherman | Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, based on the author’s own experiences and coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. | April 1, 2009 | Identity, Native American experience, coming of age, racism, resilience |
| GLORY: Magical Visions of Black Beauty | Bethencourt & Betherncourt | Kahran & Regis | With stunning images of natural hair and gorgeous, inventive visual storytelling, GLORY puts Black beauty front and center with more than 100 breathtaking photographs and a collection of powerful essays about the children. At its heart, it is a recognition and celebration of the versatility and innate beauty of black hair, and black beauty. The glorious coffee-table book pays homage to the story of our royal past, celebrates the glory of the here and now, and even dares to forecast the future. It brings to life past, present, and future visions of black culture and showcases the power and beauty of recognizing and celebrating oneself. Beauty as an expression of who you are is power. When we define our own standards of beauty, we take back that power. GLORY encourages children around the world to feel that power and harness it. | October 20, 2020 | Black beauty, photography, identity, culture, representation |
| Living with No Excuses: The Remarkable Rebirth of an American Soldier | Galloway | Noah | Military hero and beloved Dancing with the Stars alum Noah Galloway shares his life story and how losing his arm and leg in combat forced him to relearn how to live – and live to the fullest. Inspirational, humorous, and thought provoking, Noah Galloway’s Living with No Excuses sheds light on his upbringing in rural Alabama, his military experience, and the battle he faced to overcome losing two limbs during Operation Iraqi Freedom. From reliving the early days of life to his acceptance of his “new normal” after losing his arm and leg in combat, Noah reveals his ambition to succeed against all odds. Noah’s gripping story is a shining example that with laughter and the right amount of perspective, you can tackle anything. Whether it’s overcoming injury, conquering the Dancing with the Stars ballroom, or taking the next steps forward in life with his young family, Noah demonstrates how to live life to the fullest, with no excuses. | August 24, 2016 | Resilience, veterans, overcoming adversity, military inspiration |
| The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America | King | Thomas | The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history – in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America. Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. This is a book both timeless and timely, burnished with anger but tempered by wit, and ultimately a hard-won offering of hope – a sometimes inconvenient but nonetheless indispensable account for all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, seeking to understand how we might tell a new story for the future. | May 15, 2018 | Native American history, colonization, indigenour rights, cultural identity, social justice |
| The Bluest Eye | Morrison | Toni | The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove–a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others–who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment. | June 1, 1970 | Racism, beauty standards, identity, trauma, Africann American experience |
| My Voice Is a Trumpet | Allen | Jimmie | From rising country star Jimmie Allen comes a lyrical celebration of the many types of voices that can effect change. From voices tall as a tree, to voices small as a bee, all it takes is confidence and a belief in the goodness of others to change the world. Coming at a time when issues of social justice are at the forefront of our society, this is the perfect book to teach children in and out of the classroom that they’re not too young to express what they believe in and that all voices are valuable. The perfect companion for little readers going back to school! | July 13, 2021 | Empowerment, self-expression, diversity, children’s literature, activism |
| The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness | Alexander | Michelle | Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander’s unforgettable argument that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” As the Birmingham Newsproclaimed, it is “undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.” Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today. | January 16, 2012 | Mass incarceration, racial justice, systemic racism, criminal justice, civil rights |
| Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race | Tatum | Beverly Daniel | Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? How can we get past our reluctance to discuss racial issues? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand dynamics of race and racial inequality in America. | September 5, 2017 | Race, identity, development, education, segregation, social dynamics |
| The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches | X | Malcolm | Malcolm X remains a touchstone figure for black America and in American culture at large. He gave African Americans not only their consciousness but their history, dignity, and a new pride. No single individual can claim more important responsibility for a social and historical leap forward such as the one sparked in America in the sixties. When, in 1965, Malcolm X was gunned down on the stage of a Harlem theater, America lost one of its most dynamic political thinkers. Yet, as Michael Eric Dyson has observed, “he remains relevant because he spoke presciently to the issues that matter today: black identity, the politics of black rage, the expression of black dissent, the politics of black power, and the importance of consolidating varieties of expressions within black communities—different ideologies and politics—and bringing them together under a banner of functional solidarity.” The End of White World Supremacy contains four major speeches by Malcolm X, including: “Black Man’s History,” “The Black Revolution,” “The Old Negro and the New Negro,” and the famous “The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost” speech (“God’s Judgment of White America”), delivered after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Several of the speeches include a discussion with the moderator, among whom Adam Clayton Powell, or a question-and-answer with the audience. This new edition bundles with the book an audio download of Malcolm’s stirring delivery of “Black Man’s History” in Harlem’s Temple No.7 and “The Black Revolution” in the Abyssinian Baptist Church. | February 11, 2020 | Black nationalism, civil rights, Malcolm X racial justice, activism |
| Race in America | Desmond & Emirbayer | Matthew & Mustafa | A groundbreaking approach to thinking about race and racism today. Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer, authors of The Racial Order, have written an undergraduate textbook on race relations for the twenty-first century. Every chapter of Race in America examines how racism intersects with other forms of social division―those based on gender, class, sexuality, ability, religion, and nationhood―as well as how whiteness surrounds us in unnamed ways that produce and reproduce a multitude of privileges for white people. Featuring a table of contents that is organized around race and racism in different aspects of social life, Race in America explores the connections between individual and institution, past and present, and the powerful and the powerless. | October 1, 2015 | Racism, social justice, history, inequality, identity |
| One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race | Blay | Yaba | In the United States, a Black person has come to be defined as any person with any known Black ancestry. Statutorily referred to as “the rule of hypodescent,” this definition of Blackness is more popularly known as the “one-drop rule,” meaning that a person with any trace of Black ancestry, however small or (in)visible, cannot be considered White. A method of social order that began almost immediately after the arrival of enslaved Africans in America, by 1910 it was the law in almost all southern states. At a time when the one-drop rule functioned to protect and preserve White racial purity, Blackness was both a matter of biology and the law. One was either Black or White. Period. Has the social and political landscape changed one hundred years later? One Drop explores the extent to which historical definitions of race continue to shape contemporary racial identities and lived experiences of racial difference. Featuring the perspectives of 60 contributors representing 25 countries and combining candid narratives with striking portraiture, this book provides living testimony to the diversity of Blackness. Although contributors use varying terms to self-identify, they all see themselves as part of the larger racial, cultural, and social group generally referred to as Black. They have all had their identity called into question simply because they do not fit neatly into the stereotypical “Black box”—dark skin, “kinky” hair, broad nose, full lips, etc. Most have been asked “What are you?” or the more politically correct “Where are you from?” throughout their lives. It is through contributors’ lived experiences with and lived imaginings of Black identity that we can visualize multiple possibilities for Blackness. | February 16, 2021 | Race, identity, colorism, African American experience, representation |
| I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Angelou | Maya | Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. | April 21, 2009 | Memoir, racism, resilience, identity, coming of age |
| Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home | Mangino | Kate | From gender expert and professional facilitator Kate Mangino comes Equal Partners, an informed guide about how we can all collectively work to undo harmful gender norms and create greater household equity. As American society shut down due to Covid, millions of women had to leave their jobs to take on full-time childcare. As the country opens back up, women continue to struggle to balance the demands of work and home life. Kate Mangino, a professional facilitator for twenty years, has written a comprehensive, practical guide for readers and their partners about gender norms and household balance. Yes, part of our gender problem is structural, and that requires policy change. But much of our gender problem is social, and that requires us to change. Quickly moving from diagnosis to solution, Equal Partners focuses on what we can do, everyday people living busy lives, to rewrite gender norms to support a balanced homelife so both partners have equal time for work, family, and self. Mangino adopts an interactive model, posing questions, and asking readers to assess their situations through guided lists and talking points. Equal Partners is broad in its definition of gender and gender roles. This is a book for all: straight, gay, trans, and non-binary, parents and grandparents, and friends, with the goal to help foster gender equality in readers’ homes, with their partners, family and wider community. | June 28, 2022 | Gender equality, parenting, relationships, household dynamics, work-life balance |
| White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Priviledged Son | Wise | Tim | The inspiration for the acclaimed documentary film, this deeply personal polemic reveals how racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and elsewhere. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise examines what it really means to be white in a nation created to benefit people who are “white like him.” This inherent racism is not only real, but disproportionately burdens people of color and makes progressive social change less likely to occur. Explaining in clear and convincing language why it is in everyone’s best interest to fight racial inequality, Wise offers ways in which white people can challenge these unjust privileges, resist white supremacy and racism, and ultimately help to ensure the country’s personal and collective well-being. | September 13, 2011 | White privilege, racism, identity, social justice, inequality |
| Black & White: How to Have Our American Conversation About Race | Evans | David | Award-winning mediator and conflict resolution specialist, David Evans, applies insights and tools from his mediation career to address the long-standing conflict between black people and white people. He shares his insights in his new book, Black & White: How To Have Our American Conversation About Race. | May 4, 2018 | Race relations, dialogue, social justice, identity, racial equity |
| An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (ReVisioning History) | Dunbar-Ortiz | Roxanne | Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortizoffers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative. | August 11, 2015 | Indigenous history, colonization, social justice, Native American rights, U.S. history |
| The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present | Treuer | David | A sweeping history – and counter-narrative – of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present. The received idea of Native American history – as promulgated by books like Dee Brown’s mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did 150 Sioux die at the hands of the US Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear – and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence – the story of American Indians since the end of the 19th century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes’ distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don’t know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the essential, intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era. | January 22, 2019 | Indigenous history, Native American resilience, colonization, identity, cultural survival |
| The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace | Daniels | Shereen | In The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace, HR strategist Shereen Daniels delivers an incisive and honest discussion of how business leaders can change workplace practices to create a more anti-racist and equitable environment. The author draws on her personal and client-facing experience, historical fact, legal proceedings, HR insights, and quantitative analysis to equip readers with the knowledge and tools they need to transform their companies. An indispensable exploration of how systemic racism is engrained into business structures, policies, and procedures, The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace belongs in the libraries of all business leaders seeking to make their workplace more inclusive and equitable. | May 9, 2022 | Anti-racism, workplace equity, diversity and inclusion, systemic change, leadership |
| Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance | Thompson | Jason R. | In Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance, award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) expert Jason R. Thompson delivers a practical and engaging handbook for implementing a DE&I program in your organization. The CAPE technique, developed by the author, gives you a clear blueprint and the tools you’ll need to make your diversity program a success. In this book, you’ll learn how to achieve early and significant wins to create the necessary and long-term organizational change needed for successful DE&I programs. Find out what data you need to collect, how to analyze it, and choose the right goals for your organization. In addition, the CAPE technique will show your progress and ROI. You will learn to manage and lead a diversity council and implement diversity initiatives in the correct order, get early buy-in and long-term commitment from a Chief Executive Officer by knowing what to ask for and when, and set appropriate and realistic expectations for a DE&I program with the executive leadership team. Perfect for diversity and inclusion professionals, human resources leaders, founders, business owners, and executives, Diversity and Inclusion Matters will also earn a place in the libraries of students of human resources, leadership, management, and finance. | April 26, 2022 | DEI, workplace culture, leadership |
| White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better | Jackson & Rao | Regina & Saira | It’s no secret that white women are conditioned to be “nice,” but did you know that the desire to be perfect and to avoid conflict at all costs are characteristics of white supremacy culture? As the founders of Race2Dinner, an organization which facilitates conversations between white women about racism and white supremacy, Regina Jackson and Saira Rao have noticed white women’s tendency to maintain a veneer of niceness, and strive for perfection, even at the expense of anti-racism work. In this book, Jackson and Rao pose these urgent questions: how has being “nice” helped Black women, Indigenous women and other women of color? How has being “nice” helped you in your quest to end sexism? Has being “nice” earned you economic parity with white men? Beginning with freeing white women from this oppressive need to be nice, they deconstruct and analyze nine aspects of traditional white woman behavior—from tone-policing to weaponizing tears—that uphold white supremacy society, and hurt all of us who are trying to live a freer, more equitable life. White Women is a call to action to those of you who are looking to take the next steps in dismantling white supremacy. Your white supremacy. If you are in fact doing real anti-racism work, you will find few reasons to be nice, as other white people want to limit your membership in the club. If you are not ticking white people off on a regular basis, you are not doing it right. | November 1, 2022 | Anti-racism, white privilege, allyship, social justice, feminism |
| I’m Tired of Racism: True Stories of Existing While Black | Hurley Hall | Sharon | To feel empathy, you need to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. If the experiences of racism in a white supremacist system seem too far away from your daily reality, I’m Tired of Racism will change that. If you think of racism as something that only happens where you are, I’m Tired of Racism will change that too. And if you’re wondering how you can be a true ally and avoid performative nonsense, this book is an excellent starting point. I’m Tired of Racism collects many of Sharon Hurley Hall’s anti-racism essays, sharing her global perspective on racism, anti-racism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy, born out of experiences in the Caribbean, the UK, the US, and elsewhere. Hurley Hall has lived and worked in multiple countries, enabling her to accurately reflect what’s the same and what’s different about experiences of racism in different locations. | March 6, 2024 | Racism, black experience, social justice, identity, inequality |
| What Makes Racial Diversity Work in Higher Education | Hale | Frank W. | A unique reference describing successful diversity initiatives in higher education, like the nation, is facing major demographic changes. Our colleges and universities recognize they not only have to be more inclusive, but that they have to provide an environment that will effectively retain and develop the growing population of ethnically and racially diverse students. How ready are they and what should they be doing? Frank W. Hale, Jr. has gathered twenty-two leading scholars and administrators from around the country who describe the successful diversity programs they have developed. Recognizing the importance of diversity as a means of embracing the experiences, perspectives and expertise of other cultures, this book shares what has been most effective in helping institutions to create an atmosphere and a campus culture that not only admits students, faculty and staff of color but accepts and welcomes their presence and participation.This is a landmark reference for every institution concerned with inclusivity and diversity. The successes it presents offers academic leaders much they can learn from, and ideas and procedures they can adapt, as they discuss and develop their own campus policies and initiatives. | September 22, 2003 | Higher education, DEI, institutional change |
| Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning – Classroom Practices for Student Success | Hollie | Sharroky | Written to address all grade levels, this K-12 classroom resource provides teachers with strategies to support their culturally and linguistically diverse students. This highly readable book by Dr. Sharroky Hollie explores the pedagogy of culturally responsive teaching, and includes tips, techniques, and activities that are easy to implement in today’s classrooms. Both novice and seasoned educators will benefit from the helpful strategies described in this resource to improve on the following five key areas: classroom management, academic literacy, academic vocabulary, academic language, and learning environment. | July 15, 2017 | Education, culturally responsive teaching, liguistic diversity, inclusion, student success |
| Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students | Hammond | Zaretta | To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. | March 30, 2023 | Education, culturally resposive teaching, cognitive science, student engagement, diversity |
| The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation About Race and Take Action | Fidel & Allen | Kondwani & Devin | What would happen if people started moving beyond the conversation and took action to combat racism? We are in an era where many Americans express the sentiment “I thought we were past that” when a public demonstration of racism comes across their radar. Long before violence committed by police was routinely displayed on jumbotrons publicizing viral executions, the Black community has continually tasted the blood from having police boots in their mouths, ribs, and necks. The widespread circulation of racial injustices is the barefaced truth hunting us down, forcing us to confront the harsh reality – we haven’t made nearly as much racial progress as we thought. The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation About Race and Take Action will compel listeners to focus on the degree in which they have previously or are currently contributing to the racial inequalities in this country (knowingly or unknowingly) and ways they can become stronger in their activism. The Antiracist is an explosive indictment on injustice, highlighted by Kondwani Fidel, a rising young literary talent, who offers a glimpse into not only the survival required of one born in a city like Baltimore, but how we can move forward to tackle violent murders, police brutality, and poverty. | January 5, 2021 | Anti-racism, social justice, racial equity, activism, dialogue |
| Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption | Omotoso Stovall | David | Rooted in the initial struggle of community members who staged a successful hunger strike to secure a high school in their Chicago neighborhood, David Omotoso Stovall’s Born Out of Struggle focuses on his first-hand participation in the process to help design the school. Offering important lessons about how to remain accountable to communities while designing a curriculum with a social justice agenda, Stovall explores the use of critical race theory to encourage its practitioners to spend less time with abstract theories and engage more with communities that make a concerted effort to change their conditions. Stovall provides concrete examples of how to navigate the constraints of working with centralized bureaucracies in education and apply them to real-world situations. | January 2, 2017 | Critical race theory, education, social justice, activism, institutional change |
| Lift Every Voice: A Celebration of Black Lives | Hannah-Jones, Winfrey | Nikole, Oprah | For so long, too many stories that reveal what it means and feels like to be Black in America have been overlooked outside Black communities. After these long years of racial reckonings and nascent awakenings, Lift Every Voice presents interviews with the oldest generation of Black Americans about their lives, their experiences, and the wisdom that can carry all of us to a better future. The insightful interviews were conducted by a brilliant team, many of whom are rising Black journalists from historically Black colleges and universities, and the portraits were shot by a talented group of next generation Black photographers. Lift Every Voice is named after the James Weldon Johnson poem and hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is often referred to as the “Black national anthem.” Lift Every Voice is both a testament to the strength of the elders’ stories and a triumphant beginning for a new generation of Black journalists and photographers. | April 26, 2022 | Black excellence, celebration, identity, culture, inspiration |
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| Caste (Oprah’s Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents | Wilkerson | Isabel | In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully written narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Original and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today. | August 4, 2020 | Caste system, racism, social hierarchy, inequality, power structures |
| Gender Euphoria: Stories of Joy from Trans, Non- Binary and Intersex Writers | Dale | Laura Kate | GENDER EUPHORIA: A powerful feeling of happiness experienced as a result of moving away from one’s birth-assigned gender. So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition center on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it’s gender euphoria that pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself. In this groundbreaking anthology, nineteen trans, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid, and intersex writers share their experiences of gender euphoria: an agender dominatrix being called “Daddy,” an Arab trans man getting his first tattoos, a trans woman embracing her inner fighter. What they have in common are their feelings of elation, pride, confidence, freedom and ecstasy as a direct result of coming out as non-cisgender, and how coming to terms with their gender has brought unimaginable joy into their lives. | November 28, 2023 | Trans joy, non-binary identity, intersex stories, LGBTQ+, celebration |
| No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement | Shapiro | Joseph P. | “Nondisabled Americans do not understand disabled ones. This book attempts to explain, to nondisabled people as well as to many disabled ones, how the world and self-perceptions of disabled people are changing. It looks at the rise of what is called the disability rights movement—the new thinking by disabled people that there is no pity or tragedy in disability and that it is society’s myths, fears, and stereotypes that most make being disabled difficult.”—from the Introduction | October 25, 1994 | Disabilty rights, advocacy, inclusion, social justice, accessibility |
| Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Caldecott Honor Book) | Rappaport | Doreen | This Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Honor, and New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book picture book biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., brings his life and the profound nature of his message to young children through his own words. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the most influential and gifted speakers of all time. Doreen Rappaport uses quotes from some of his most beloved speeches to tell the story of his life and his work in a simple, direct way. Bryan Collier’s stunning collage art combines remarkable watercolor paintings with vibrant patterns and textures. A timeline and a list of additional books and websites help make this a standout biography of Dr. King. | December 18, 2007 | Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights, activism, equality, inspirational |
| My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies | Menakem | Resmaa | In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn’t just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police. My Grandmother’s Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. | September 19, 2017 | Racial trauma, healing, mind-body connection, social justice, ancestral resilience |
| Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto | Hersey | Tricia | What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us. Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture. | October 11, 2022 | Rest, self-care, activism, anti-capitalism, healing |
| Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends | Edmonds & Clark | Margot & Ella | Learn about the rich history of North America through the legends and tales of those who inhabited the land first in Voices of the Winds. This wonderfully appealing anthology gathers more than 130 Native American legends, many told to the authors by elder storytellers and tribal historians. The legends feature a broad array of mythical figures, such as Thunderbird, Coyote, and Raven, as well as human-like characters “The Girl Who Married the Moon” and “Two Brothers Who Became Stars.” Organized by region—with tales from the Northwest, Southwest, Great Plains, Southeast, and Northeast—the legends are drawn from many tribes, including the Wasco, Aleut, Apache, Yosemite, Cheyenne, Sioux, Hopi, Navajo, Chippewa, Cherokee and others, and are introduced by an informative headnote, accompanied by a variety of evocative line-art drawings. Get to know the first peoples of North America through these stories from their rich oral traditions. | September 14, 2021 | Native American, Folklore, Storytelling, culture, traditions |
| How to Be: Success Strategies for the Young, Gifted, and Black | Bernard | Michael Todd | How To Be: Success Strategies for the Young, Gifted, and Black, is the only book of its kind because it speaks to young African Americans and equips them with practical strategies for success. | October 11, 2020 | Success, black excellence, empowerment, leadership, personal growth |
| Wally & Freya (Restorative Justice for Kids) | Pointer | Lindsey | A heartwarming picture book that teaches empathy and inclusion. Everyone knows Wally is a bully. He steals lunch every day from Bella Jo the bear, calls Oliver the owl mean names, and never shares the crayons. So when the other animals decide to write a story together and the notebook disappears, there is little doubt that Wally has taken it. But what the animals don’t know is why Wally acts the way he does. As they unravel the mystery of the missing notebook, they also begin to understand Wally, which leads to a surprising and joyous discovery. This sweet story teaches children empathy and the amazing power of kindness and inclusion. The first in a new series on restorative justice practices for kids, this book is sure to delight children and grownups alike. | June 7, 2022 | Restorative justice, conflict resolution, friendship, empathy, children’s book |
| Eyes That Kiss in the Corners | Ho | Joanna | A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers’. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother’s, her grandmother’s, and her little sister’s. They have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. Drawing from the strength of these powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self-love and empowerment. This powerful, poetic picture book will resonate with readers of all ages. | January 5, 2021 | Self-love, Asian heritage, identity, family, beauty |
| Eyes That Speak to the Stars | Ho | Joanna | A young boy comes to recognize his own power and ability to change the future. When a friend at school creates a hurtful drawing, the boy turns to his family for comfort. He realizes that his eyes rise to the skies and speak to the stars, shine like sunlit rays, and glimpse trails of light from those who came before—in fact, his eyes are like his father’s, his agong’s, and his little brother’s, and they are visionary. Inspired by the men in his family, he recognizes his own power and strength from within. This extraordinary picture book redefines what it means to be truly you. | February 15, 2022 | Identity, Asian heritage, self-confidence, family, cultural pride |
| The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation | Chávez | Leo R. | News media and pundits too frequently perpetuate the notion that Latinos, particularly Mexicans, are an invading force bent on reconquering land once their own and destroying the American way of life. In this book, Leo R. Chavez contests this assumption’s basic tenets, offering facts to counter the many fictions about the “Latino threat.” With new discussion about anchor babies, the DREAM Act, and recent anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona and other states, this expanded second edition critically investigates the stories about recent immigrants to show how prejudices are used to malign an entire population―and to define what it means to be American. | April 17, 2023 | Immigration, Latinx identity, stereotypes, nationalism, social justice |
| The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color | Gutiérrez | Natalie Y. | It’s time to heal the invisible wounds of complex trauma and reclaim your mind, body, and spirit. If you are a person of color who has experienced repeated trauma—such as discrimination, race-related verbal assault, racial stigmatization, poverty, sexual trauma, or interpersonal violence—you may struggle with intense feelings of anger, mistrust, or shame. You may feel unsafe or uncomfortable in your own body, or struggle with building and keeping close relationships. Sometimes you may feel very alone in your pain. But you are not alone. This groundbreaking work illuminates the phenomena of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as it is uniquely experienced by people of color, and provides a much-needed path to health and wholeness. In The Pain We Carry, you’ll find powerful tools to help you understand and begin healing from repeated trauma. You’ll discover ways to feel safer in your body, build self-compassion and resilience, and reclaim your health and wellness by reconnecting with your sense of self and your ancestral wisdom. You’ll learn how trauma is connected to grief, how it can affect both the mind and the body, and how it can persist from one generation to the next. Most importantly, you’ll find the validation you need to begin mending your heart, and the skills you need to live a life of intention—even in the midst of an oppressive system. It’s time to find relief from the trauma and burdens you have been carrying and start celebrating and rediscovering who you are. With this guide, you will uncover your own strength in order to work toward healing C-PTSD within the external constraints you face to live a life of resilience, empowerment, reflection, and perseverance. | October 1, 2022 | Trauma, healing, mental health, racial identity, resilience |
| The Strong Black Woman: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women | Golden | Marita | Meet Black women who have learned through hard lessons the importance of self-care and how to break through the cultural and family resistance to seeking therapy and professional mental health care. The Strong Black Woman Syndrome. For generations, in response to systemic racism, Black women and African American culture created the persona of the Strong Black Woman, a woman who, motivated by service and sacrifice, handles, manages, and overcomes any problem, any obstacle. The syndrome calls on Black women to be the problem-solvers and chief caretakers for everyone in their lives―never buckling, never feeling vulnerable, and never bothering with their pain. Hidden mental health crisis of anxiety and depression. To be a Black woman in America is to know you cannot protect your children or guarantee their safety, your value is consistently questioned, and even being “twice as good” is often not good enough. Consequently, Black women disproportionately experience anxiety and depression. Studies now conclusively connect racism and mental health―and physical health. Take care of your emotional health. You deserve to be emotionally healthy for yourself and those you love. More and more young Black women are re-examining the Strong Black Woman syndrome and engaging in self-care practices that change their lives. | October 12, 2021 | Black women, mental health, stereotypes, self-care, resilience |
| Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way | Adams | Khristi Lauren | Black girls are leading, organizing, advocating, and creating. They are starting nonprofits. Building political coalitions. Promoting diverse literature. Fighting cancer. Improving water quality. Working to prevent gun violence. Are we ready to learn from their leadership? “Black women are literally at the helm of every movement,” says Tyah-Amoy Roberts, an activist and a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. “Every push for social justice. Every push for social change. We need to take our stories into our own hands.” In Unbossed, they do. From Khristi Lauren Adams, author of the celebrated “Parable of the Brown Girl”, comes Unbossed, a hopeful and riveting inquiry into the lives of eight young Black women who are agitating for change and imagining a better world. Offering practical lessons in leadership, resilience, empathy, and tenacity from a group of young leaders of color who are often neglected, Unbossed includes profiles of Jaychele Nicole Schenck, Ssanyu Lukoma, Tyah-Amoy Roberts, Grace Callwood, Hannah Lucas, Amara Ifeji, Stephanie Younger, and Kynnedy Smith. These are the young Black women we will be reading about decades from now. Like their foremothers in earlier freedom movements, Black girls are transformational leaders. They are pacesetters, strategic thinkers, visionaries, mobilizers, activists, and more. Their stories may often be overlooked. But Black girls are leading the way. | March 8, 2022 | Black girls, leadership, empowerment, activism, social change |
| Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women | Manne | Kate | In this bold and stylish critique, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne offers a radical new framework for understanding misogyny. Ranging widely across the culture, from Harvey Weinstein and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings to “Cat Person” and the political misfortunes of Elizabeth Warren, Manne’s book shows how privileged men’s sense of entitlement – to sex, yes, but more insidiously to admiration, care, bodily autonomy, knowledge, and power – is a pervasive social problem with often devastating consequences. In clear, lucid prose, Manne argues that male entitlement can explain a wide array of phenomena, from mansplaining and the undertreatment of women’s pain to mass shootings by incels and the seemingly intractable notion that women are “unelectable”. Moreover, Manne implicates each of us in toxic masculinity: It’s not just a product of a few bad actors; it’s something we all perpetuate, conditioned as we are by the social and cultural mores of our time. The only way to combat it, she says, is to expose the flaws in our default modes of thought while enabling women to take up space, say their piece, and muster resistance to the entitled attitudes of the men around them. With wit and intellectual fierceness, Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern. | August 11, 2020 | Male privilege, gender equality, feminism, patriarchy, social justice |
| Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Lo | Malinda | Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s. “That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father – despite his hard-won citizenship – Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. | January 19, 2021 | LGBTQ+, identity, coming-of-age, historical fiction, Chinese American |
| Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons | Kaepernick | Colin | Abolition for the People brings together 30 essays representing a diversity of voices – political prisoners, grassroots organizers, scholars, and relatives of those killed by the anti-Black terrorism of policing and prisons. This collection presents listeners with a moral choice: “Will you continue to be actively complicit in the perpetuation of these systems,” Kaepernick asks in his introduction, “or will you take action to dismantle them for the benefit of a just future?” Powered by courageous hope and imagination, Abolition for the People provides a blueprint and vision for creating an abolitionist future where communities can be safe, valued, and truly free. “Another world is possible,” Kaepernick writes, “a world grounded in love, justice, and accountability, a world grounded in safety and good health, a world grounded in meeting the needs of the people.” The complexity of abolitionist concepts and the enormity of the task at hand can be overwhelming. To help listeners on their journey toward a greater understanding, each essay in the collection is followed by a listener’s guide that offers further provocations on the subject. Newcomers to these ideas might ask: Is the abolition of the prison industrial complex too drastic? Can we really get rid of prisons and policing altogether? As writes organizer and New York Times best-selling author Mariame Kaba, “The short answer: We can. We must. We are.” Abolition for the People begins by uncovering the lethal anti-Black histories of policing and incarceration in the United States. Juxtaposing today’s moment with 19th-century movements for the abolition of slavery, freedom fighter Angela Y. Davis writes, “Just as we hear calls today for a more humane policing, people then called for a more humane slavery.” Drawing on decades of scholarship and personal experience, each author deftly refutes the notion that police and prisons can be made fairer and more humane through piecemeal reformation. As Derecka Purnell argues, “reforms do not make the criminal legal system more just, but obscure its violence more efficiently.” Blending rigorous analysis with first-person narratives, Abolition for the People definitively makes the case that the only political future worth building is one without and beyond police and prisons. You won’t find all the answers here, but you will find the right questions – questions that open up radical possibilities for a future where all communities can thrive. | December 9, 2021 | Abolition, criminal justice reform, policing, prisons, social justice |
| The Trouble With Black Boys: …And Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education | Noguera | Pedro A. | For many years to come, race will continue to be a source of controversy and conflict in American society. For many of us it will continue to shape where we live, pray, go to school, and socialize. We cannot simply wish away the existence of race or racism, but we can take steps to lessen the ways in which the categories trap and confine us. Educators, who should be committed to helping young people realize their intellectual potential as they make their way toward adulthood, have a responsibility to help them find ways to expand identities related to race so that they can experience the fullest possibility of all that they may become. In this brutally honest―yet ultimately hopeful― book Pedro Noguera examines the many facets of race in schools and society and reveals what it will take to improve outcomes for all students. From achievement gaps to immigration, Noguera offers a rich and compelling picture of a complex issue that affects all of us. | June 9, 2009 | Education, black boys, racial equity, systemic barriers, social justice |
| Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top and Stay There | Pinkett & Robinson | Randal D. & Jeffrey A. | Black Faces in High Places is the essential guide for Black professionals who are moving up through their organizations or industries but need a roadmap for how to get to the top and stay there. Based on the authors’ considerable experiences in business, in the public eye, and as a minority, the book shows how African-American professionals can (and must) think and act both entrepreneurially and “intrapreneurially”. | February 8, 2022 | Black professionals, leadership, career advancement, success strategies, representation |
| Big Chicas Don’t Cry | Chávez Macías | Annette | Four cousins navigate love, loss, and the meaning of family over the course of one memorable year in this heartfelt family drama. Cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They aren’t just family but best friends—sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. But their idyllic childhood ends when Mari’s parents divorce, forcing her to move away. With Mari gone, the girls’ tight-knit bond unravels. Fifteen years later, Mari’s got the big house and handsome husband, but her life is in shambles. Erica’s boyfriend just dumped her, and her new boss hates her. Selena can’t seem to find her place in the world—not Mexican enough for her family, not white enough for her colleagues. And Gracie is a Catholic school teacher with an all-consuming crush, but she can’t trust herself when it comes to romance. As rocky as the cousins’ lives have become, nothing can prepare them for the heartbreaking loss of a loved one. When tragedy reunites them, will they remember their abuelita’s lessons about family and forgiveness—or are fifteen years of separation too much to overcome? | September 1, 2022 | Family, Latinx identity, friendship, coming-of-age, love |
| More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) | Welteroth | Elaine | Throughout her life, Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking journalist unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change makers. Welteroth moves beyond the headlines and highlight reels to share the profound lessons and struggles of being a barrier-breaker across so many intersections. As a young boss and often the only Black woman in the room, she’s had enough of the world telling her – and all women – they’re not enough. As she learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we’re ultimately reminded that we’re more than enough. | June 11, 2019 | Self-empowerment, identity, confidence, personal growth, resilience |
| In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom | Hamilton | Lacino | Falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Lacino Hamilton sent thousands of letters during his incarceration. After twenty-six years, including eleven years in solitary confinement, and a years-long campaign of public and political pressure, Hamilton was exonerated and released on September 30, 2020. The letters he wrote during his incarceration, advocating for his innocence–literally writing for his life–made him a leading voice on issues of abolition, imprisonment, and justice. Despite fierce resistance and retaliation from prison officials, he maintained correspondence with family and friends, as well as university professors and activists. Tireless, empathetic, and unflinching, Hamilton’s voice throughout these letters shines with immediacy. We must engage all people in recognizing the terrible costs of maintaining the US system of justice, he writes. In his passionate critiques of the prison-industrial complex, his emotional appeals to friends and family, and his fierce and unflagging defense of his own innocence, Hamilton exposes the oppressive, humiliating, and destructive reality of our justice system. From divestment in cities and policing policies to the everyday violence of imprisonment and its attempts to obliterate personhood in favor of obedience, these letters offer an incisive critique of our criminal justice system. We also feel Hamilton’s deep generosity of spirit as he counsels others affected by this terrible system and lauds the work of those working on the outside for reform. With his voice, we sense something unexpected and profound: hope for a reimagining of our systems–a humanity-affirming model of justice. | July 25, 2023 | Prison abolition, exoneration, injustice, freedom, criminal justice reform |
| Having It All?: Black Women and Success | Chambers | Veronica | A behind-the-scenes look into the lives of successful middle- and upper-middle class African American women, the groundbreaking Having It All? is sure to spark discussions from cocktail parties to boardrooms. In a single generation, black women have made extraordinary strides academically, professionally, and financially. They’ve entered the workplace at a far greater rate than white women; increased their enrollment in law schools and graduate programs by 120 percent; and many are now running top companies, or in some cases, the country. Isn’t that enough? Not necessarily. With sharp insight, award-winning journalist Veronica Chambers explores the challenges and stereotypes she and other African American women continue to endure, and answers the question most often posed to her: What does success mean for black women? Twenty-first century black women draw their inspiration from a wide range of sources: Claire Huxtable to Audrey Hepburn, snowboarding to basketball, Gloria Steinem to bell hooks. They choose what they like. Yet they are misunderstood by mainstream America and lack an accurate portrayal in the media of their lives. Having It All? interweaves the thoughts and reflections of more than fifty women who occupy this territory. The voices range from Thelma Golden, chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, to a Silicon Valley executive, to medical and legal professionals, and stay-at-home “mocha moms.” Successful black women today want it all: marriage, motherhood, engaging work, and prosperity. The difference is that they come to the table with the strength, courage and wisdom of black women ancestors who-did-it-all, even when they didn’t-have-it-all. What has gone so undocumented by the media is that modern black women are coming up with creative, satisfying answers to the juggling act that all women face. Veronica Chambers chronicles this topic for the first time in her absorbing, riveting and groundbreaking book Having It All? | December 18, 2007 | Black women, success, intersectionality, empowerment, workplace challenges |
| When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America | Giddings | Paula J. | Acclaimed by writers Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, Paula Giddings’s When and Where I Enter is not only an eloquent testament to the unsung contributions of individual women to our nation, but to the collective activism which elevated the race and women’s movements that define our times. From Ida B. Wells to the first black Presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm; from the anti-lynching movement to the struggle for suffrage and equal protection under the law; Giddings tells the stories of black women who transcended the dual discrimination of race and gender―and whose legacy inspires our own generation. Forty years after the passing of the Voting Rights Act, when phrases like “affirmative action” and “wrongful imprisonment” are rallying cries, Giddings words resonate now more than ever. | January 1, 1984 | Black women, race, sexuality, historical impact, social justice |
| Against Great Odds: The History of Alcorn State University | McCann Posey | Josephine | Posey (education, Alcorn State University) examines the history of the first land-grant academic institution for African-American students. Alcorn opened in 1871 on the former Oakland College campus, with Hiram R. Revels, Mississippi’s first black senator, as its president. Posey shows how the institution has faced modern challenges such as integration and maintaining its nationally renowned athletic programs. Includes black and white photos, a list of student organizations, and the catalogue from Alcorn’s second year. | January 1, 1994 | Higher education, African American history, legacy, resilience |
| Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit | Winters | Mary-Frances | This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people–and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects. Black people, young and old, are fatigued, says award-winning diversity and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even–and especially–well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled. This book, designed to illuminate the myriad dire consequences of “living while Black,” came at the urging of Winters’s Black friends and colleagues. Winters describes how in every aspect of life–from economics to education, work, criminal justice, and, very importantly, health outcomes–for the most part, the trajectory for Black people is not improving. It is paradoxical that, with all the attention focused over the last fifty years on social justice and diversity and inclusion, little progress has been made in actualizing the vision of an equitable society. Black people are quite literally sick and tired of being sick and tired. Winters writes that “my hope for this book is that it will provide a comprehensive summary of the consequences of Black fatigue, and awaken activism in those who care about equity and justice–those who care that intergenerational fatigue is tearing at the very core of a whole race of people who are simply asking for what they deserve.” | September 15, 2020 | Racism, mental health, black identity, fatigue, social impact |
| White Tears/ Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color | Hamad | Ruby | Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep “ownership” of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent white women and racialized, sexualized women of color was created, and why this division is crucial to confront. Along the way, there are revelatory responses to questions like: Why are white men not troubled by sexual assault on women? (See Christine Blasey Ford.) With rigor and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight. | October 6, 2020 | White feminism, women of color, racism, intersectionality, betrayal |
| The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate | Gainsburg | Jeannie | The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an enjoyable, humorous, encouraging, easy to understand guidebook for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ communities. It is chock full of practical and useful tools for LGBTQ+ advocacy. | March 12, 2020 | LQBTQ+ advocacy, allyship, social justice, inclusivity, support |
| Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White | Wu | Frank H. | Writing in the tradition of W. E. B. Du Bois, Cornel West, and others who confronted the “color line” of the twentieth century, journalist, scholar, and activist Frank H. Wu offers a unique perspective on how changing ideas of racial identity will affect race relations in the twenty-first century. Wu examines affirmative action, globalization, immigration, and other controversial contemporary issues through the lens of the Asian-American experience. Mixing personal anecdotes, legal cases, and journalistic reporting, Wu confronts damaging Asian-American stereotypes such as “the model minority” and “the perpetual foreigner.” By offering new ways of thinking about race in American society, Wu’s work dares us to make good on our great democratic experiment. | March 27, 2003 | Race, Asian American, identity, racism, intersectionality |
| Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood | Noah | Trevor | In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical. Noah’s virtuoso embodiment of all the characters from his childhood, and his ability to perform accents and dialects effortlessly in English, Xhosa, and Zulu, garnered the Audie Award for Best Male Narrator in 2018. Nevertheless, Noah’s devoted and uncompromising mother—as voiced by her son—steals the show. | November 15, 2016 | Apartheid, race, South Africa, Memoir, identity |
| I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace | Leiba | Elizabeth | I’m Not Yelling is part strategy for savvy black business women navigating a predominantly white corporate America and part vessel empowering black women to find their voices in toxic work environments and be successful business women. Statistical and anecdotal evidence guide the way. Explore the data and hear the accounts of Black women in business who face, work through, and rise above workplace discrimination. Finding your voice as women entrepreneurs. Successful business women use their voice to become strong Black leaders who instill positive change in the workplace culture. | March 28, 2023 | Black women, workplace, empowerment, communication, career strategies |
| I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban | Yousafzai | Malala | When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. I am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world. | October 8, 2013 | Education, activism, Taliban, women’s rights |
| Juliet Takes a Breath | Rivera | Gabby | Juliet Milagros Palante is a self-proclaimed closeted Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx. Only, she’s not so closeted anymore. Not after coming out to her family the night before flying to Portland, Oregon, to intern with her favorite feminist writer–what’s sure to be a life-changing experience. And when Juliet’s coming out crashes and burns, she’s not sure her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan–sort of. Her internship with legendary author Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff, is sure to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. Except Harlowe’s white. And not from the Bronx. And she definitely doesn’t have all the answers . . . In a summer bursting with queer brown dance parties, a sexy fling with a motorcycling librarian, and intense explorations of race and identity, Juliet learns what it means to come out–to the world, to her family, to herself. | May 11, 2021 | Queer identity, feminism, self-discovery, intersectionality, empowerment |
| Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body | Taussig | Rebekah | Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story. | July 6, 2021 | Disabilty, resilience, body positivity, identity, social justice |
| A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story | Brown | Elaine | Elaine Brown assumed her role as the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party with these words: “I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within. Am I right, Comrade?” It was August 1974. From a small Oakland-based cell, the Panthers had grown to become a revolutionary national organization, mobilizing Black communities and white supporters across the country – but relentlessly targeted by the police and the FBI, and increasingly riven by violence and strife within. How Brown came to a position of power over this paramilitary, male-dominated organization, and what she did with that power, is a riveting, unsparing account of self-discovery. Brown’s story begins with growing up in an impoverished neighborhood in Philadelphia and attending a predominantly white school, where she first sensed what it meant to be Black, female, and poor in America. She describes her political awakening during the bohemian years of her adolescence, and her time as a foot soldier for the Panthers, who seemed to hold the promise of redemption. And she tells of her ascent into the upper echelons of Panther leadership: her tumultuous relationship with the charismatic Huey Newton, who would become her lover and her nemesis; her experience with the male power rituals that would sow the seeds of the party’s demise; and the scars that she both suffered and inflicted in that era’s paradigm-shifting clashes of sex and power. Stunning, lyrical, and acute, this is the indelible testimony of a Black woman’s battle to define herself. | June 22, 2021 | Black womanhood, activism, empowerment, politics, social change |
| Learning Reconsidered 2: A Practical Guide to Implementing a Campus-Wide Focus on the Student Experience | N/A | ACPA, ACUHO-I, ACUI, NACA, NACADA, NASPA, & NIRSA | More than 10,000 copies of Learning Reconsidered: A Campus-Wide Focus on the Student Experience are in circulation on college and university campuses worldwide. The publication has been used as an invitation from student affairs educators to their colleagues in other sectors of their institutions to engage in dialogue and planning for institution-wide student learning outcomes. It has become a frequent focus of professional development programs and workshops, and is the topic of many student affairs presentations. Learning Reconsidered 2: Implementing a Campus-Wide Focus on the Student Experience is a blueprint for action. It shows how to create the dialogue, tools, and materials necessary to put into practice the recommendations in Learning Reconsidered. This companion book brings together new authors, discipline-specific examples, and models for applying the theories in the original publication to move beyond traditional ideas of separate learning inside and outside the classroom. | May 1, 2006 | Higher education, student experience, campus culture, student development, educational reform |
| Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: Case Studies | Weber & Dillaway | Lynn & Heather | These eight case studies can be used to analyze race, class, gender, and sexuality dynamics in the United States today. Each case is accompanied by questions that address the five themes in the conceptual framework presented in the companion textbook, Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: A Conceptual Framework, by Lynn Weber. Cases were carefully selected to represent a wide range of group experiences cross-cutting race, class, gender, and sexuality; institutional arenas; regional locations; and thematic foci. In each case, students are asked to analyze both the foregrounded dimensions of oppression and privilege as well as those that are less apparent. Questions ask students to consider the implications for social action and social justice embedded in the story and their analysis. | March 26, 2001 | Intersectionality, race, class, gender, sexuality |
| Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America | Kendi | Ibram X. | Some Americans insist that we’re living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America–it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis. As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities. In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope. | August 15, 2017 | Racism, history, American society, racist ideologies, social justice |
| Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom | Kay | Matthew | Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students? Inspired by Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist call to action, “it is not light that is needed, but fire,” Matthew Kay has spent his career learning how to lead students through the most difficult race conversations. Kay not only makes the case that high school classrooms are one of the best places to have those conversations, but he also offers a method for getting them right. | July 16, 2018 | Race conversations, classroom dialogue, teacher training, student engagement, educational leadership |
| All About Love: New Visions | Hooks | Bell | The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes Bell Hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness–not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. As Bell Hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared Bell Hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better. | January 30, 2018 | Love, relationships, healing, social justice, self-love |
| Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own | Glaude Jr. | Eddie S. | Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism. In these brilliant and stirring pages, Glaude finds hope and guidance in Baldwin as he mixes biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered Baldwin interviews—with history, memoir, and poignant analysis of our current moment to reveal the painful cycle of Black resistance and white retrenchment. As Glaude bears witness to the difficult truth of racism’s continued grip on the national soul, Begin Again is a searing exploration of the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America. | June 30, 2020 | James Baldwin, America, Racism, social justice, historical reflection |
| The Heart of a Woman | Angelou | Maya | Maya Angelou has fascinated, moved, and inspired countless listeners and readers with the first three volumes of her autobiography, one of the most remarkable personal narratives of our age. Now, in her fourth volume, The Heart of a Woman, her turbulent life breaks wide open with joy as the singer-dancer enters the razzle-dazzle of fabulous New York City. There, at the Harlem Writers Guild, her love for writing blazes anew. Her compassion and commitment lead her to respond to the fiery times by becoming the northern coordinator of Martin Luther King’s history-making quest. A tempestuous, earthy woman, she promises her heart to one man only to have it stolen, virtually on her wedding day, by a passionate African freedom fighter. Filled with unforgettable vignettes of famous characters, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm X, The Heart of a Woman sings with Maya Angelou’s eloquent prose – her fondest dreams, deepest disappointments, and her dramatically tender relationship with her rebellious teenage son. Vulnerable, humorous, tough, Maya speaks with an intimate awareness of the heart within all of us. | December 15, 2005 | Womanhood, self-discovery, empowerment, identity, personal growth |
| Out of Darkness | Pérez | Ashley Hope | “This is East Texas, and there’s lines. Lines you cross, lines you don’t cross. That clear?” New London, Texas, 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful, it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive. Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion, the worst school disaster in American history, as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people. | April 26, 2016 | Historical fiction, racism, love, Texas, African American history |
| Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally | Ladau | Emily | An approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more accessible, inclusive place. People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us – disabled and nondisabled alike – don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about. | September 7, 2021 | Disability, allyship, inclusivity, social justice, awareness |
| Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers | Mishra-Newbery & Al-Hathloul | Uma & Lina | Loujain watches her beloved baba attach his feather wings and fly each morning, but her own dreams of flying face a big obstacle: only boys, not girls, are allowed to fly in her country. Yet despite the taunts of her classmates, she is determined to do it—especially because Loujain loves colors, and only by flying can she see the color-filled field of sunflowers her baba has told her about. Eventually, he agrees to teach her, and Loujain’s impossible dream becomes reality—and soon other girls dare to learn to fly. Based on the experiences of co-author Lina AlHathloul’s sister, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Loujain AlHathloul, who led the successful campaign to lift Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving, this moving and gorgeously illustrated story reminds us to strive for the changes we want to see—and to never take for granted women’s and girls’ freedoms. | March 1, 2022 | Saudi Arabia, Women’s rights, activism, freedom, personal struggles |
| Hey You!: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black | Adeola | Dapo | This book addresses–honestly, yet hopefully–the experiences Black children face growing up with systemic racism, as well as providing hope for the future and delivering a message of empowerment to a new generation of dreamers. It’s a message that is both urgent and timeless–and offers a rich and rewarding reading experience for every child. To mirror the rich variety of the Black diaspora, this book showcases artwork from Dapo Adeola and eighteen more incredible Black illustrators in one remarkable and cohesive reading experience. | February 1, 2022 | Black identity, empowerment, childhood, cultural pride, self-love |
| Don’t Hug Doug: (He Doesn’t Like It) | Finison | Carrie | Doug doesn’t like hugs. He thinks hugs are too squeezy, too squashy, too squooshy, too smooshy. He doesn’t like hello hugs or goodbye hugs, game-winning home run hugs or dropped ice cream cone hugs, and he definitely doesn’t like birthday hugs. He’d much rather give a high five–or a low five, a side five, a double five, or a spinny five. Yup, some people love hugs; other people don’t. So how can you tell if someone likes hugs or not? There’s only one way to find out: Ask! Because everybody gets to decide for themselves whether they want a hug or not. | January 26, 2021 | Boundaries, consent, respect, personal space, children’s literature |
| Call Me Tree/Llámame Árbol | González | Maya Christina | What does it mean to be like a tree? For one young child, it all begins as a tiny seed that is free to grow and reach out to others while standing strong and tall-just like a tree in the natural world. With this gentle and imaginative story about becoming your fullest self, Maya Gonzalez empowers young readers to dream and reach… and to be as free and unique as trees. | September 25, 2014 | Idenity, language, cultural connection, nature, self-expression |
| Fortunate Families: Catholic Families with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons | Lopata | Mary Ellen & Casey | Explores the lived experience of Catholic parents who love their gay children and their Church. Includes illuminating stories, survey results, and a discussion of church documents. | July 6, 2006 | Catholic families, LGBTQ+, family dynamics, faith, acceptance |
| The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism | Schuller & Cooper | Kyla & Brittney | Women including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Sanger, and Sheryl Sandberg are commonly celebrated as leaders of feminism. Yet they have fought for the few, not the many. As award-winning scholar Kyla Schuller argues, their White feminist politics dispossess the most marginalized to liberate themselves. In The Trouble with White Women, Schuller brings to life the 200-year counter-history of Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans women pushing back against White feminists and uniting to dismantle systemic injustice. These feminist heroes such as Frances Harper, Harriet Jacobs, and Pauli Murray have created an anti-racist feminism for all. But we don’t speak their names, and we don’t know their legacies. Unaware of these intersectional leaders, feminists have been led down the same dead-end alleys generation after generation, often working within the structures of racism, capitalism, homophobia, and transphobia rather than against them. Building a more just feminist politics for today requires a reawakening, a return to the movement’s genuine vanguards and visionaries. Their compelling stories, campaigns, and conflicts reveal the true potential of feminist liberation. The Trouble with White Women gives feminists today the tools to fight for the flourishing of all. | October 5, 2021 | White feminism, intersectionality, racism, feminist history, social justice |
| A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind | Washington | Harriet A. | From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country-cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power. The 1994 publication of The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a renewed and heated debate. Now, in A Terrible Thing to Waste, award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. She takes apart the spurious notion of intelligence as an inherited trait, using copious data that instead point to a different cause of the reported African American-white IQ gap: environmental racism – a confluence of racism and other institutional factors that relegate marginalized communities to living and working near sites of toxic waste, pollution, and insufficient sanitation services. She investigates heavy metals, neurotoxins, deficient prenatal care, bad nutrition, and even pathogens as chief agents influencing intelligence to explain why communities of color are disproportionately affected — and what can be done to remedy this devastating problem. Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington’s sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste is sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate. | August 7, 2019 | Environmental racism, mental health, social justice, systemic inequality, pollution |
| Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology | Kaliouby & Colman | Rana el & Carol | Rana el Kaliouby is a rarity in both the tech world and her native Middle East: a Muslim woman in charge in a field that is still overwhelmingly White and male. Growing up in Egypt and Kuwait, el Kaliouby was raised by a strict father who valued tradition – yet also had high expectations for his daughters – and a mother who was one of the first female computer programmers in the Middle East. Even before el Kaliouby broke ground as a scientist, she broke the rules of what it meant to be an obedient daughter and, later, an obedient wife to pursue her own daring dream. After earning her PhD at Cambridge, el Kaliouby, now the divorced mother of two, moved to America to pursue her mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. The majority of our communication is conveyed through nonverbal cues: facial expressions, tone of voice, body language. But that communication is lost when we interact with others through our smartphones and devices. The result is an emotion-blind digital universe that impairs the very intelligence and capabilities – including empathy – that distinguish human beings from our machines. To combat our fundamental loss of emotional intelligence online, she cofounded Affectiva, the pioneer in the new field of Emotion AI, allowing our technology to understand humans the way we understand one another. Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby’s journey from being a “nice Egyptian girl” to becoming a woman, carving her own path as she revolutionizes technology. But decoding herself – learning to express and act on her own emotions – would prove to be the biggest challenge of all. | April 21, 2020 | Emotional intelligence, technology, artificial intelligence, humanity, innovation |
| The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness | Magee & Kabat-Zinn | Rhonda V. & Jon | In a society where unconscious bias, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, and systemic injustices are so deeply ingrained, healing is an ongoing process. When conflict and division are everyday realities, our instincts tell us to close ranks, to find the safety of our own tribe, and to blame others. This book profoundly shows that in order to have the difficult conversations required for working toward racial justice, inner work is essential. Through the practice of embodied mindfulness – paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way – we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered. It is only by healing from injustices and dissolving our personal barriers to connection that we develop the ability to view others with compassion and to live in community with people of vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints. Incorporating mindfulness exercises, research, and Magee’s hard-won insights, The Inner Work of Racial Justice offers a road map to a more peaceful world. | September 17, 2019 | Racial justice, mindfulness, healing, social transformation, self-awareness |
| Playing with Lanterns | Yage | Wang | Zhao Di and her friends are excited to go out at night with their paper lanterns and celebrate Chinese New Year. Each holding a unique colorful lantern with a lit candle inside, they admire the breathtaking colors while doing their best to avoid the wind and the sneaky boys in the village. Every night, until the fifteenth day of New Year, Zhao Di and her friends take part in this fun tradition, experiencing the thrill of nighttime in their village. And then―it’s time to smash the lanterns! In this cheerful book first published in China, readers are invited along with Zhao Di and her friends as they experience all the joy and excitement of this folk Chinese custom. Details about the paper lantern tradition are also included in an author’s note at the end of the book. | January 11, 2022 | Coming-of-age, family, cultural identity, immigration, chinese heritage |
| Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century | Marcus & Moya | Hazel Rose & Paula M.L. | Doing Race focuses on race and ethnicity in everyday life: what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, watching television, voting, listening to music, reading books and newspapers, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are all everyday activities that are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why. Race and ethnicity are powerful precisely because they organize modern society and play a large role in fueling violence around the globe. Doing Race is targeted to undergraduates; it begins with an introductory essay and includes original essays by well-known scholars. Drawing on the latest science and scholarship, the collected essays emphasize that race and ethnicity are not things that people or groups have or are, but rather sets of actions that people do. | April 19, 2010 | Race, essays, social justice, identity, systemic inequality |
| Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement | Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas | Kimberlé, Neil, Gary, & Kendall | Why did the president of the United States, in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis, take it upon himself to attack Critical Race Theory? Perhaps Donald Trump appreciated the power of this groundbreaking intellectual movement to change the world. In recent years, Critical Race Theory has vaulted out of the academy and into courtrooms, newsrooms, and onto the streets. And no wonder: as intersectionality theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw recently told Time magazine, “It’s an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what’s in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it.” The panicked denunciations from the right notwithstanding, CRT has changed the way millions of people interpret our troubled world. Edited by its principal founders and leading theoreticians, Critical Race Theory was the first book to gather the movement’s most important essays. This groundbreaking book includes contributions from scholars including Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Williams, Dorothy Roberts, Lani Guinier, Duncan Kennedy, and many others. It is essential reading in an age of acute racial injustice. | May 1, 1996 | Racism, social justice, legal studies, identity |
| The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America | Shukla & Suleyman | Nikesh & Chimene | From Trump’s proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of white supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as “lively and vital,” editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack. Chigozie Obioma unpacks an Igbo proverb that helped him navigate his journey to America from Nigeria. Jenny Zhang analyzes cultural appropriation in 90s fashion, recalling her own pain and confusion as a teenager trying to fit in. Fatimah Asghar describes the flood of memory and emotion triggered by an encounter with an Uber driver from Kashmir. Alexander Chee writes of a visit to Korea that changed his relationship to his heritage. These writers, and the many others in this urgent collection, share powerful personal stories of living between cultures and languages while struggling to figure out who they are and where they belong. | October 29, 2019 | Immigration, identity, diversity, cultural reflection |
| Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety | Page, Woodland, & Levins Morales | Cara, Erica, & Aurora | We reclaim the power, resilience, and innovation of our ancestors through this book. To embody their wisdom across centuries and generations is to continue their legacy of liberation and healing. In this anthology, Black Queer Feminist editors Cara Page and Erica Woodland guide listeners through the history, legacies, and liberatory practices of healing justice—a political strategy of collective care and safety that intervenes on generational trauma from systemic violence and oppression. They call forth the ancestral medicines and healing practices that have sustained communities who have survived genocide and oppression, while radically imagining what comes next. Anti-capitalist, Black feminist, and abolitionist, Healing Justice Lineages is a profound and urgent call to embrace community and survivor-led care strategies as models that push beyond commodified self-care, the policing of the medical industrial complex, and the surveillance of the public health system. Centering disability, reproductive, environmental, and transformative justice and harm reduction, this collection elevates and archives an ongoing tradition of liberation and survival—one that has been largely left out of our history books, but continues to this day. In the first section, “Past: Reckoning with Roots and Lineage,” Page and Woodland remember and reclaim generations-long healing justice and community care work, asking critical questions like: How did our ancestors transform trauma and violence in their liberation work? What were our ancestors reckoning with—and what did they imagine? The next sections, “Origins of Healing Justice” and “Alchemy: Theory + Praxis,” explore regional stories of healing justice in response to the current political and cultural landscape. The last section, “Political + Spiritual Imperatives for the Future,” imagines a future rooted in lessons of the past; addresses the ways healing justice is being co-opted and commodified; and uplifts emergent work that’s building infrastructure for care, safety, healing, and political liberation. | February 7, 2023 | Healing justice, liberation, collective care, social justice, safety |
| Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity | Serano | Julia | Julia Serano shares her experiences and insights – both pre- and post-transition – to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano’s well-honed arguments and pioneering advocacy stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. In this provocative manifesto, she exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive. In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about being transgender, Serano makes the case that today’s feminists and transgender activists must work to embrace and empower femininity – in all of its wondrous forms. | October 25, 2016 | Transgender, sexism, femininity, gender identity, social critique |
| Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools | Morris | Monique W. | Fifteen-year-old Diamond stopped going to school the day she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school. Just 16 percent of female students, Black girls make up more than one-third of all girls with a school-related arrest. The first trade book to tell these untold stories, Pushout exposes a world of confined potential and supports the growing movement to address the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures. For four years, Monique W. Morris chronicled the experiences of Black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged – by teachers, administrators, and the justice system – and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Morris shows how, despite obstacles, Black girls still find ways to breathe remarkable dignity into their lives in classrooms, juvenile facilities, and beyond. | September 21, 2016 | Black girls, criminalization, education, racism, social justice |
| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Skloot | Rebecca | Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. | March 8, 2011 | Medical ethics, cell research, racism, scientific discovery |
| Felix Ever After | Callender | Kacen | Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle…. But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself. | April 20, 2021 | LGBTQ+, transgender, identity, self-discovery, love |
| For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education | Emdin | Christopher | Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color, Dr. Christopher Emdin has merged his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America. He takes to task the perception of urban youth of color as unteachable, and he challenges educators to embrace and respect each student’s culture and to reimagine the classroom as a site where roles are reversed and students become the experts in their own learning. Putting forth his theory of Reality Pedagogy, Emdin provides practical tools to unleash the brilliance and eagerness of youth and educators alike—both of whom have been typecast and stymied by outdated modes of thinking about urban education. With this fresh and engaging new pedagogical vision, Emdin demonstrates the importance of creating a family structure and building communities within the classroom, using culturally relevant strategies like hip-hop music and call-and-response, and connecting the experiences of urban youth to indigenous populations globally. Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, Emdin demonstrates how by implementing the “Seven Cs” of reality pedagogy in their own classrooms, urban youth of color benefit from truly transformative education. | January 3, 2017 | Urban education, reality pedagogy, teaching, cultural awareness, social justice |
| The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table | Harts | Minda | Most business books provide a one-size-fits-all approach to career advice that overlooks the unique barriers that women of color face. In The Memo, Minda Harts offers a much-needed career guide tailored specifically for women of color. Drawing on knowledge gained from her past career as a fundraising consultant to top colleges across the country, Harts now brings her powerhouse entrepreneurial experience as CEO of The Memo to the page. With wit and candor, she acknowledges “ugly truths” that keep women of color from having a seat at the table in corporate America. Providing straight talk on how to navigate networking, office politics, and money, while showing how to make real change to the system, The Memo offers support and long-overdue advice on how women of color can succeed in their careers. | September 15, 2020 | Women of color, career advancement, leadership, workplace strategies, empowerment |
| Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man | Acho | Emmanuel | “You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.” In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the listener’s curiosity—but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight. | November 10, 2020 | Racism, dialogue, race relations, social justice, awareness |
| The Religions Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained | N/A | Many Contributors | The Religions Book clearly explains the key concepts behind the earliest religious beliefs right up to the world’s newest faiths, getting to the heart of what it means to believe with jargon-free descriptions that encapsulate every aspect of religious thinking. Examine major historical developments and ideas with a universal timeline, providing a global perspective on the origins and major events that have contributed to the growth and spread of religion and spirituality. Along with the teaching highlights of pre-eminent figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Paul, and Al-Ghazali, you’ll also find a handy reference section featuring a road map to all the branches of the major faiths and the points of doctrine or tradition on which they differ. Modern alternative religions and spiritual beliefs from around the world are also explored and set into the context of the political, social, and cultural climates from which they emerged. | January 21, 2020 | World religions, philosophy, spirituality, beliefs, culture |
| A is for Activist | Nagara | Innosanto | A is for Activist is an ABC board book written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives: families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that activists believe in and fight for. The alliteration, rhyming, and vibrant illustrations make the book exciting for children, while the issues it brings up resonate with their parents’ values of community, equality, and justice. This engaging little book carries huge messages as it inspires hope for the future, and calls children to action while teaching them a love for books. | November 19, 2013 | Activism, social justice, alphabet book, equality, children’s literature |
| The Everyday Advocate: Living Out Your Calling to Social Justice | Murray | Ross | As Christians, we are called and anointed to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed. In The Everyday Advocate, Ross Murray helps Christians explore our individual callings to justice and start taking practical steps to live that out. The Everyday Advocate is for the layperson who feels overwhelmed by the world’s troubles and helpless to address them. It is for the person who goes to church, hears the gospel, seeks to apply it to their lives, and yearns to be connected to, or create, a community that amplifies their voice and actions. It is also for pastors and faith leaders who want to help people think through their calling to advocacy and help connect them with the communities that can use their gifts and talents. Murray builds on two questions: Where is God? And what are we called to do? Viewing every action and phenomenon as theological, he stakes out values and shows readers how to work toward those values. He also distinguishes between direct service and cultural change, discussing the balance between them and acknowledging both are needed. Drawing on his own experience and exercising his pastoral spirit, Murray encourages readers to discern their own call to advocacy, learn to identify injustices that still reign, and respond faithfully by incorporating big and small actions into their everyday lives. | May 9, 2023 | Advocacy, social justice, activism, community engagement, empowerment |
| Just Help!: How to Build a Better World | Sotomayor | Sonia | Every night when Sonia goes to bed, Mami asks her the same question: How did you help today? And since Sonia wants to help her community, just like her Mami does, she always makes sure she has a good answer to Mami’s question. In a story inspired by her own family’s desire to help others, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor takes young readers on a journey through a neighborhood where kids and adults, activists and bus drivers, friends and strangers all help one another to build a better world for themselves and their community. With art by award-winning illustrator Angela Dominguez, this book shows how we can all help make the world a better place each and every day. | January 25, 2022 | Social change, community service, empowerment, activism, humanitarian eforts |
| I Am Golden | Chen | Eva | What do you see when you look in the mirror, Mei? Do you see beauty? We see eyes that point toward the sun, that give us the warmth and joy of a thousand rays when you smile. We see hair as inky black and smooth as a peaceful night sky. We see skin brushed with gold. | February 1, 2022 | Identity, self-worth, cultural pride, family, empowerment |
| What Do You Celebrate?: Holidays and Festivals Around the World | Stewart | Whitney | Across the globe, every country has its special holidays. From Brazilian carnival and Chinese New Year to France’s Bastille Day and our very own Fourth of July. What Do You Celebrate? presents 14 special occasions where people dance, dress up, eat yummy foods, and enjoy other fun traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Kids can travel the globe and learn about Fastelavn, Purim, the Cherry Blossom Festival, Holi, Eid al-Fitr, Halloween, Day of the Dead, Guy Fawkes Day, the German Lantern Festival, and more. Each spread showcases a different holiday, offering background and cultural context, vocabulary words, photographs, and instructions for festive projects. | March 5, 2019 | Holidays, festivals, cultural traditions, global celebrations, diversity |
| Where Are You From? | Méndez | Yamile Saied | When a girl is asked where she’s from—where she’s really from—none of her answers seems to be the right one. Unsure about how to reply, she turns to her loving abuelo for help. He doesn’t give her the response she expects. She gets an even better one. Where am I from? You’re from hurricanes and dark storms, and a tiny singing frog that calls the island people home when the sun goes to sleep…. With themes of self-acceptance, identity, and home, this powerful, lyrical picture book will resonate with readers young and old, from all backgrounds and of all colors—especially anyone who ever felt that they don’t belong. | June 4, 2019 | Identity, cultural heritage, belonging, immigration, self-discovery |
| We Move Together | Fritsch, McGuire, & Trejos | Kelly, Anne, & Eduardo | A bold and colorful exploration of all the ways that people navigate through the spaces around them and a celebration of the relationships we build along the way. We Move Together follows a mixed-ability group of kids as they creatively negotiate everyday barriers and find joy and connection in disability culture and community. A perfect tool for families, schools, and libraries to facilitate conversations about disability, accessibility, social justice and community building. | April 6, 2021 | Inclusion, disability justice, community, accessibility, solidarity |
| Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth | Duncan | Alice Faye | Every year, Opal looked forward to the Juneteenth picnic—a drumming, dancing, delicious party. She knew from Granddaddy Zak’s stories that Juneteenth celebrated the day the freedom news of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally sailed into Texas in 1865—over two years after the president had declared it! But Opal didn’t always see freedom in her Texas town. Then one Juneteenth day when Opal was twelve years old, an angry crowd burned down her brand-new home. This wasn’t freedom at all. She had to do something! But could one person’s voice make a difference? Could Opal bring about national recognition of Juneteenth? Follow Opal Lee as she fights to improve the future by honoring the past. | January 11, 2022 | Juneteenth, freedom, activism, history |
| The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions of a Wildly Better Future | Brodsky & Kauder Nalebuff | Alexandra & Rachel | In this groundbreaking collection, more than fifty cutting-edge feminist writers—including Melissa Harris-Perry, Janet Mock, Sheila Heti, and Mia McKenzie—invite us to imagine a world of freedom and equality in which: An abortion provider reinvents birth control . . . The economy values domestic work . . . A teenage rock band dreams up a new way to make music . . . The Constitution is re-written with women’s rights at the fore . . . The standard for good sex is raised with a woman’s pleasure in mind . . . | October 13, 2015 | Equality, Utopia, Feminism, Imagination, Social justice |
| Harlem Shuffle: A Novel | Whitehead | Colson | Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? | September 14, 2021 | Crime, Harlem, coruption, family |
| Unconscious Bias: The Prejudice of Open-Minded People | George | David F. | UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AFFECTS EVERYONE! It doesn’t matter how much we refuse to admit to it; it’s unconscious and happens with or without our knowledge. However, as it occurs unknowingly to us, its effects on the world at large and businesses, in particular, are highly detrimental. Renowned and experienced experts highly recommend this book to help achieve your dream of resetting your mindset for your workplace to attain its highest performance. | June 18, 2022 | Bias, prejudice, psychology, perception, discrimination |
| I Love My People | Singleton | Kim | I Love My People is a poetic tribute to African American history-makers and culture-shakers, complete with nostalgic photography and vibrant, playful illustration. In the vein of Gill Scott-Heron’s poetry of the 1970s, author Kim Singleton invites us into call-and-response and brings a refreshing cadence to the page that captures every decade of Black joy in all its resilient, diverse, and excellent splendor. “We were told that our bodies weren’t built for this art. Rhythmic movement we mastered flowing straight from the heart.” Singleton shines a light on virtually every facet of Black community life, and unapologetically declares her people good―from the street corner to the White House and everything in between. “In 1827, Freedom’s Journal was born. Black content, Black operated, Black staff, Black owned.” By the end, you’ll be chanting Singleton’s anthem, too: “I LOVE MY PEOPLE!” | July 11, 2023 | Love, community, culture, pride, unity |
| I Don’t Want to Die Poor: Essays | Arceneaux | Michael | Ever since Oprah Winfrey told the 2007 graduating class of Howard University, “Don’t be afraid”, Michael Arceneaux has been scared to death. You should never do the opposite of what Oprah instructs you to do, but when you don’t have her pocket change, how can you not be terrified of the consequences of pursuing your dreams? Michael has never shied away from discussing his struggles with debt, but in I Don’t Want to Die Poor, he reveals the extent to which it has an impact on every facet of his life – how he dates; how he seeks medical care (or in some cases, is unable to); how he wrestles with the question of whether or not he should have chosen a more financially secure path; and finally, how he has dealt with his “dream” turning into an ongoing nightmare as he realizes one bad decision could unravel all that he’s earned. | April 7, 2020 | Poverty, debt, survival, race, student loans |
| 50 Ways to Help Your Community: A Handbook for Change | Fiffer & Fiffer | Steve & Sharon Sloan | If you’re concerned about the future of our children, the quality of our schools, the safety of our neighborhoods, the homeless or hungry, battered women, abused children, the elderly, or the environment, 50 Ways to Help Your Community provides powerful examples and easy-to-follow instructions so you can make a difference in your community. The people in this book are ordinary men, women, and youngsters who have started programs that you can become a part of, replicate, or adapt to your own community. | April 1, 1994 | Volunteering, activism, community, service, impact |
| The Gay Marriage Generation: How the LGBTQ Movement Transformed American Culture | Hart-Brinson | Peter | How did gay marriage―something unimaginable two decades ago―come to feel inevitable to even its staunchest opponents? Drawing on over 95 interviews with two generations of Americans, as well as historical analysis and public opinion data, Peter Hart-Brinson argues that a fundamental shift in our understanding of homosexuality sparked the generational change that fueled gay marriage’s unprecedented rise. Hart-Brinson shows that the LGBTQ movement’s evolution and tactical responses to oppression caused Americans to reimagine what it means to be gay and what gay marriage would mean to society at large. While older generations grew up imagining gays and lesbians in terms of their behavior, younger generations came to understand them in terms of their identity. Over time, as the older generation and their ideas slowly passed away, they were replaced by a new generational culture that brought gay marriage to all fifty states. Through revealing interviews, Hart-Brinson explores how different age groups embrace, resist, and create society’s changing ideas about gay marriage. Religion, race, contact with gay people, and the power of love are all topics that weave in and out of these fascinating accounts, sometimes influencing opinions in surprising ways. The book captures a wide range of voices from diverse social backgrounds at a critical moment in the culture wars, right before the turn of the tide. The story of gay marriage’s rapid ascent offers profound insights about how the continuous remaking of the population through birth and death, mixed with our personal, biographical experiences of our shared history and culture, produces a society that is continually in flux and constantly reinventing itself anew. | October 2, 2018 | LGBTQ+, marriage equality, activism, cultural change, history |
| Radical Belonging: How to Survive + Thrive in an Unjust World (While Transforming it for the Better) | Bacon | Lindo | We are in the midst of a cultural moment. #MeToo. #BlackLivesMatter. #TransIsBeautiful. #AbleismExists. #EffYourBeautyStandards. Those of us who don’t fit into the “mythical norm” (white, male, cisgender, able-bodied, slender, Christian, etc.)—which is to say, most of us—are demanding our basic right: To know that who we are matters. To belong. Being “othered” and the body shame it spurs is not “just” a feeling. Being erased and devalued impacts our ability to regulate our emotions, our relationships with others, our health and longevity, our finances, our ability to realize dreams, and whether we will be accepted, loved, or even safe. Radical Belonging is not a simple self-love treatise. Focusing only on self-love ignores the important fact that we have negative experiences because our culture has targeted certain bodies and people for abuse or alienation. For marginalized people, a focus on self-love can be a spoonful of sugar that makes the oppression go down. This groundbreaking book goes further, helping us to manage the challenges that stem from oppression and moving beyond self-love and into belonging. With Lindo Bacon’s signature blend of science and storytelling, Radical Belonging addresses the political, sociological, psychological and biological underpinnings of your experiences, helping you understand that the alienation and pain you are experiencing is not personal, but human. The problem is in injustice, not you as an individual. So many of us feel wounded by a culture that has alienated us from our bodies and divided us from each other. Radical Belonging provides strategies to reckon with the trauma of injustice; reclaim yourself, body and soul; and rewire your nervous system to better cope within an unjust world. It also provides strategies to help us all provide refuge for one another and create a culture of equity and empathy, one that respects, includes, and benefits from all its diverse peoples. | November 10, 2020 | Beloning, social justice, healing, identity, transformation |
| Women In American Society: An Introduction to Women’s Studies | Sapiro | Virginia | This interdisciplinary social science introduction to women’s studies textbook (not a reader) provides a comprehensive investigation of the effects of gender on women’s lives the United States. The text integrates the latest scholarship and research from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, psychology, political science, education, history, economics, law, mass communications, and the health sciences. | August 14, 2003 | Gender, feminism, equality, society |
| Neither | Anderson | Airlie | In the Land of This and That, there are only two kinds: blue bunnies and yellow birds. But one day a funny green egg hatches, and a little creature that’s not quite a bird and not quite a bunny pops out. It’s neither! Neither tries hard to fit in, but its bird legs aren’t good for jumping like the other bunnies, and its fluffy tail isn’t good for flapping like the other birds. It sets out to find a new home and discovers a very different place, one with endless colors and shapes and creatures of all kinds. But when a blue bunny and a yellow bird with some hidden differences of their own arrive, it’s up to Neither to decide if they are welcome in the Land of All. | February 13, 2018 | Idenity, belonging, inclusion, nonconformity, acceptance |
| Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story | Noble Maillard | Kevin | Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate. Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories. Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond. Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference. | October 22, 2019 | Heritage, family, tradition, culture, community |
| Your Name Is a Song | Thompkins-Bigelow | Jamilah | Frustrated by a day full of teachers and classmates mispronouncing her beautiful name, a little girl tells her mother she never wants to come back to school. In response, the girl’s mother teaches her about the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names on their lyrical walk home through the city. Empowered by this newfound understanding, the young girl is ready to return the next day to share her knowledge with her class. Your Name is a Song is a celebration to remind all of us about the beauty, history, and magic behind names. | July 7, 2020 | Identity, names, culture, empowerment, music |
| We Should All Be Feminists | Ngozi Adichie | Chimamanda | In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists. | February 3, 2015 | Feminism, equality, gender, empowerment, justice |
| Pet | Emezi | Akwaeke | There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question–How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? A riveting and timely young adult debut novel that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial. | January 19, 2021 | Justice, truth, identity, dystopia, monsters |
| Classical Africa | Kete Asante | Molefi | A story is told in Africa of a man and woman who traversed all of central Africa in search of a particular waterfall. After a long, arduous journey through desert, swamp, and rainforest, they finally came to the waterfall they sought. The beauty of the waterfall in the heart of Africa was stunning, surpassing everything they had imagined. The man and woman looked at each other and said “At last!” It was both a sigh of relief at finally completing their difficult journey and an expression of joy at the beauty of the final outcome. | January 1, 1994 | History, civilization, culture, heritage, Africa |
| The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day | Wing | Natasha | It’s the night before St. Patrick’s Day, and Tim and Maureen are wide awake setting traps to catch a leprechaun! When they wake the next morning to the sound of their dad playing the bagpipes and the smell of their mom cooking green eggs, they’re shocked to find that they’ve actually caught a leprechaun. But will they be able to find his pot of gold? | January 22, 2009 | Luck, magic, adventure, children’s book |
| When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt | Cooney | Kara | Female rulers are a rare phenomenon–but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in male-dominated societies. Why did ancient Egypt provide women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today’s world learn from its example? | February 4, 2020 | Queens, Egypt, power, history, leadership |
| Engage & Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life | Asad | Asad L. | Some eleven million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States, carving out lives amid a growing web of surveillance that threatens their families’ societal presence. Engage and Evade examines how undocumented immigrants navigate complex dynamics of surveillance and punishment, providing an extraordinary portrait of fear and hope on the margins. Asad L. Asad brings together a wealth of research, from intimate interviews and detailed surveys with Latino immigrants and their families to up-close observations of immigration officials, to offer a rare perspective on the surveillance that undocumented immigrants encounter daily. He describes how and why these immigrants engage with various institutions—for example, by registering with the IRS or enrolling their kids in public health insurance programs—that the government can use to monitor them. This institutional surveillance feels both necessary and coercive, with undocumented immigrants worrying that evasion will give the government cause to deport them. Even so, they hope their record of engagement will one day help them prove to immigration officials that they deserve societal membership. Asad uncovers how these efforts do not always meet immigration officials’ high expectations, and how surveillance is as much about the threat of exclusion as the promise of inclusion. | June 13, 2023 | Surveillance, immigration, Latino families, resistance, everyday life |
| In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith and the Stories We Inherit | Pierce | Yolanda | The church mothers who raised Yolanda Pierce, dean of Howard University School of Divinity, were busily focused on her survival. In a world hostile to Black women’s bodies and spirits, they had to be. Born on a former cotton plantation and having fled the terrors of the South, Pierce’s grandmother raised her in the faith inherited from those who were enslaved. Now in paperback, In My Grandmother’s House follows Pierce as she reckons with that tradition, building an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, experiences in the Black church, and truths from Black women’s lives. Pierce tells stories that center the experiences of those living on the underside of history, teasing out the tensions of race, spirituality, trauma, freedom, resistance, and memory. The paperback features a new readers’ guide, written by the author, that is useful for individual reflection and group discussion. A grandmother’s theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. The Divine has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black women for a long time. It’s time to get to know that God. | February 7, 2023 | Black women, faith, heritage, storytelling, spirituality |
| Issues In Feminism: An Introduction to Women’s Studies | Ruth | Sheila | Classic and contemporary selections represent both feminist and anti-feminist viewpoints in an examination of women’s lives and the ways in which women can effect alternatives to traditional gender roles. Extensive chapter introductions place selections in context, define and explain concepts and terminology, and provide a cohesive framework for the collection. | November 10, 2000 | Feminism, gender equality, patriarchy, women’s studies, social justice |
| Pleasure Activism: The Poltics of Feeling Good | Brown | Adrienne Maree | How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor Adrienne Maree Brown finds the answer in something she calls “pleasure activism,” a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together, they cover a wide array of subjects — from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs — building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own. | September 16, 2020 | Pleasure, activism, liberation, healing, justice |
| Allies and Advocates: Creating an Inclusive and Equitable Culture | Cabral | Amber | Allies and Advocates: Creating an Inclusive and Equitable Culture delivers a powerful and useful message about inclusion and diversity in everyday life. Author Amber Cabral, a celebrated inclusion strategist, speaker, and writer, shows listeners how to move away from discriminatory/unjust behaviors and support and build meaningful connections with people across our diverse backgrounds and identities. | January 26, 2021 | Allyship, advocacy,DEI |
| The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching | Artze-Vega, Darby, Dewsbury, & Imad | Isis, Flower, Bryan, & Mays | Written by renowned teaching and learning experts, this guide offers concrete steps to help any instructor striving to ensure that all students―and, in particular, historically underserved students―have an equal chance for success. Here you’ll find actionable tips, grounded in research, for teaching college classes online, in person, and everywhere in between. | March 1, 2023 | Equity, education, inclusive teaching, diversity, student success |
| Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman | Dale | Laura Kate | In this candid, first-of-its-kind memoir, Laura Kate Dale recounts what life is like growing up as a gay trans woman on the autism spectrum. From struggling with sensory processing, managing socially demanding situations and learning social cues and feminine presentation, through to coming out as trans during an autistic meltdown, Laura draws on her personal experiences from life prior to transition and diagnosis, and moving on to the years of self-discovery, to give a unique insight into the nuances of sexuality, gender and autism, and how they intersect. | July 18, 2019 | Identity, autism, transgender, LGBTQ+, self-discovery |
| I Am Not a Label: 34 Disabled Artists, Thinkers, Athletes, and Activists from Past and Present | Burnell & Mark Baldo | Cerrie & Lauren | These short biographies tell the stories of people who have faced unique challenges which have not stopped them from becoming trailblazers, innovators, advocates, and makers. Each person is a leading figure in their field, be it sport, science, math, art, breakdance, or the world of pop. | May 5, 2021 | Disability, representation, artists, activists, inclusion |
| My Shadow Is Pink | Stuart | Scott | My Shadow Is Pink is a beautifully written rhyming story that touches on the subjects of gender identity, self acceptance, equality and diversity. Inspired by the author’s own little boy, the main character likes princesses, fairies and things “not for boys.” He soon learns (through the support of his dad) that everyone has a shadow that they sometimes feel they need to hide. | April 1, 2021 | Identity, self-acceptance, gender, expression, belonging |
| The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man | Weldon Johnson | James | James Weldon Johnson’s emotionally gripping novel is a landmark in black literary history and, more than 90 years after its original anonymous publication, a classic of American fiction. The first fictional memoir ever written by an African-American, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man influenced a generation of writers during the Harlem Renaissance and served as eloquent inspiration for Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright. In the 1920s and since, it has also given white readers a startling new perspective on their own culture, revealing to many the double standard of racial identity imposed on black Americans. Told by a bi-racial man whose light skin allows him to “pass” for white, the novel describes a pilgrimage through America’s color lines at the turn of the century – from a black college in Jacksonville to an elite New York nightclub, from the rural South to the white suburbs of the Northeast. | December 9, 2011 | Race, identity, passing, society, heritage |
| Dreams for Our Daughters: A Collection of Dreams, Wishes, and Perspectives for our Collective Daughters | Allmon Coffey | Bonnie | Girls- especially today- need dreams to thrive. As you go through your life, you may be unaware that you are helping shape the dreams of a young woman. Dreams For Our Daughters is a collection of dreams from women around the world to share with our collective daughters. Give the gift of a dream to a girl in your life. | May 1, 2002 | Empowerment, dreams, wisdom, hope, inspiration |
| The Waymakers: Clearing the Path to Workplace Equity with Competence and Confidence | Frank | Tara Jaye | “What really drives workplace equity and inclusion―beyond strategies and systems? The truth is, all historically excluded persons who have broken through to greater levels of professional belonging and achievement have succeeded not by policy and systems change alone, but because of leaders who chose to remove barriers, open doors, and guide them toward their goals. The bottom line? Someone made a way for them. | May 3, 2022 | DEI, workplace, leadership |
| Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions | McTeer Toney | Heather | Climate change. Two words that are quickly becoming the clarion call to action in the twenty-first century. It is a voter issue, an economy driver, and a defining dynamic for the foreseeable future. Yet, in Black communities, climate change is seen as less urgent when compared to other pressing issues, including police brutality, gun violence, job security, food insecurity, and the blatant racism faced daily around the country. However, with Black Americans disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change–making up 13 percent of the US population but breathing 40 percent dirtier air and being twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems than white counterparts–climate change is a central issue of racial justice and affects every aspect of life for Black communities. In Before the Streetlights Come On, climate activist Heather McTeer Toney insists that those most affected by climate change are best suited to lead the movement for climate justice. McTeer Toney brings her background in politics, community advocacy, and leadership in environmental justice to this revolutionary exploration of why and how Black Americans are uniquely qualified to lead national and global conversations around systems of racial disparity and solutions to the climate crisis. As our country delves deeper into solutions for systemic racism and past injustices, she argues, the environmental movement must shift direction and leadership toward those most affected and most affecting change: Black communities. | April 18, 2023 | Environmental racism, climate justice, black communities, sustainability, activism |
| Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds | Van Reken, Pollock, & Pollock | Ruth E., Michael V., & David C. | In this 3rd edition of the ground-breaking, global classic, Ruth E. Van Reken and Michael V. Pollock, son of the late original co-author, David C. Pollock have significantly updated what is widely recognized as The TCK Bible. Emphasis is on the modern TCK and addressing the impact of technology, cultural complexity, diversity & inclusion and transitions. Includes new advice for parents and others for how to support TCKs as they navigate work, relationships, social settings and their own personal development. | September 5, 2017 | Identity, belonging, global nomads, cross-cultural, adaptation |
| Seen & Unseen: Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice | Lamont Hill & Brewster | Marc & Todd | With his signature “clear and courageous” (Cornel West) voice Marc Lamont Hill and New York Times bestselling author Todd Brewster weave four recent pivotal moments in America’s racial divide into their disturbing historical context—starting with the killing of George Floyd. Seen and Unseen reveals the connections between our current news headlines and social media feeds and the country’s long struggle against racism. | May 3, 2022 | Technology, social media, racial justice, activism, surveillance |
| The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story | Hannah-Jones, Times Magazine, Roper, Silverman, & Silverstein | Nikole, The New York, Caitlin, Ilena, & Jake | In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. | November 16, 2021 | Slavery, history, racism, America, legacy |
| All the Colors of the Earth | Hamanaka | Sheila | Inspired by her own two children’s multiethnic heritage, Ms. Hamanaka uses soaring text to celebrate the glorious diversity of children laughing, loving, and glowing with life. | April 1, 2015 | Diversity, children, love, nature, unity |
| The Colors of Us | Katz | Karen | Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades. Through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people. | October 1, 2002 | Skin tones, identity, self-acceptance, community, diversity |
| The Year We Learned to Fly | Woodson | Jacqueline | On a dreary, stuck-inside kind of day, a brother and sister heed their grandmother’s advice: “Use those beautiful and brilliant minds of yours. Lift your arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and believe in a thing. Somebody somewhere at some point was just as bored you are now.” And before they know it, their imaginations lift them up and out of their boredom. Then, on a day full of quarrels, it’s time for a trip outside their minds again, and they are able to leave their anger behind. This precious skill, their grandmother tells them, harkens back to the days long before they were born, when their ancestors showed the world the strength and resilience of their beautiful and brilliant minds | January 4, 2022 | Imagination, resilience, hope, empowerment, freedom |
| Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself | Blight | David W. | Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a former slave and great American abolitionist, author, and orator. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is his best-selling autobiography, written in 1845. | January 7, 2020 | Slavery, freedom, resilience, abolition, autobiography |
| Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Transgender | White | Grayson Lee | For as long as he could remember, Grayson has known he is a boy, not a girl. While his identical twin sister wore princess dresses and danced ballet in a tutu, Grayson preferred his Spider-Man costume or sweats. He was uncomfortable in anything considered “girly.” People called him a tomboy, but he knew that wasn’t right either. He explained to his mother, “I know I’m supposed to be your daughter, but I feel more like your son. I guess I’m your… Dot-son.” Grayson is now twelve years old. This is his story about what it’s like growing up transgender—from small moments, like getting a new haircut or playing football, to the big life events, like choosing a bathroom, coming out to his friends, and picking a new name. | April 4, 2023 | Transgender, identity, self-discovery, journey, resilience |
| Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools and Beyond | Singleton | Glenn E. | Schools, like all organizations, face a nearly insurmountable hurdle when addressing racial inequities―the inability to talk candidly about race. In this timely update, author Glenn Singleton enables you to break the silence and open an authentic dialogue that forges a path to progress for racial equity. | August 31, 2021 | Race, equity, education, dialogue |
| On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life | Ahmed | Sara | What does diversity do? What are we doing when we use the language of diversity? Sara Ahmed offers an account of the diversity world based on interviews with diversity practitioners in higher education, as well as her own experience of doing diversity work. Diversity is an ordinary, even unremarkable, feature of institutional life. Yet diversity practitioners often experience institutions as resistant to their work, as captured through their use of the metaphor of the “brick wall.” On Being Included offers an explanation of this apparent paradox. It explores the gap between symbolic commitments to diversity and the experience of those who embody diversity. Commitments to diversity are understood as “non-performatives” that do not bring about what they name. The book provides an account of institutional whiteness and shows how racism can be obscured by the institutionalization of diversity. Diversity is used as evidence that institutions do not have a problem with racism. | March 28, 2012 | Racism, institutions, DEI |
| Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic | Bechdel | Alison | Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the “Fun Home.” It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve. | June 5, 2007 | Memoir, identity, family, LGBTQ+, self discovery |
| The Betrayal of Liliuokalani | Allen | Helena | A woman caught in the turbulent malestrom of cultures in conflict. Treating Queen Liliuokalani’s life with authority, accuracy and detail, Betrayal is tremendously informative concerning the entire period of missionary activity and foreign encroachment in the Islands. | July 31, 1982 | Hawaiian history, colonization, monarchy, annexation |
| Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America | Rainford | Monique | Pregnant While Black is a hopeful exploration of the issues pregnant Black women face in America. Within these pages, Dr. Rainford draws on over twenty years of experience working in obstetrics and gynecology to offer a primer on Black pregnancies and how to better care for them. She shares the successes and testimonies of Black women who have struggled during pregnancy and childbirth, anchoring the stories of these women with carefully researched facts. Despite medical advances over the last twenty years, for Black women, the overwhelming dangers of carrying and delivering children remain and it only seems to be getting worse. In Pregnant While Black, Rainford begins the work of “repairing the damage of the past” with an examination of the conditions that plague Black pregnancies. | April 11, 2023 | Maternal health, racial disparities, black mothers, healthcare justice, reproductive rights |
| Sweat and Salt Water (Pacific Islands Monograph) | Teaiwa | Teresia Kieuea | On 21 March 2017, Associate Professor Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa passed away at the age of forty-eight. News of Teaiwa’s death precipitated an extraordinary outpouring of grief unmatched in the Pacific studies community since Epeli Hau‘ofa’s passing in 2009. Mourners referenced Teaiwa’s nurturing interactions with numerous students and colleagues, her innovative program-building at Victoria University of Wellington, her inspiring presence at numerous conferences around the globe, her feminist and political activism, her poetry, her Banaban/I-Kiribati/Fiji Islander and African American heritage, and her extraordinary ability to connect and communicate with people of all backgrounds. | August 31, 2021 | Pacific islands, indigenous knowledge, climate change, culture |
| For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts | Mojica Rodriguez | Prisca Dorcas | For generations, Brown girls have had to push against powerful forces of sexism, racism, and classism, often feeling alone in the struggle. By founding Latina Rebels, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez has created a community to help women fight together. In For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, she offers wisdom and a liberating path forward for all women of color. She crafts powerful ways to address the challenges Brown girls face, from imposter syndrome to colorism. She empowers women to decolonize their worldview, and defy “universal” white narratives, by telling their own stories. Her book guides women of color toward a sense of pride and sisterhood and offers essential tools to energize a movement. May it spark a fire within you. | October 11, 2022 | Empowerment, identity, intersectionality, resilience, activism |
| Black Reconstruction in America | Du Bois | W.E.B. | This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. | March 13, 2018 | Race, democracy, labor, history, reconstruction |
| Stories by Women of the Moana | Wendt Young | Lani | Stories that tell Covid how we REALLY feel, where a Centipede God watches on with wry humour and wrath, where a sexy Samoan goes on a hot Tinder date in Honolulu, where a New Zealand doctor is horrified to be stuck at her cousin’s kava drink up in Fiji, where Moana people travel the stars and navigate planets, stories where Ancestors and Atua live and breathe. Stories that defy colonial boundaries, and draw on the storytelling and oratory that is our inheritance. Immerse yourself in the intrigue, fantasy, humour and magic of beautiful strong stories by 38 writers from across the Moana. | December 21, 2021 | Pacific islands, culture, indigenous women, Moana, storytelling |
| The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal | Williams | Brian H. | Trauma surgeon Dr. Brian H. Williams has seen it all—gunshot wounds, stabbings, traumatic brain injuries—and ushers us into the trauma bay, where the wounds of a national emergency amass. As a Harvard-trained physician, he learned to keep his head down and his scalpel ready. As a Black man, he learned to swallow rage when patients told him to take out the trash. Just days after the tragic police shootings of two Black men, he tried to save the lives of officers shot in the deadliest incident for US law enforcement since 9/11. Thrust into the spotlight in a nation that loves feel-good stories more than hard truths, he came to rethink everything he thought he knew about medicine, injustice, and what true healing looks like. Now, in raw, intimate detail, he narrates not only the events of that night, but the grief and anger of a Black doctor on the front lines of trauma care. Working in the physician-writer tradition of Gawande and Tweedy, he diagnoses the roots of the violence that plagues us. He draws a through line between white supremacy, gun violence, and the bodies he tries to revive, training his surgeon’s gaze on the structural ills manifesting themselves in his patients’ bodies. What if racism is a feature of our healthcare system, not a bug? What if profiting from racial inequality is exactly what it’s designed to do? Black and brown bodies will continue to be wracked by all types of violence, Williams argues, until we transform policy and law with compassion and care. | September 26, 2023 | Racism, violence, trauma, healthcare, healing |
| Black Women, Ivory Tower: Revealing the Lies of White Supremacy in American Education | Harris | Jasmine L. | Black women are heading to college in record numbers, and more and more Black women are teaching in higher education. But these statistics don’t guarantee our safety there. Willpower and grit may improve achievement for Black people in school, but they don’t secure our belonging. In fact, the very structure of higher education ensures that we’re treated as guests, outsiders to the institutional family—outnumbered and unwelcome. In this compelling exploration of what it means to be a Black woman pursuing higher education, Dr. Jasmine L. Harris moves beyond the “data points” to examine the day-to-day impacts of racism in education on Black women as individuals, the longer-term consequences to our personal and professional lives, and the generational costs to our entire families. | January 16, 2024 | Black women, education, white supremecy, inequity, resistance |
| The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear | Moore | Kate | The year 1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of 21 years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened – by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: They’ve been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line – conveniently labeled “crazy” so their voices are ignored. No one is willing to fight for their freedom, and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose…. | June 22, 2021 | Women’s rights, mental health, injustice, freedom, resistance |
| me and white supremacy Cobat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor | Saad | Layla | Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home. This book will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining: Examining your own white privilege What allyship really means Anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation Changing the way that you view and respond to race How to continue the work to create social change Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. For readers of White Fragility, White Rage, So You Want To Talk About Race, The New Jim Crow, How to Be an Anti-Racist and more who are ready to closely examine their own beliefs and biases and do the work it will take to create social change. | January 18, 2020 | Anti-racism, privilege, accountability, education, allyship |
| What If: Short Stories to Spark Inclusion & Diversity Dialoge | Robbins | Steve L. | This 10th anniversary edition of the beloved classic features 10 new stories written by Dr. Robbins that help readers gain deeper insight into the role our brains play in shaping our thoughts and actions, and what we can do to be more curious and open-minded in our diverse world. Based on his study of the fields of behavioral science and cognitive neuroscience, Robbins explores unconscious bias in many of its forms, including: availability bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias and others. With his signature humor, these weighty but important topics are addressed with great insight, care and humility. The result is an unpretentious guide for individuals and organizations that will help break down defenses and shine a helpful light on human behavior in a world filled with differences. | November 6, 2018 | DEI, perspective, dialogue |
| The Waymakers clearing the Path to Workplace Equity with Competence and Confidence | Frank | Tara Jaye | The truth is, all historically excluded persons who have broken through to greater levels of professional belonging and achievement have succeeded not by policy and systems change alone, but because of leaders who chose to remove barriers, open doors, and guide them toward their goals. The bottom line? Someone made a way for them. Using case studies, data, and candid storytelling, Tara Jaye Frank outlines how leaders with power and position can clear the path to workplace equity by discovering where you are on your equity journey today; embracing the steps required to achieve true equity; understanding what your employees really want from you; developing a lens for the big barriers and intervention opportunities; connecting the dots between meeting talent needs and unlocking company value; recognizing when Waymaking matters most; and showing up—every day—as a leader who makes a way. The Waymakers not only makes a compelling case for change. It also teaches you how to facilitate that change. Once you’ve read it, you’ll understand why the question is not “what” drives equity and inclusion, but “who.” | May 3, 2022 | Workplace equity, inclusion, leadership, diversity, advocacy |
| Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West | Wolman & Smith | David & Julian | In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the world’s greatest rodeo. They had travelled 3,000 miles from Hawaii, where their ancestors had herded cattle for generations, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the Hawaiians left the heartland as champions – and American legends. David Wolman and Julian Smith’s Aloha Rodeo unspools a fascinating and little-known tale, blending rough-knuckled frontier drama with a rousing underdog narrative. Tracing the life story of steer-roping virtuoso Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Ka’au’a, the writers delve into the dual histories of ranching in the islands and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Cheyenne, “Holy City of the Cow”. At the turn of the century, larger-than-life personalities like “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Theodore Roosevelt capitalized on a national obsession with the Wild West and helped transform Cheyenne’s annual Frontier Days celebration into an unparalleled rodeo spectacle, the “Daddy of ‘em All”. A great deal rode on the Hawaiians’ shoulders during those dusty days in August. Just a decade earlier, the overthrow of Hawaii’s monarchy and forced annexation by the US had traumatized an independent nation whose traditions dated back centuries. Journeying to the mainland for the first time, the young riders brought with them the pride of a people struggling to preserve their cultural identity and anxious about their future under the rule of overlords an ocean away. In Cheyenne, the Hawaiians didn’t just show their mastery of riding and roping, skills that white Americans thought they owned. They also overturned simplistic thinking about the “Wild West”, cowboys-versus-Indians, and the very concept of cattle country. Blending sport and history, while exploring questions of identity, imperialism, and race, Aloha Rodeo brings to light an overlooked and riveting chapter in the saga of the American West. | May 28, 2019 | Rodeo, history, American west, culture, Hawaiian cowboys |
| Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia (The New Oceania Literary Series) | Flores, Kihleng, & Santos Pérez | Evelyn, Emelihter, & Craig | For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding―and distinctly Micronesian―voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. | April 30, 2019 | Indigenous, micronesia, storytelling, culture, oceania |
| Braving the Whilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone | Brown | Brene | “True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives – experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling, and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping a clear path to true belonging. Brown argues that we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other. She writes, “True belonging requires us to believe in and belong to ourselves so fully that we can find sacredness both in being a part of something and in standing alone when necessary. But in a culture that’s rife with perfectionism and pleasing, and with the erosion of civility, it’s easy to stay quiet, hide in our ideological bunkers, or fit in rather than show up as our true selves and brave the wilderness of uncertainty and criticism. But true belonging is not something we negotiate or accomplish with others; it’s a daily practice that demands integrity and authenticity. It’s a personal commitment that we carry in our hearts.” Brown offers us the clarity and courage we need to find our way back to ourselves and to each other. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.” | September 12, 2017 | Belonging, courage, vulnerability, authenticity, connection |
| Shining a Light: Celebrating 40 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Changed the World | Bybee & Ngai | Veeda & Victo | From scientists to sports stars, aerospace engineers to artists, every person shines in this collection. Dynamic portraits portray each person with clever, precise details. Each biography celebrates the determination and courage of people who were on the forefront of changing society. Using their specific talents, each individual fought for the space for people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent to be seen and treated with dignity and respect. Their important legacy lives on today. | March 28, 2023 | AAPI heritage, trailblazers, history, inspiration, impact |
| Call Us What We Carry | Gorman | Amanda | Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by number one New York Times best-selling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future. | December 7, 2021 | Poetry, history, resilience, identity, hope |
| Fat Girls Hiking: An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability | Michaud-Skog | Summer | From the founder of the Fat Girls Hiking community comes an inclusive, inspiring call to the outdoors for people of all body types, sizes, and backgrounds. In a book brimming with heartfelt stories, practical advice, personal profiles of Fat Girls Hiking community members, and helpful trail reviews, Summer Michaud-Skog creates space for marginalized bodies with an insistent conviction that outdoor recreation should welcome everyone. Whether you’re an experienced or aspiring hiker, you’ll be empowered to hit the trails and find yourself in nature. Trails, not scales! | July 15, 2022 | Body positivity, hiking, inclusion, wellness, adventure |
| So You Want to Talk About Race | Oluo | Ijeoma | Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life. | September 24, 2019 | Race, privilege, racism, dialogue, equity |
| Black Hands, White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America | Harrison | Renee K. | Black Hands, White House documents and appraises the role enslaved women and men played in building the US, both its physical and its fiscal infrastructure. The book highlights the material commodities produced by enslaved communities during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. These commodities – namely tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton, among others – enriched European and US economies; contributed to the material and monetary wealth of the nation’s founding fathers, other early European immigrants, and their descendants; and bolstered the wealth of present-day companies founded during the American slave era. Critical to this study are also examples of enslaved laborers’ role in building Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Subsequently, their labor also constructed the nation’s capital city, Federal City (later renamed Washington, DC), its seats of governance – the White House and US Capitol – and other federal sites and memorials. | February 22, 2022 | Slavery, history, labor, America, injustice |
| The Gifts of Imperfection | Brown | Brene | For more than a decade, Brené Brown has found a special place in our hearts as a gifted mapmaker and a fellow traveler. She is both a social scientist and a kitchen-table friend whom you can always count on to tell the truth, make you laugh, and, on occasion, cry with you. And what’s now become a movement all started with The Gifts of Imperfection, which has sold more than two million copies in 35 different languages across the globe. What transforms this book from words to effective daily practices are the 10 guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way. Brené writes, “This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, ‘My story matters because I matter.’ Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance.” | August 27, 2010 | Self-acceptance, vulnerability, courage, authenticity, personal growth |
| An American Epic of Discovery: The Lewis and Clark Journals | Moulton, Meriwether, William | Gary E. , Lewis, Clark | Following orders from President Thomas Jefferson, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from their wintering camp in Illinois in 1804 to search for a river passage to the Pacific Ocean. In this riveting account, editor Gary E. Moulton blends the narrative highlights of the Lewis and Clark journals so that the voices of the enlisted men and of Native peoples are heard alongside the words of the captains. All their triumphs and terrors are here—the thrill of seeing the vast herds of bison on the plains; the tensions and admiration in the first meetings with Indian peoples; Lewis’s rapture at the stunning beauty of the Great Falls; the fear the captains felt when a devastating illness befell their Shoshone interpreter, Sacagawea; the ordeal of crossing the Continental Divide; the kidnapping and rescuing of Lewis’s dog, Seaman; miserable days of cold and hunger; and Clark’s joy at seeing the Pacific. The cultural differences between the corps and Native Americans make for living drama that at times provokes laughter but more often is poignant and, at least once, tragic. | November 1, 2004 | Exploration, Lewis & Clark, discovery, history, adventure |
| Achieveing Faculty Diversity: Debuncking the Myths | Smith | Daryl G. | No Description | January 1, 1996 | Higher education, equity, inclusion |
| The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of Racial Oppression | Allen | Theodore W. | Long heralded as a classic study of the origin of white privilege from the activist who first coined the term, Theodore W. Allen’s work remains an indispensable resource for making sense of our conflicted present, a reference point for everyone from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Nell Irvin Painter to Reni-Eddo Lodge and Aníbal Quijano. When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no “white” people there. Nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. In this seminal work, available for the first time here in a single volume, Allen tells how America’s ruling classes created the category of the “white race” as a means of social control. Since that early invention, white privileges have enforced the myth of racial superiority, a fact central to maintaining rulingclass domination over ordinary working people of all colors throughout the history of the Atlantic world. Spanning centuries and nations, Allen’s analysis takes us from the plantations of Northern Ireland and the mines of Peru to the sugar fields of Brazil and colonies of Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. His account records lives of hardscrabble immigrant survival, Faustian bargains with white supremacy, the tragedy of human bondage, and the stubborn, unbreakable resistance to the global color line. | January 11, 2022 | Race, oppression, history, colonialism, social construct |
| Hidden Figures | Shetterly | Margot Lee | The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space—a powerful, revelatory history essential to our understanding of race, discrimination, and achievement in modern America. The basis for the smash Academy Award-nominated film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. | December 6, 2016 | STEM, NASA, black women, space race, history |
| The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women | Moore | Kate | The year was 1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks, and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous – the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls. As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive – their work – was in fact slowly killing them: They had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering – in the face of death – these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly and instead became determined to fight for justice. | May 2, 2017 | Radium, workplace safety, injustice, women, health |
| All Boys Aren’t Blue | Johnson | George M. | From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults. (Johnson used he/him pronouns at the time of publication.) | April 28, 2020 | Identity, LGBTQ+, masculinity, race, memoir |
| Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia | Thompson | Christina | For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers, they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history. How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonize these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the 18th century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind. | March 12, 2019 | Polynesia, exploration, navigation, history, mystery |
| I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Sanchez | Erika L. | Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal? | March 5, 2019 | Identity, family, expectations, mental health, culture |
| The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference | Reicherzer | Stacee L. | Were you the victim of childhood bullying based on your identity? Do you carry those scars into adulthood in the form of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dysfunctional relationships, substance abuse, or suicidal thoughts? If so, you’re not alone. Our cultural and political climate has reopened old wounds for many people who have felt “othered” at different points in their life, starting with childhood bullying. This breakthrough book will guide you as you learn to identify your deeply rooted fears, and help you heal the invisible wounds of identity-based childhood rejection, bullying, and belittling. | June 8, 2021 | Healing, otherness, bullying, empowerment, identity |
| His Name is George Floyd | Samuels, Olorunnipa | Robert, Toluse | His Name Is George Floyd tells the story of a beloved figure from Houston’s housing projects as he faced the stifling systemic pressures that come with being a Black man in America. Placing his narrative within the context of the country’s enduring legacy of institutional racism, this deeply reported account examines Floyd’s family roots in slavery and sharecropping, the segregation of his schools, the overpolicing of his community amid a wave of mass incarceration, and the callous disregard toward his struggle with addiction—putting today’s inequality into uniquely human terms. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with Floyd’s closest friends and family, his elementary school teachers and varsity coaches, civil rights icons, and those in the highest seats of political power, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world. | May 17, 2022 | Racial injustice, police brutality, Black lives matter, systemic racism |
| We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition (Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies) | Hernández | Sarah | After centuries of colonization, this important new work recovers the literary record of Oceti Sakowin (historically known to some as the Sioux Nation) women, who served as their tribes’ traditional culture keepers and culture bearers. In so doing, it furthers discussions about settler colonialism, literature, nationalism, and gender. | February 21, 2023 | Indigenous literature, colonization, decolonization, storytelling |
| Love Makes A Family | Beer | Sophie | Love is baking a special cake. Love is lending a helping hand. Love is reading one more book. In this exuberant board book, many different families are shown in happy activity, from an early-morning wake-up to a kiss before bed. Whether a child has two moms, two dads, one parent, or one of each, this simple preschool read-aloud demonstrates that what’s most important in each family’s life is the love the family members share. | December 24, 2018 | DEI, belonging, love, family |
| Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples | Tuhiwai Smith | Linda | To the colonized, the term ‘research’ is conflated with European colonialism; the ways in which academic research has been implicated in the throes of imperialism remains a painful memory. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research – specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as ‘regimes of truth.’ Concepts such as ‘discovery’ and ‘claiming’ are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. | January 26, 2023 | Decolonization, indigenous knowledge, research, methodology, resistance |
| A Voice in the Darkness: A Memoir of a Rwandan Genocide Survivor | Lakin & Lakin | Jeanne & Paul | In 1994, Jeanne Celestine, a young Rwandan schoolgirl, was living a quiet life in the countryside when the death of Rwanda’s president provoked a 100-day extermination of over one million ethnic Tutsis. She survived by hiding from violent militiamen all the while caring for her three-year-old twin sisters, Teddy and Teta. | June 2, 2021 | Genocide, survival, Rwanda, resilience, memoir |
| The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier | Allen Jr. | Phil | Martin Luther King used news cameras as a means of exposing anti-Black violence by white mobs in the 1950s and 60s. Darnella Frazier used her phone to record and post the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in May 2020. These are just two of many people who have captured images of injustice for the world to see. The Prophetic Lens takes an important look at the use of the video camera as an indispensable prophetic tool for the security of Black lives and greater possibility for racial justice. Phil Allen shows how the camera can be a catalyst for cultural change, using Walter Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination as a framework for understanding the concept of “prophetic.” Chronicling the use of the camera, particularly in film from J.D. Griffiths’ Birth of a Nation to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Allen’s historical approach reveals how effective this technology has been in achieving the goals of its respective storytellers. | September 13, 2022 | Photography, black activism, moral agency, civil rights, media power |
| Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center | Hooks | Bell | When Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center was first published in 1984, it was welcomed and praised by feminist thinkers who wanted a new vision. Even so, individual audiences frequently found the theory unsettling or provocative. Today, the blueprint for feminist movement presented in this book remains as provocative and relevant as ever. Written in Hooks’s characteristic direct style, Feminist Theory embodies the hope that feminists can find a common language to spread the word and create a mass, global feminist movement. | June 4, 2024 | Feminism, oppression, patriarchy, activism, intersectionality |
| I Am Enough | Byers | Grace | This gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind to one another comes from Empire actor and activist Grace Byers and talented newcomer artist Keturah A. Bobo. We are all here for a purpose. We are more than enough. We just need to believe it. | March 6, 2018 | Self-love, confidence, empowerment, acceptance, positivity |
| Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawaii and Oceania | Arvin | Maile Renee | From their earliest encounters with Indigenous Pacific Islanders, white Europeans and Americans asserted an identification with the racial origins of Polynesians, declaring them to be racially almost white and speculating that they were of Mediterranean or Aryan descent. In Possessing Polynesians, Maile Arvin analyzes this racializing history within the context of settler colonialism across Polynesia, especially in Hawai‘i. Arvin argues that a logic of possession through whiteness animates settler colonialism, by which both Polynesia (the place) and Polynesians (the people) become exotic, feminized belongings of whiteness. Seeing whiteness as indigenous to Polynesia provided white settlers with the justification needed to claim Polynesian lands and resources. Understood as possessions, Polynesians were and continue to be denied the privileges of whiteness. Yet Polynesians have long contested these classifications, claims, and cultural representations, and Arvin shows how their resistance to and refusal of white settler logic have regenerated Indigenous forms of recognition. | November 8, 2019 | Whiteness, Indigenous resistance, racial science, Hawaii/Oceania |
| Modern Her Story | Imani | Blair | With a radical and inclusive approach to history, Modern Her Story profiles and celebrates seventy women and nonbinary champions of progressive social change in a bold, colorful, illustrated format for all ages. Despite making huge contributions to the liberation movements of the last century and today, all of these trailblazers come from backgrounds and communities that are traditionally overlooked and under-celebrated: not just women, but people of color, queer people, trans people, disabled people, young people, and people of faith. Authored by rising star activist Blair Imani, Modern Her Story tells the important stories of the leaders and movements that are changing the world right here and right now—and will inspire you to do the same. | October 16, 2018 | Feminism, activism, intersectionality, diversity, empowerment |
| The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activies to Help You Challenge Priviledge, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing | Singh, Wise, & Wing Sue | Anneliese, Tim, & Derald | Healing from racism is a journey that often involves reliving trauma and experiencing feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety. This journey can be a bumpy ride, and before we begin healing, we need to gain an understanding of the role history plays in racial/ethnic myths and stereotypes. In so many ways, to heal from racism, you must reeducate yourself and unlearn the processes of racism. The Racial Healing Handbook offers practical tools to help you navigate daily and past experiences of racism, challenge internalized negative messages and privileges, and handle feelings of stress and shame. You’ll also learn to develop a profound racial consciousness and conscientiousness and heal from grief and trauma. Most importantly, you’ll discover the building blocks to creating a community of healing in a world still filled with racial microaggressions and discrimination. This book is not just about ending racial harm – it is about racial liberation. This journey is one that we must take together. It promises the possibility of moving through this pain and grief to experience the hope, resilience, and freedom that helps you not only self-actualize, but also makes the world a better place. | January 26, 2021 | Privilege, racial healing, anti-racism, social justice, collective healing |
| Another Day in Post-Racial America | Hagan | Dianne Liuzzi | “One of the best Black Lives Matter books of all time” – BookAuthority Dedicated to the mothers of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and set among the stories of unarmed black men, women, and children who were victims of excessive use of force and racial bias, Liuzzi Hagan’s memoir is a candid, emotionally intimate account of the devastating personal effects of politically motivated and systematized racism in America. She is white; her husband is black. They have mixed-race twin daughters. Their relationship spans over forty years. As both a witness to and a target of racial bias, her stories, ranging from microaggressions to the truly terrifying, are told in vivid and affecting detail. Interwoven throughout the stories are appeals for empathy and insight, as well as suggestions on how to dismantle systemic racism and change the race narrative to make America safer, egalitarian, and a place where black lives matter. This is a story of shock, outrage, heartbreak, forbearance, love, and hope for her family, for the families who lost loved ones to racially motivated violence, and for America. It includes discussion questions for classrooms and book clubs. “…Told with vivid emotion and will spark discussion and high-level thinking among readers…” ~The BookLife Prize Reader reviews: “[Liuzzi Hagan] challenges her readers to think, and more importantly, to act differently…” “I found healing in these pages.” “Liuzzi Hagan’s storytelling style is captivating. I am recommending the book to everyone…” “I was led to examine my thoughts and assumptions on race. The kind of reflection that [Liuzzi Hagan] encourages is soul-enriching and honest.” “…Outrage powers some of this book, as does fear, as does hope… a call for empathy, understanding and discussion of race founded in goodwill…” | March 7, 2019 | Racism, identity, microaggressions, inequality, social justice |
| The Feminist Handbook: Practical Tools to Resist Sexism and Dismantle the Patriarchy (The Social Justice Handbook Series) | Bagshaw | Joanne L. | From reproductive rights and the wage gap to #MeToo and #TimesUp—gender inequality permeates nearly every aspect of our culture. From birth and on through adulthood, the message that our sexist society sends to women and girls is clear: you’re not enough. You’re not valued enough to get paid the same salary as a man with the same job title. You’re not worthy enough or perfect enough to be taken seriously or respected. You’re not responsible enough to make decisions about your body or reproductive rights. These negative messages are internalized on a deep psychological level. In fact, the effects of sexism are directly represented in the high rates of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and eating disorders among women and girls—and these effects are even more severe for queer women, disabled women, and women of color. Isn’t it time you said ENOUGH? | November 1, 2019 | Feminism, patriarchy, sexism, activism, empowerment |
| We Are The Rainbow: The Colors of Pride | Winslow | Claire | What does the rainbow mean to you? Learn the meanings behind the colors of the LGBTQ+ pride flag! Shaped pages reveal each color of the rainbow as you read. | April 5, 2022 | LGBTQ+, pride, DEI, identity |
| Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jumpstart Conversations about Identity, Privilege, and Bias | Williams,Esq. | Bari A. | In order to create an inclusive working environment, it is important for companies to understand the experiences that diverse employees face in the workplace. Diversity in the Workplace is a guided tour of what it means to be a minority in today’s labor force. Containing 25 real-life interviews, including stories of trailblazers fighting inequality, you’ll be exposed to a slice of life you may not have been privy to. This book explores real world issues in a modern workday dynamic for members of marginalized communities and managers looking to equalize an imbalance. | March 31, 2020 | DEI, privilege, bias, workplace equity |
| The Antiracism Handbook: Practical Tools to Shift Your Mindset and Uproot Racism in Your Life and Community | Bryant, Arrington, & Nadal | Thema, Edith, & Kevin | Racism has reached epidemic levels in our country, and every single day we see acts of racial injustice. From police brutality and the prison industrial complex, to crumbling infrastructure and toxic drinking water in predominantly Black neighborhoods—many people have finally opened their eyes to the harsh realities of inequality and systemic racism in America. But awareness isn’t enough. We need to take action to create real change. Written by two psychologists and experts in race, identity, equity, and inclusion, The Antiracism Handbook will empower you to make your own personal contribution to creating an antiracist society. You’ll find practical, evidence-based tools grounded in psychology to help you recognize and resist racial stereotypes in day-to-day interactions; and strategies to help you communicate with family, loved ones, and children about race and racism. You’ll also learn skills to help you navigate race in professional workspaces, and advocate for antiracist politics, policies, and practices in your community, civic, and spiritual life. By shifting your thought patterns and behaviors to cultivate an antiracist mindset, you can actively change your community—and the world—beginning with yourself. | July 30, 2024 | Antiracism, privilege, systemic racism, activism, social justice |
| Because We Can Change The World: A Practical Guide to Building Cooperative, Inclusive Classroom Communities | Sapon-Shevin | Mara | Mara Sapon-Shevin skillfully blends vision statements, stories, and strategies to guide teachers in promoting social justice and creating classrooms that allow all children to experience academic success. | June 28, 2010 | Cooperative learning, inclusion, community building, education, social justice |
| The Neurodivergence Skills Workbook for Autism and ADHD: Cultivate Self-Compassion, Live Authentically, and Be Your Own Advocate | Kemp Mpsych, Mithcelson Mpsych, & Wise | Jennifer, Monique, & Sonny Jane | As an autistic person or neurodivergent individual with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you may sometimes feel as if you’re living in a world that wasn’t designed for you. You may have sensory sensitivities, social difficulties, struggles with executive functioning, sleep issues, depression, anxiety, burnout and meltdowns, and trauma from a lifetime of marginalization and microaggressions. If you are struggling with your neurodivergent identity, know that you aren’t alone. Whether you were diagnosed as a child or are just now realizing your difference, this workbook can help you move beyond the internalized message that there is something wrong with you, so you can embrace who you really are and manage stress before it leads to neurodivergent burnout. The Neurodivergence Skills Workbook for Autism and ADHD offers acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and self-compassion skills tailored to the needs of neurodiverse people-especially those with ADHD and Autism-so you can live authentically, take pride in your identity, increase overall well-being, and build meaningful connections to thrive as a neurodivergent person in the modern world. | July 16, 2024 | Neurodivergence, autism, ADHD, self-compassion, advocacy |
| Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People | Banaji, Greenwald | Mahzarin R., Anthony G. | These self-perceptions are challenged by leading psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald as they explore the hidden biases we all carry from a lifetime of exposure to cultural attitudes about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality. “Blindspot” is the authors’ metaphor for the portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. Writing with simplicity and verve, Banaji and Greenwald question the extent to which our perceptions of social groups—without our awareness or conscious control—shape our likes and dislikes and our judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential. In Blindspot, the authors reveal hidden biases based on their experience with the Implicit Association Test, a method that has revolutionized the way scientists learn about the human mind and that gives us a glimpse into what lies within the metaphoric blindspot. The title’s “good people” are those of us who strive to align our behavior with our intentions. The aim of Blindspot is to explain the science in plain enough language to help well-intentioned people achieve that alignment. By gaining awareness, we can adapt beliefs and behavior and “outsmart the machine” in our heads so we can be fairer to those around us. Venturing into this book is an invitation to understand our own minds. Brilliant, authoritative, and utterly accessible, Blindspot is a book that will challenge and change readers for years to come. | Agust 16, 2016 | Implicit bias, racism, social psychology, unconscious prejudices, self-awareness |
| Sky, the Deaf Home Run Hero: A Lesson in Courage | Carolan | Mickey | Young Sky is a boy who was born deaf, but it doesn’t stop him from doing what he loves most: playing baseball. Eager and determined, he works hard on his skills until he notices that, swing after swing, every ball is hit, soaring out of the ballpark like an eagle…Sky has a superpower! Not hearing enables him to focus on the ball and hit home runs with ease. But when the bullies try to bring him down, baseball gives him the courage to face them and win them over, and “with every home run, a bully becomes a friend.” | April 30, 2023 | Deafness, courage, resilience, empowerment, inspiration |
| When Aidan Became a Brother | Lukoff | Kyle | When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name, his room looked like a girl’s room, and he wore clothes that other girls liked wearing. After he realized he was a trans boy, Aidan and his parents fixed the parts of life that didn’t fit anymore, and he settled happily into his new life. Then Mom and Dad announce that they’re going to have another baby, and Aidan wants to do everything he can to make things right for his new sibling from the beginning–from choosing the perfect name to creating a beautiful room to picking out the cutest onesie. But what does “making things right” actually mean? And what happens if he messes up? With a little help, Aidan comes to understand that mistakes can be fixed with honesty and communication, and that he already knows the most important thing about being a big brother: how to love with his whole self. | June 4, 2019 | gender identity, family, transgender, acceptance, support |
| Beyond Diversity | Bhargava, Brown | Rohot, Jennifer | In early 2021, more than two hundred widely respected experts gathered virtually for the world’s most ambitious conversation about diversity. Our aim was to do more than spotlight injustice. We challenged ourselves to imagine how to fix it. The dialogue brought together casting directors, bookstore owners, disabled leaders, healthcare professionals, students, VCs, standup comedians, chief diversity officers, pro gamers, archaeologists, government insiders, startup founders, and even a master puppeteer. | November 9, 2021 | DEI, social justice, cultural awareness |
| Aloha Everything | George | Kaylin Melia | Now for the first time, these solutions are compiled into one groundbreaking volume, organized into twelve powerful themes including: storytelling, technology, identity, retail, education and more. Each chapter paints a revealing picture of the world, how it is, how it could be and what needs to happen for us to get there. For newcomers to the topic of diversity, and DEI experts alike, this book offers a much-needed actionable blueprint for creating a more inclusive world for us all. | April 23, 2024 | Aloha, Hawaiian culture, positivity, love, hospitality |
| Ho’onani: Hula Warrior | Gale | Heather | Ho’onani feels in-between. She doesn’t see herself as wahine (girl) OR kane (boy). She’s happy to be in the middle. But not everyone sees it that way. When Ho’onani finds out that there will be a school performance of a traditional kane hula chant, she wants to be part of it. But can a girl really lead the all-male troupe? Ho’onani has to try . . . Based on a true story, Ho’onani: Hula Warrior is a celebration of Hawaiian culture and an empowering story of a girl who learns to lead and learns to accept who she really is–and in doing so, gains the respect of all those around her. | October 1, 2019 | Identity, Hawaiian culture, hula, empowerment, gender expression |
| The Ethics of Protection: Reimagining Child Welfare in an Anti-Black Society | Rice | Lincoln | Gandhi famously argued that society’s moral measure was its treatment of the vulnerable. Few members of society experience vulnerability more than children. When families fail their children, government and civil society have a moral and legal charge to intervene. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the United States, there exists a fraught intersection between child welfare and anti-Black racism that has its roots in chattel slavery and the Black Codes that restricted African American freedoms following the Civil War. Today, Black children are twice as likely to be deemed victims of child maltreatment compared to white children, and even more likely to be removed from their parents and adopted out to strangers. The Ethics of Protection responds to these dire realities with a liberationist approach to child welfare ethics. This approach differs from traditional ethics in two ways: It moves the “social location” of ethics from governing bodies, boardrooms, and institutions to the perspective of society’s most vulnerable. And it critiques neoliberal politics and economics for their role in this injustice. Drawing on historical analysis, Catholic social teaching, Scripture, and the experience of the oppressed, The Ethics of Protection reframes the ethical issues surrounding child welfare by centering the stories, challenges, failures, and victories of Black families. Authentic freedom will not be initiated by government officials. Change will only come from the coordinated direct actions of parents, children, and activists supporting systemic change grounded in racial justice. | September 26, 2023 | child welfare, anti-blackness, social justice, protection ethics, systemic racism |
| Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land | Jensen | Toni | Toni Jensen grew up around guns: As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she’s had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of Indigenous women, on Indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten. In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen connects the trauma of school shootings with her own experiences of racism and sexual assault on college campuses. “The Worry Line” explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. “At the Workshop” focuses on her graduate school years, during which a workshop classmate repeatedly killed off thinly veiled versions of her in his stories. In “Women in the Fracklands,” Jensen takes the listener inside Standing Rock during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and bears witness to the peril faced by women in regions overcome by the fracking boom. In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history – as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates. With each chapter, Carry reminds us that surviving in one’s country is not the same as surviving one’s country. | September 8, 2020 | Survival, indigenous identity, trauma, colonialism, resilience |
| No Family Is an Island: Cultural Expertise Among Samoans in Diaspora | Gershon | Ilana M. | Government bureaucracies across the globe have become increasingly attuned in recent years to cultural diversity within their populations. Using culture as a category to process people and dispense services, however, can create its own problems and unintended consequences. In No Family Is an Island, a comparative ethnography of Samoan migrants living in the United States and New Zealand, Ilana Gershon investigates how and when the categories “cultural” and “acultural” become relevant for Samoans as they encounter cultural differences in churches, ritual exchanges, welfare offices, and community-based organizations. In both New Zealand and the United States, Samoan migrants are minor minorities in an ethnic constellation dominated by other minority groups. As a result, they often find themselves in contexts where the challenge is not to establish the terms of the debate but to rewrite them. To navigate complicated and often unyielding bureaucracies, they must become skilled in what Gershon calls “reflexive engagement” with the multiple social orders they inhabit. Those who are successful are able to parlay their own cultural expertise (their “Samoanness”) into an ability to subtly alter the institutions with which they interact in their everyday lives. Just as the “cultural” is sometimes constrained by the forces exerted by acultural institutions, so too can migrant culture reshape the bureaucracies of their new countries. Theoretically sophisticated yet highly readable, No Family Is an Island contributes significantly to our understanding of the modern immigrant experience of making homes abroad. | May 15, 2012 | Samoan diaspora, cultural expertise, identity, family dynamics, migration |
| The Healing Trauma Workbook for Asian Americans: Heal from Racism, Build Resilience, and Find Strength in Your Identity | Hsu | Helen H. | If you are an Asian American who has experienced racial violence, verbal harassment, stereotyping, or microaggressions, you might feel like the world is unsafe. You may suffer from anxiety, depression, or painful memories as a result of this trauma. And if you seek help, you may find that Western-trained mental health professionals simply can’t understand your pain and life experiences. This book provides culturally informed treatment methods to help you heal from and fortify yourself against race-based trauma-including intergenerational and historical trauma-and stress. Written by an Asian American psychologist, this workbook blends contemporary psychology with ancient mind-body approaches to help you build resilience in the face of racism, overcome trauma and internalized oppression, reclaim your mental health, and celebrate your heritage. Using skills grounded in culturally informed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and somatic practices from Asian cultures, you’ll learn to create a healthy identity, balance your emotions, cultivate a growth mindset, and increase a feeling of connection with your community. You’ll also discover tools to help you manage negative thoughts and feelings, identify your values, build resilience in the face of stress, improve relationships, and foster healing in your community. | July 23, 2024 | trauma healing, racism, resilience, Asian American identity, mental health |
| Embracing The Value Of…. Diversity Conversations: Finding Common Ground | Ellis | Eric M. | ” This is an honest book, loaded with learning and insights expressed in real-world terms. It will be a rare reader who leaves this book without being more aware of his or her own beliefs and better able to appreciate thos of other and, as a result, being able to live a more satisfying life.” – John E. Pepper | January 1, 2019 | DEI, common ground, conversations, understanding |
| Implicit Bias: An Educator’s Guide to the Language of Microaggressions | Bouley, Reinking | Theresa M., Anni K | Educator implicit bias is often experienced by students of varying identities as microaggressions. In this book the authors define implicit bias and microaggressions, identify ways students of varying identities such as race, gender/LGBTQ+, religion, socioeconomic, ability, linguistic and family dynamics, experience microaggressions in schools, and offer an educator’s guide to using culturally responsive teaching as an antidote to microaggressions. We also provide specific ways to interrupt microaggressions in schools. | November 14, 2021 | implicit bias, microaggressions, education, awareness, aquity |
| The Color of Emotional Intelligence: Elevating Our Self and Social Awareness to Address Inequities | Harris | Farah | It takes strength not to curse someone out when they’re being rude, or not to lose it when your child is being disobedient. It is also emotionally taxing to keep it all together when you are on the receiving end of a microaggression. | April 26, 2023 | emotional intelligence, social awareness, inequities, self-awareness, equity |
| Brown Girl Dreaming | Woodson | Jacqueline | Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. | August 28, 2014 | Idenity, childhood, memoir, African American, dreams |
| Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed | Fennell | Saraciea J. | Dive into Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, a thought-provoking anthology filled with enlightening essays and vivid narratives from the heart of the Latinx diaspora. Handpicked by the founder of The Bronx Is Reading, Saraciea J. Fennell, this compilation is a powerful examination of the diverse aspects of Latinx identity, with a spotlight on prevailing myths and misconceptions. Extracting hard-hitting themes of reality, these words echo with stories ranging from personal tales of love and grief, cultural memories forged in kitchens, serenades of ghost stories, tales of travels, intricate dialogues on identity, addiction, racism and anti-Blackness. | November 2, 2021 | Language, identity, cultural expression, empowerment, immigrant experience |
| I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness | Channing Brown | Austin | Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools and churches, Austin writes, “I had to learn what it means to love blackness,” a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America’s racial divide as a writer, speaker, and expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. In a time when nearly every institution (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claims to value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice. Her stories bear witness to the complexity of America’s social fabric—from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations. For listeners who have engaged with America’s legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness—if we let it—can save us all. | May 15, 2018 | Black dignity, racism, whiteness, idenity, social justice |
| I Love You Like Yellow | Beaty | Andrea | I love you like yellow. I love you like green. Like flowery orchid and sweet tangerine . . . Love comes in many forms. It can feel tart as lemonade or sweet as sugar cookies. Slow as a lazy morning or fast as a relay race. Love is there through it all: the large and small moments, the good times and bad. And at the end of the day, love settles us down to bed with a hug and kiss goodnight. With charming, rhyming text from Andrea Beaty and lush, heartwarming illustrations by Vashti Harrison, I Love You Like Yellow celebrates the unconditional love that pulses through life’s profound and everyday moments—and the people who make them so special. | March 29, 2022 | Love, color symbolism, emotion, connection, expression |
| Powwow Day | Sorell | Traci | River wants so badly to dance at powwow day as she does every year. In this uplifting and contemporary picture book perfect for beginning readers, follow River’s journey from feeling isolated after an illness to learning the healing power of community. Additional information explains the history and functions of powwows, which are commonplace across the United States and Canada and are open to both Native Americans and non-Native visitors. Author Traci Sorell is a member of the Cherokee Nation, and illustrator Madelyn Goodnight is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. | February 8, 2022 | Native American culture, tradition, celebration, community |
| When Charley met Emma | Webb | Amy | When Charley goes to the playground and sees Emma, a girl with limb differences who gets around in a wheelchair, he doesn’t know how to react at first. But after he and Emma start talking, he learns that different isn’t bad, sad, or strange–different is just different, and different is great! This delightful book will help kids think about disability, kindness, and how to behave when they meet someone who is different from them. | March 12, 2019 | Friendship, diversity, empathy, disability, acceptance |
| Emergent Strategy | Brown | Adrienne Maree | In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically. A resolutely materialist spirituality based equally on science and science fiction: a wild feminist and afro-futurist ride! | June 18, 2021 | social change, adaptability, strategy, transformation, activism |
| When Kids Go to College: A Parent’t Guide to Changing Relationships | Newman, Newman | Barbara M., Philip R. | The Newmans speak with the expertise of parents, psychologists, and professors as they describe the developmental changes that occur in college kids as they undergo a ‘personal synthesis.’ . . . With the insight available here, a parent can feel reassured and better able to assist when called upon.” –Booklist What happens at college? This practical guide will answer that important question and tell you how to make the most of these exciting years. | January 1, 1992 | Parenting, college transition, relationships, independance, growth |
| Women’s Work Is Never Done: Celebrating Everything Women Do | Gallagher | BJ | Not to be confused with Alice’s famous remark on a memorable episode of the Honeymooners, “Men work from sun to sun, but women’s work is never done,” Women’s Work Is Never Done by BJ Gallagher celebrates the fact that women’s work is never done because it’s never meant to be done. Women are meant to nourish and grow themselves and others, throughout their lives, and Gallagher’s book acknowledges and affirms it. | February 10, 2006 | Women’s work, celebration, empowerment, equality, appreciation |
| Original Plumbing: The Best of Ten Years of Trans Male Culture | Mac, Kayiatos | Amos, Rocco | Independently published from 2009 to 2019, Original Plumbing grew from a Bay Area zine to a nationally acclaimed print quarterly dedicated to trans men. For nearly ten years, the magazine was the premier resource focused on their experiences, celebrations, and imaginations, featuring writing on both playful and political topics like selfies, bathrooms, and safer sex; interviews with queer icons such as Janet Mock, Silas Howard, and Ian Harvie; and visual art, photography, and short fiction. In celebration of the magazine’s ten-year run, this essential collection compiles the best of all twenty issues. Selections are reprinted in full color, with an introduction by activist Tiq Milan and a new preface by the founding editors. | June 11, 2019 | Trans masculinity, gender identity, LGBTQ+ culture, transgender experience, visibility |
| This Book Is Gay | Dawson & Levithan | Juno & David | Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations. Inside this revised and updated edition, you’ll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask, with topics like: Stereotypes―the facts and fiction Coming out as LGBT Where to meet people like you The ins and outs of gay sex How to flirt And so much more! You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don’t) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book. This book is for: LGBTQIA+ teens, tweens, and adults Readers looking to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community Parents of gay kids and other LGBT youth Educators looking for advice about the LGBTQIA+ community | September 7, 2021 | LGBTQ+, sexuality, identity, humor, education |
| Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir | Chin | Curtis | Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone—from the city’s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples—could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city’s spiraling misfortunes; and where—between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions—he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself. Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung’s, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is both a memoir and an invitation: to step inside one boy’s childhood oasis, scoot into a vinyl booth, and grow up with him—and perhaps even share something off the secret menu. | October 17, 2023 | Memoir, immigrant experience, family, idenity, cultural reflection |
| You Sound Like A White Girl: The Case For Rejecting Assimilation | Arce | Julissa | In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals. She talks about the Lie of Success, the Lie of Legality, the Lie of Whiteness, and the Lie of English―each promising that if you obtain these things, you will reach acceptance and won’t be an outsider anymore. Julissa deftly argues that these demands leave her and those like her in a purgatory―neither able to secure the power and belonging within whiteness nor find it in the community and cultures whiteness demands immigrants and people of color leave behind. In You Sound Like a White Girl, Julissa offers a bold new promise: Belonging only comes through celebrating yourself, your history, your culture, and everything that makes you uniquely you. Only in turning away from the white gaze can we truly make America beautiful. An America where difference is celebrated, heritage is shared and embraced, and belonging is for everyone. Through unearthing veiled history and reclaiming her own identity, Julissa shows us how to do this. | March 21, 2023 | Assimilation, identity, race, cultural diversity, empowerment |
| Heal Your Way Forward: The Co-Conspirator’s Guide to an Antiracist Future | Hill | Myisha T. | Heal Your Way Forward is a seminal work in antiracism, guiding White and White-identifying folks to utilize activism for intergenerational healing. In 2018, Myisha T. Hill created the @ckyourprivilege handle on Instagram to undo the harm created between White women and women of the global majority. After years of living in the micro- and macro-aggressions of White culture, Myisha was tired of staying silent. But she wanted to do more than fight back—she wanted to heal forward. “Myisha T. Hill is a rare educator who comes from a place of compassion and profound emotional insight. She is leading a revolution of mind, heart, and soul, one that she now continues in her highly anticipated book, Heal Your Way Forward. Myisha’s work changes how we experience the world by helping us understand our place within it. This book shows anyone interested in human liberation the way to heal, to hope, and to become true advocates and co-conspirators—not just for justice and change, but for the future of who we are as humans.” (Anna Paquin, actress and producer) In just over three short years, Check Your Privilege and Myisha’s personal platform have amassed more 750K followers on Instagram and became hubs for interracial activism during the Great White Awakening of 2020. But like many antiracism activists, Myisha saw the activism abate after the election of President Biden. Heal Your Way Forward: The Co-Conspirator’s Guide to an Antiracist Future is the trumpet call to White and White-identifying folks, guiding them to recognize their antiracism work as intergenerational healing. In her first major book, Myisha asks the most critical question of antiracism work: What do we want the world to look like in seven generations? This book is her answer, but also, it’s a tactical, practical guide for learning (and unlearning), healing (and feeling through the hurt), and committing (and recommitting) to real change and a reparative future. This is the book Myisha’s 750,000 followers have been waiting for—a marriage of personal story, antiracist handbook, and an emotional plea to all people to be the change today so we can heal the world for tomorrow. In this seminal work, Myisha offers listeners the ultimate reason to engage in activism—to create a better world not just for our babies, but for our babies’ babies—and a clear strategy to change the future and nature of interracial activism by: Sustaining the Great White Wakening by discovering the sweet spot of shame and vulnerability Making room for White tears Developing radical listening and lifelong learning Practicing the great act of recommitment And building a reparative future As Myisha shares, the more you fail forward, the more you heal your way forward, and the better we can heal the future together. | August 9, 2022 | Antiracism, healing, social justice, activism, co-conspiracy |
| Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine | Campbell | Olivia | In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman’s place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges—creating for the first time medical care for women by women. With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today. | March 15, 2022 | Women doctors, medicine, history, gender equality, pioneers |
| In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs | Bonney | Grace | Over 100 exceptional and influential women describe how they embraced their creative spirit, overcame adversity, and sparked a global movement of entrepreneurship. Media titans and ceramicists, hoteliers and tattoo artists, comedians and architects—taken together, these profiles paint a beautiful picture of what happens when we pursue our passions and dreams. | October 4, 2016 | Women entrepreneurs, inspiration, creativity, empowerment, mentorship |
| Performing American Masculinities: The 21st-Century Man in Popular Culture | Watson, Shaw | Elwood, Mare E. | This collection highlights the fluidity of masculinity in American popular culture at the turn of the new millennium and beyond by examining possibilities for male identity formation. Each chapter mines American popular culture—theatre, film, literature, music, advertising, internet content, television, photography, and current events—to pose questions about the process of gender creation and the contestation of masculinities as constantly changing political forms. The first section explores masculinities within late capitalism and includes studies of Seinfeld, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and reality television. The second section addresses identity when masculinity intersects with race, religion, disability, and sexuality, including chapters on Barack Obama, the O.J. trial, and popular movies. | April 21, 2011 | Masculinity, popular culture, gender roles, identity, social expectations |
| Multicultural Perspectives: The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education | Lisi & Rios | Penelope L. & Francisco | Multicultural Perspectives (MCP) promotes the philosophy of social justice, equity, and inclusion. It celebrates cultural and ethnic diversity as a national strength that enriches the fabric of society. MCP encourages a range of material from academic to personal perspectives; poetry and art; articles of an academic nature illuminating the discussion of cultural pluralism and inclusion; articles and position papers reflecting a variety of disciplines; and reviews of film, art, and music that address or embody multicultural forms. Its main audience is K-12 educators, social scientists, governmental social service personnel, teacher educators, and those involved in multicultural education. | July-September 2011 | Multiculturalism, education, DEI, social justice |
| Billy Porter Unprotected : A Memoir | Porter | Billy | It’s easy to be yourself when who and what you are is in vogue. But growing up Black and gay in America has never been easy. Before Billy Porter was slaying red carpets and giving an iconic performance in the celebrated TV show Pose; before he was the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway’s Kinky Boots; and before he was an acclaimed recording artist, actor, playwright, and all-around diva, Porter was a young boy who didn’t fit in. At five years old he was sent to therapy to fix his effeminacy. He was endlessly bullied at school, sexually abused by his stepfather, and came of age in a world where simply being himself was a constant struggle. Unprotected is the story of a singular artist in his own words. It is the story of a boy whose talent, courage, and desperate determination led him through countless hard times to where he is now; an icon whose refusal to back down in the face of adversity has made him an inspiration to millions. Porter is a multitalented, multifaceted treasure at the top of his game. A soaring, resonant story, full of new revelations, and shot through with his stunning wit, Unprotected will entertain and inspire. | December 14, 2021 | Memoir, LGBTQ+, identity, activism, empowerment |
| The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams | Fuller, Murphy, & Chow | Pamela, Mark, & Anne | Unconscious bias affects everyone. It can look like the disappointment of an HR professional when a candidate for a new position asks about maternity leave. It can look like preferring the application of an Ivy League graduate over one from a state school. It can look like assuming a man is more entitled to speak in a meeting than his female junior colleague. Ideal for every manager who wants to understand and move past their own preconceived ideas, The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias explains that bias is the result of mental shortcuts, our likes and dislikes, and is a natural part of the human condition. And what we assume about each other and how we interact with one another has vast effects on our organizational success – especially in the workplace. Teaching you how to overcome unconscious bias, this book provides more than 30 unique tools, such as a list of ways to reframe your unconscious thoughts. According to the experts at FranklinCovey, your workplace can achieve its highest performance rate once you start to overcome your biases and allow your employees to be whole people. By recognizing bias, emphasizing empathy and curiosity, and making true understanding a priority in the workplace, we can unlock the potential of every person we encounter. | November 10, 2020 | Unconscious bias, leadership, diversity, team building, inclusion |
| Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engageing Workplaces | Catlin | Karen | Are you looking to build a workplace culture with a certain buzz about it? Where employees are thriving and engagement survey scores are through the roof? Where people from different backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations and identities, ages, and abilities are hired and set up for success? One secret to creating this kind of vibrant and supportive workplace is practicing active allyship. With the Better Allies® approach, it’s something anyone can do. Since originally publishing Better Allies in 2019, Karen Catlin has amassed dozens of new scenarios and insights through her talks, workshops, and community interactions. In this fully revised second edition, you’ll learn to spot situations where you can create a more inclusive culture, along with straightforward steps to take and changes to make. Catlin, a highly-sought after expert on allyship, will walk you through: Attracting and hiring a diverse workforce Cultivating an environment where coworkers feel welcome, respected, and supported Amplifying and advocating for others Giving effective and equitable performance feedback Using more inclusive language Running inclusive conferences and events Read this book to learn the Better Allies® approach, level-up your ally skills, and create a culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive. | January 9, 2021 | Allies, inclusion, workplace culture, diversity, engagement |
| The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities | Allen, Wilson, & Schlosser | Will, Charles, & Eric | A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur “Genius Award” winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed – and heal – broken communities. The son of a sharecropper, Will Allen had no intention of ever becoming a farmer himself. But after years in professional basketball and as an executive for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Procter & Gamble, Allen cashed in his retirement fund for a two-acre plot a half mile away from Milwaukee’s largest public-housing project. The area was a food desert with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to serve the needs of local residents. In the face of financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen built the country’s preeminent urban farm – a food and educational center that now produces enough vegetables and fish year-round to feed thousands of people. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power has sought to prove that local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together, and improve public health. Today, Allen’s organization helps develop community food systems across the country. An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will’s personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats. | November 27, 2018 | Sustainable farming, healthy food, community, agriculture, social change |
| Multiculturalism on Campus: Theory, Models, and Practices for Understanding Diversity and Creating Inclusion | Cuyjet, Howard-Hamilton, Cooper | Michael J., Mary F., Diane L. | As the diversity of the students on campus increases, the importance for everyone in authority to understand students’ distinct cultures and how they perceive our institutions, and equally, to understand our own privilege, and often unconscious cultural assumptions, has never been greater. This book presents a comprehensive set of resources to guide students of education, faculty, higher education administrators, and student affairs leaders in creating an inclusive environment for under-represented groups on campus. It is intended as a guide to gaining a deeper understanding of the various multicultural groups on college campuses for faculty in the classroom and professional staff who desire to understand the complexity of the students they serve, as well as reflect on their own values and motivations. The contributors introduce the reader to the relevant theory, models, practices, and assessment methods to prepare for, and implement, a genuinely multicultural environment. Recognizing that cultural identity is more than a matter of ethnicity and race, they equally address factors such as gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation. In the process, they ask the reader to assess his or her own levels of multicultural sensitivity, awareness, and competence. The book approaches multiculturalism from three perspectives, each of which comprises a separate section: awareness; cultural populations; and cultural competence practice. | Febuary 3, 2011 | DEI, higher education, social justice, multiculturalism |
| Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East | Ghattas | Kim | Kim Ghattas delivers a gripping account of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to Iran’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS. Ghattas also introduces us to a riveting cast of characters whose lives were upended by the geopolitical drama over four decades: from the Pakistani television anchor who defied her country’s dictator, to the Egyptian novelist thrown in jail for indecent writings all the way to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. | January 28, 2020 | Middle east, Saudi Arabia, Iran, rivalry, cultural conflict |
| Becoming Michelle Obama | Obama | Michelle | In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America – the first African American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the US and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her – from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations – and whose story inspires us to do the same. | November 13, 2018 | Memoir, empowerment, identity, leadership, inspiration |
| Serving More Than Students: A critical Need for College Student Personnel Services | Garland | Peter H. | Internal and external changes affecting higher education and responses that student personnel workers can take are discussed. Societal changes that influence colleges include a declining birth rate, changing sex roles, and shifts to an information-based society. Notable political trends that affect colleges include accountability requirements, concern for quality, and financial problems. In addition, student services have responded to the needs of nontraditional students (women, minorities, foreigners, older people, the disabled, part-time students, and academically underprepared students). To deal with the various changes, colleges have employed a variety of strategies that have implications for student affairs organizations. New strategies concern: comprehensive planning, enrollment management, preventive law, resource management, and changing relationships of business and colleges. The student affairs worker can help to integrate both student and institutional needs. In serving as an integrator, the student affairs worker needs to develop skills in management and research, as well as political and organizational skills. College preparation programs for student personnel workers need to provide training for these new roles. Student development theory also faces challenges from changes that are occurring. | March 28, 1986 | Higher education, student services, college personnel, support systems, student success |
| Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal | Love | Bettina L. | In the tradition of Michelle Alexander, an unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives In Punished for Dreaming Dr. Bettina Love argues forcefully that Reagan’s presidency ushered in a War on Black Children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the War on Drugs. New policies punished schools with policing, closure, and loss of funding in the name of reform, as white savior, egalitarian efforts increasingly allowed private interests to infiltrate the system. These changes implicated children of color, and Black children in particular, as low performing, making it all too easy to turn a blind eye to their disproportionate conviction and incarceration. Today, there is little national conversation about a structural overhaul of American schools; cosmetic changes, rooted in anti-Blackness, are now passed off as justice. It is time to put a price tag on the miseducation of Black children. In this prequel to The New Jim Crow, Dr. Love serves up a blistering account of four decades of educational reform through the lens of the people who lived it. Punished for Dreaming lays bare the devastating effect on 25 Black Americans caught in the intersection of economic gain and racist ideology. Then, with input from leading U.S. economists, Dr. Love offers a road map for repair, arguing for reparations with transformation for all children at its core. | September 12, 2023 | Education reform, racial inequality, black children, school systems, healing |
| Black Women in White America: A Documentary History | Lerner | Gerda | In this “stunning collection of documents” (Washington Post Book World), African-American women speak of themselves, their lives, ambitions, and struggles from the colonial period to the present day. Theirs are stories of oppression and survival, of family and community self-help, of inspiring heroism and grass-roots organizational continuity in the face of racism, economic hardship, and, far too often, violence. Their vivid accounts, their strong and insistent voices, make for inspiring reading, enriching our understanding of the American past. | November 17, 1992 | History, race, documentary, black women |
| You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience | Burke & Brown | Tarana & Brené | It started as a text between two friends. Tarana Burke, founder of the ‘me too.’ Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang. But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn’t going to be about wallpaper. Tarana’s hello was serious, and she hesitated for a bit before saying, “Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I’ve sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder.” Brené replied, “I’m so glad we’re talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armor off in a country where you’re not physically or emotionally safe?” Long pause. “That’s why I’m calling,” said Tarana. “What do you think about working together on a book about the black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?” There was no hesitation. Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of black love and black life. | April 27, 2021 | Vulnerability, shame resilience, black experience, identity, emotional healing |
| Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You | Sotomayor | Sonia | Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful. In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges – and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages listeners to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we’re not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask. | January 21, 2020 | Self-confidence, authenticity, empowerment, courage, individuality |
| The Impact of Identity: The Power of Knowing Who You Are | Nevzlin | Irina | The world is rapidly changing, and our beliefs are constantly challenged. Without a strong connection to our roots and confidence in our being, the slightest changes around us can be devastating to our identity. So how can we create the foundations for ourselves, to allow us to move flexibly with our complicated world and embrace advancements of any kind while staying true to our beliefs? Irina Nevzlin has lived the immigrant life from a young age. But her rich life experience and notable entrepreneurial successes have taught her that in our global and ever-changing world, we are all immigrants of sorts. This unique book offers a fresh and insightful perspective on how we can build ourselves up to adapt with greater ease to our complex world. | October 10, 2019 | Idenity, self-knowledge, empowerment, personal growth, confidence |
| Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBTQ People in the United States | Mogul, Ritchie, Whitlock | Joey L., Andrea J., Kay | Drawing on years of research, activism, and legal advocacy, Queer (In)Justice is a searing examination of queer experiences as “suspects,” defendants, prisoners, and survivors of crime. The authors unpack queer criminal archetypes—from “gleeful gay killers” and “lethal lesbians” to “disease spreaders” and “deceptive gender benders”—to illustrate the punishment of queer expression, regardless of whether a crime was ever committed. Tracing stories from the streets to the bench to behind prison bars, the authors prove that the policing of sex and gender both bolsters and reinforces racial and gender inequalities. An eye-opening study of LGBTQ rights and equality, Queer (In)Justice illuminates and challenges the many ways in which queer lives are criminalized, policed, and punished. | January 24, 2012 | LGBTQ+, criminalization, justice, human rights, discrimination |
| From Prejudice to Pride: A History of the LGBTQ+ Movement | Lame | Amy | The history of the LGBT movement is told through personal stories and firsthand accounts of the movement’s key events, like the 1950s ‘Lavender Scare’, the Stonewall Inn uprising, and the AIDS crisis. Readers will learn how many famous historical members of the LGBT community kept their sexual orientation a secret in order to avoid persecution and be inspired by the many pioneering gay people in history. It will provide questions and discussion points, for example around the use of the word ‘gay’. This book will also include a further information section with extensive weblinks for advice and support. | June 8, 2017 | LGBTQ+ history, activism, pride, social change, equality |
| Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work | Tulshyan & Oluo | Ruchika & Ijeoma | Few would disagree that inclusion is both the right thing to do and good for business. Then why are we so terrible at it? If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don’t we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don’t realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Inclusion doesn’t just happen; we have to work at it. Tulshyan presents inclusion best practices, showing how leaders and organizations can meaningfully promote inclusion and diversity. Tulshyan centers the workplace experience of women of color, who are subject to both gender and racial bias. She debunks the idea of the “level playing field” and explains how leaders and organizations can use their privilege for good by identifying and exposing bias, knowing that they typically have less to lose in speaking up than a woman of color does. She explains why “leaning in” doesn’t work—and dismantling structural bias does; warns against hiring for “culture fit,” arguing for “culture add” instead; and emphasizes the importance of psychological safety in the workplace—you need to know that your organization has your back. With this important book, Tulshyan shows us how we can make progress toward inclusion and diversity—and we must start now. | September 13, 2022 | Inclusion, intersectionality, workplace culture, belonging, diversity |
| A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America | Takaki | Ronald | Upon its first publication, A Different Mirror was hailed by critics and academics everywhere as a dramatic new retelling of our nation’s past. Beginning with the colonization of the New World, it recounted the history of America in the voice of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States-Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others-groups who helped create this country’s rich mosaic culture. Now, Ronald Takaki has revised his landmark work and made it even more relevant and important. Among the new additions to the book are: The role of black soldiers in preserving the Union. The history of Chinese Americans from 1900-1941 An investigation into the hot-button issue of “illegal” immigrants from Mexico. A look at the sudden visibility of Muslim refugees from Afghanistan. This new edition of A Different Mirror is a remarkable achievement that grapples with the raw truth of American history and examines the ultimate question of what it means to be an American | January 1, 2008 | multiculturalism, american history, diversity, social justice, immigration |
| Bodies Are Cool | Feder | Tyler | From the way a body jiggles to the scars a body bears, this book is a pure celebration of all the different human bodies that exist in the world. Highlighting the various skin tones, body shapes, and hair types is just the beginning in this truly inclusive book. With its exuberant refrain, this book will instill body positivity and confidence in the youngest of listeners. | June 1, 2021 | body positivity, self-love, confidence, diversity, acceptance |
| Transgender History, Second Edition: The Roots of Today’s Revolution | Stryker | Susan | Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-’70s to 1990 – the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the ’90s and ’00s. Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture. | December 14, 2017 | transgender history, LGBTQ+ rights, activism, social change, revolution |
| The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America | Rothstein | Richard | Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past. | May 1, 2018 | segregation, racial injustice, government policy, housing discrimination, american history |
| Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News | Goldberg | Bernard | In his nearly thirty years at CBS News, Emmy Award winner Bernard Goldberg earned a reputation as one of the preeminent reporters in the television news business. When he looked at his own industry, however, he saw that the media far too often ignored their primary mission: to provide objective, disinterested reporting. Again and again he saw that the news slanted to the left. For years, Goldberg appealed to reporters, producers, and network executives for more balanced reporting, but no one listened. The liberal bias continued. Now, breaking ranks and naming names, he reveals a corporate news culture in which the closed-mindedness is breathtaking and in which entertainment wins over hard news every time. | November 1, 2001 | Media bias, news distortion, journalism, objectivity, truth in reporting |
| Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo | Herrera | Hayden | A reissue of the beautifully illustrated and authoritative biography of Frida Kahlo, publishing in time for a major London exhibition Frida is the story of one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary women, the painter Frida Kahlo. Born near Mexico City, she grew up during the turbulent days of the Mexican Revolution and, at eighteen, was the victim of an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. To salvage what she could from her unhappy situation, Kahlo had to learn to keep still – so she began to paint. Kahlo’s unique talent was to make her one of the century’s most enduring artists. But her remarkable paintings were only one element of a rich and dramatic life. Frida is also the story of her tempestuous marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera, her love affairs with numerous, diverse men such as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky, her involvement with the Communist Party, her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture, and of the inspiration behind her unforgettable art. | June 28, 2018 | Biography, art, feminism, mexican culture |
| All Are Welcome: How to Build a Real Workplace Culture of Inclusion That Delivers Results | Owyoung | Cynthia | Studies prove that companies with more diversity in their ranks are more innovative, expand their markets, and perform better financially. Why, then, has so little progress been made, especially when it comes to corporate leadership? Because most companies have yet to develop and implement effective diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. And the ones that have too often focus mainly on hiring a diversity of staff or rolling out unconscious bias training without improving results. DEIB expert Cynthia Owyoung has spent more than two decades working in this space. She’s seen it all, and she knows what works – and what doesn’t. In All Are Welcome, Owyoung explains what DEIB is and why it matters, and she delivers the information and insights you need to make DEIB a key element of your company culture. You’ll learn how to: break old habits that keep DEIB efforts from moving forward; retain talent from underrepresented groups; conduct an audit of the state of DEIB at your company today; engage and excite leaders and managers around DEIB efforts; weave DEIB into all your talent pool management methods; up-level employee resource groups to effectively support business goals; measure your progress with qualitative and quantitative data; and connect your DEIB efforts to driving better business results. | February 22, 2022 | Inculsion, workplace culture, diversity, Leadership, results-driven |
| Why Aren’t We There Yet? (An ACPA Co-Publication) | Stylus Publishing | Vasti, Jan, & Raechele L. | Co-published with Despite seeming endless debate and public attention given to the issue for several decades, those committed to creating welcoming and engaging campus environments for all students recognize that there is considerably more work to be done, and ask “Why aren’t we there yet, and when will we be done?” While our campuses have evolved from being exclusionary and intolerant, and publicly espouse the objectives of being welcoming, accepting, affirming, and engaging, the data on admissions, retention, and graduation clearly indicate that these goals have not been achieved.The contributors to this book seek to offer new insights to improve student affairs, emphasizing action that recognizes this is a complex and multi-faceted process, and beginning with the assertion that, without recognizing the influences of privilege and inequality, we educators cannot promote truly welcoming environments. This book focuses on guiding individuals and groups through learning how to have difficult conversations that lead us to act to create more just campuses, and provides illustrations of multiple ways to respond to difficult situations. It advocates for engaging in fruitful dialogues regarding differing social identities including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, to lead readers through a process that advocates for justice, and for taking personal responsibility for contributing to the solution. The book is framed around the five elements of the process of engaging in difficult conversations that not only advocate for change but also create change: self knowledge, knowledge of and experiences with others, understanding historical and institutional contexts, understanding how to change the status quo, and transformative action. | February 1, 2012 | higher education, equity, social justice, student affairs, progress |
| White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism | DiAngelo & Dyson | Robin & Michael Eric | In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people'” (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively. | June 26, 2018 | racism, white fragility, race relations, social justice, awareness |
| Teaching What You’re Not: Identity, Politics in Higher Education | Mayberry | Katherine J. | Can whites teach African-American literature effectively and legitimately? What is at issue when a man teaches a women’s studies course? How effectively can a straight woman educate students about gay and lesbian history? What are the political implications of the study of the colonizers by the colonized? More generally, how does the identity of an educator affect his or her credibility with students and with other educators? In incident after well-publicized incident, these abstract questions have turned up in America’s classrooms and in national media, often trivialized as the latest example of PC excess. Going beyond simplistic headlines, Teaching What You’re Not broaches these and many other difficult questions. With contributions from scholars in a variety of disciplines, the book examines the ways in which historical, cultural, and personal identities impact pedagogy and scholarship. Essays cover such topics as the outsider’s gaze as it applies to the study of non-white literature; an able-bodied woman’s reflections on teaching literature by disabled women; and the challenges of teaching the Western canon at an African American college. | July 1, 1996 | identity, higher education, politics, diversity, teaching challenges |
| Diversity Return on Investment Fundamentals: Ensuring Diversity Initiatives Demonstrate ROI Impact Value on the Bottom-line | Hubbard | Edward E. | There is a common saying that indicates you can t manage what you don t measure and this is certainly true when it comes to diversity. Measuring the ROI impact of diversity initiatives is a key strategic requirement to demonstrate its contribution to organizational performance. Diversity professionals and managers know they must begin to show how diversity is linked to the bottom-line in hard numbers or they will have difficulty maintaining funding, gaining support, and assessing progress. Although interest in measuring the effects of diversity has been growing, the topic still challenges even the most sophisticated and progressive diversity departments. The Hubbard Diversity Return on Investment (DROI) method utilizes a multi-step process for measuring, analyzing, interpreting and reporting progress. The process links strategic organizational objectives and work process flow to diversity performance and key impact metrics. This book will provide an in-depth overview of the process to help you analyze the impact of your diversity initiatives in the context of the work you do on a day-to-day basis. | May 15, 2015 | DEI, ROI (return on investment), business strategy, workplace culture |
| And Tango Makes Three | Richardson, Parnell | Justin, Peter | At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own. Selected as an ALA Notable Children’s Book Nominee and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, “this joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library” (School Library Journal, starred review). | June 1, 2005 | LGBTQ+, family, children’s book, love, inclusivity |
| How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive | Brown | Jennifer | We know why diversity is important, but how do we drive real change at work? Diversity and inclusion expert Jennifer Brown provides a step-by-step guide for the personal and emotional journey we must undertake to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. Human potential is unleashed when we feel like we belong. That’s why inclusive workplaces experience higher engagement, performance, and profits. But the reality is that many people still feel unable to bring their true selves to work. In a world where the talent pool is becoming increasingly diverse, it’s more important than ever for leaders to truly understand how to support inclusion. Drawing on years of work with many leading organizations, Jennifer Brown shows what leaders at any level can do to spark real change. She guides readers through the Inclusive Leader Continuum, a set of four developmental stages: unaware, aware, active, and advocate. Brown describes the hallmarks of each stage, the behaviors and mind-sets that inform it, and what readers can do to keep progressing. Whether you’re a powerful CEO or a new employee without direct reports, there are actions you can take that can drastically change the day-to-day reality for your colleagues and the trajectory of your organization. Anyone can–and should–be an inclusive leader. Brown lays out simple steps to help you understand your role, boost your self-awareness, take action, and become a better version of yourself in the process. This book will meet you where you are and provide a road map to create a workplace of greater mutual understanding where everyone’s talents can shine. | August 20, 2019 | Inclusive leadership, belonging, workplace culture, diversity, empowerment |
| White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide | Anderson | Carol | As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014 and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as ‘black rage’, historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, ‘white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,’ she wrote, ‘everyone had ignored the kindling.’ Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response: the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House. Carefully linking these and other historical flash points when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage. Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America. | July 26, 2016 | racial divide, white rage, systemic racism, social justice, history |
| Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do | Steele | Claude M. | The acclaimed social psychologist offers an insider’s look at his research and groundbreaking findings on stereotypes and identity. Claude M. Steele, who has been called “one of the few great social psychologists,” offers a vivid first-person account of the research that supports his groundbreaking conclusions on stereotypes and identity. He sheds new light on American social phenomena from racial and gender gaps in test scores to the belief in the superior athletic prowess of black men, and lays out a plan for mitigating these “stereotype threats” and reshaping American identities. | May 21, 2013 | stereotypes, identity, implicit bias, social psychology, discrimination |
| If You Lived When There Was Slavery in America | Kamma | Anne | It is hard to imagine that, once, a person in America could be “owned” by another person. But from the time the colonies were settled in the 1600s until the end of the Civil War in 1865, millions of black people were bought and sold like goods. Where did the slaves come from? Where did they live when they were brought to this country? What kind of work did they do? With compassion and respect for the enslaved, this book answers questions children might have about this dismal era in American history. | February 1, 2004 | slavery, American history, education, civil rights, historical perspective |
| The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society | Schlesinger Jr. | Arthur M. | The promise of America has always been that of a fresh economic start on equal footing. This is linked to the classic image of the republic as a melting pot, where differences of class, race, and religion are submerged in the pursuit of democracy. But today the idea of assimilation into the mainstream is giving ground to the cult of ethnicity. While this upsurge in ethnic awareness has had many healthy consequences in a nation shamed by a history of prejudice, if pressed too far, it could fragment American society to a dangerous degree. In this powerfully argued essay, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. examines the lessons of one polyglot country after another tearing itself apart or on the brink of doing so, and points out troubling new evidence that multiculturalism gone awry here in the United States threatens to do the same. | May 4, 2009 | multiculturalism, american identity, social division, diversity, cultural integration |
| Kind Like Marsha: Learning From LGBTQ+ Leaders | Prager | Sarah | Kind Like Marsha celebrates 14 amazing and inspirational LGBTQ+ people throughout history. Fan favorites like Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera, and Audre Lorde are joined by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, and more in this striking collection. With a focus on a positive personality attribute of each of the historical figures, readers will be encouraged to be brave like the Ugandan activist fighting for LGBTQ+ rights against all odds and to be kind like Marsha P. Johnson who took care of her trans community on the New York City streets. | August 2, 2022 | LGBTQ+ leaders, activism, social justice, equality, Marsha P. Johnson |
| The Gender Wheel: A Story About Bodies and Gender for Everybody | Gonzalez | Maya | In 2010 Maya introduced the Gender Wheel and the Gender Team in the Gender Now Coloring Book. It was a jammed packed coloring extravaganza exploring bodies, nature and history in relation to multiple gender identities. It also opened up the possibility of play and expansion around our still limited language of “boy” and “girl.” Now the Gender Team returns, expanded and stronger than before, inviting you on a picture book journey through the Gender Wheel. This body positive book is a powerful opportunity for a supportive adult and child to see a wide range of bodies, understand the origins of the current binary gender system, how we can learn from nature to see the truth that has always existed and revision a new story that includes room for all bodies and genders. The Gender Wheel offers a nature-based, holistic non-western framework of gender in a kid-friendly way. | November 20, 2017 | Gender, identity, inclusion, education, diversity |
| How College Affects Students: Findings and Insights from Twenty Years of Research | Pascarella & Terenzini | Ernest T. & Patrick T. | This is the long-awaited volume of Pascarella and Terenzini’s 1991 award-winning review of the research on the impacts of college on students. The authors review their earlier findings and then synthesize what has been learned since 1990 about college’s influences on students’ learning. The book also discusses the implications of the findings for research, practice, and public policy. This authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the literature on college-impact is required reading for anyone interested in higher education practice, policy, and promises faculty, administrators, researchers, policy analysts, and decision-makers at every level. | February 7, 2005 | college impact, higher education, student development, research, academic growth |
| Sewing The Rainbow: The Story of Bilbert Baker and the Rainbow Flag | Pitman | Gayle E. | Gilbert Baker always knew he wanted a life full of color and sparkle. In his small, gray, flat Kansas hometown, he helped his grandma sew and created his own art whenever he could. It wasn’t easy; life tried over and over again to make Gilbert conform. But his sparkle always shone through. He dreamed of someday going somewhere as vibrant and colorful as he was.Set against the backdrop of San Francisco during the gay rights movement of the 1970s, Gilbert’s story unfolds just like the flag he created: in a riot of color, joy, and pride. Today the flag is everywhere, even in the small town where Gilbert grew up! Includes a Reader Note that provides more in-depth discussion of the beginnings of the gay rights movement and a more detailed look into Gilbert Baker’s place in our shared history. | May 22, 2018 | LGBTQ+ history, rainbow flag, activism, symbolism, pride |
| Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm | DiAngelo | Robin | Building on the groundwork laid in the New York Times best seller White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explores how a culture of niceness inadvertently promotes racism. In White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explained how racism is a system into which all White people are socialized and challenged the belief that racism is a simple matter of good people versus bad. DiAngelo also made a provocative claim: White progressives cause the most daily harm to people of color. In Nice Racism, her follow-up work, she explains how they do so. Drawing on her background as a sociologist and over 25 years working as an anti-racist educator, she picks up where White Fragility left off and moves the conversation forward. Writing directly to White people as a White person, DiAngelo identifies many common white racial patterns and breaks down how well-intentioned White people unknowingly perpetuate racial harm. DiAngelo explains how spiritual White progressives seeking community by coopting Indigenous and other groups’ rituals create separation, not connection. She challenges the ideology of individualism and explains why it is okay to generalize about White people, and she demonstrates how White people who experience other oppressions still benefit from systemic racism. Writing candidly about her own missteps and struggles, she models a path forward, encouraging white readers to continually face their complicity and embrace courage, lifelong commitment, and accountability. Nice Racism is an essential work for any white person who recognizes the existence of systemic racism and white supremacy and wants to take steps to align their values with their actual practice. BIPOC listeners may also find the “insiders” perspective useful for navigating whiteness. | June 29, 2021 | racism, white privilege, social justice, progressive politics, racial harm |
| Tyaja Uses The Think Test: A Story About the Power of Words | Ryden | Linda | Mrs. Snowden tells the kids that T = True, H = Helpful, N = Necessary, and K = Kind. If what you’re about to say isn’t any of these things, she tells them, you shouldn’t say it. Later that day, when Tyaja is about to criticize her friend Dhavi’s new haircut, she is stopped by four little elves sporting the letters T, H, N, and K, who reinforce Ms. Snowden’s lesson and remind Tyaja how friends should treat friends. Tyaja learns that she is the “I” in THiNK! full color | June 6, 2023 | words, empowerment, education, communication, self-awareness |
| Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides | Cohen | Geoffrey | Discover the secret to flourishing in an age of division: belonging. In a world filled with discord and loneliness, finding harmony and happiness can be difficult. But what if the key to unlocking our potential lies in this deceptively simple concept? Belonging is the feeling of being a part of a group that values, respects, and cares for us—a feeling that we can all cultivate in even the smallest corners of social life. In Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, Stanford University professor Geoffrey L. Cohen draws on his own and others’ groundbreaking scientific research to offer simple, concrete solutions for fostering a sense of belonging. These solutions can generate surprisingly significant and long-lasting benefits. Small but powerful actions can bolster belonging—actions such as encouraging people to reflect on their core values before they face a challenge or expressing belief in someone’s capacity to reach a higher standard. A wide range of innovative approaches have been found to boost achievement at work and at school, bridge political divides, reduce prejudice, and even contribute to overall health. Rigorously tested in diverse arenas—from classrooms to disadvantaged neighborhoods to iconic Silicon Valley companies—these methods offer a path forward in these demanding times. Belonging is a compelling book for all who yearn for a more connected world, whether you’re a manager or employee, an educator or student, a parent or caregiver, or simply someone seeking to make the most out of every moment you spend with others. Packed with actionable insights and specific strategies, this book offers hope and practical guidance, serving as both an inspiration and a roadmap to creating a world of inclusion, understanding, and empathy. | October 25, 2022 | Belonging, connection, social science, inclusion, relationships |
| Women’s Activism And Social Change: Rochester, New York 1822-1872 | Hewitt | Nancy A. | In Women’s Activism and Social Change, Nancy A. Hewitt challenges the popular belief that the lives of antebellum women focused on their role in the private sphere of the family. Examining intense and well-documented reform movements in nineteenth-century Rochester, New York, Hewitt distinguishes three networks of women’s activism: women from the wealthiest Rochester families who sought to ameliorate the lives of the poor; those from upwardly mobile families who, influenced by evangelical revivalism, campaigned to eradicate such social ills as slavery, vice, and intemperance; and those who combined limited economic resources with an agrarian Quaker tradition of communialism and religious democracy to advocate full racial and sexual equality. | July 10, 1984 | women’s activism, social change, history, 19th century, New York |
| The Inclusive Organization: Real Solutions, Impactful Change, and Meaningful Diversity | Jenkins | Netta | A practical hands-on and revolutionary DEI formula for real and lasting change. DEI is an eight-billion-dollar industry that is not yet accessing its full potential through real solutions and results. However, through a powerful formula of policies and practices that motivate employees to be more socially and self-aware, The Inclusive Organization is a revolutionary yet practical resource for individuals at any stage of their career. Jenkins discusses human behavior, workplace psychology, and shares her DEI-tested framework for success. You’ll learn about: the “how” of DEI implementation with actionable steps; creating your own customized DEI roadmap with examples and toolkits; and stories and firsthand observations that bring to life important concepts. Many employees across all levels and organizations are looking to drive actionable impact, but unfortunately lack the knowledge and support in doing so. This book will help any organization improve their DEI initiatives and create the sustainable and scalable change employees want to see within their workplace. The Inclusive Organization is a must-listen for any workplace committed to real and lasting change. | August 22, 2023 | Inclusion, diversity, organizational culture, social change, leadership |
| Black Man Emerging: Facing the Past and Seizing a Future in America | White, Cones III | Joseph L., James H. | The psychologist-authors offer a look at the struggle against oppression and for self-determination experienced by African American men. | January 1, 1999 | Black identity, racial justice, history, empowerment, social change |
| Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home | Mangino | Kate | From gender expert and professional facilitator Kate Mangino comes Equal Partners, an informed guide about how we can all collectively work to undo harmful gender norms and create greater household equity. As American society shut down due to COVID, millions of women had to leave their jobs to take on full-time childcare. As the country opens back up, women continue to struggle to balance the demands of work and home life. Kate Mangino, a professional facilitator for twenty years, has written a comprehensive, practical guide for listeners and their partners about gender norms and household balance. Yes, part of our gender problem is structural, and that requires policy change. But much of our gender problem is social, and that requires us to change. Quickly moving from diagnosis to solution, Equal Partners focuses on what we can do, everyday people living busy lives, to rewrite gender norms to support a balanced homelife so both partners have equal time for work, family, and self. Mangino adopts an interactive model, posing questions, and asking listeners to assess their situations through guided lists and talking points. Equal Partners is broad in its definition of gender and gender roles. This is an audiobook for all: straight, gay, trans, and non-binary, parents and grandparents, and friends, with the goal to help foster gender equality in listeners’ homes, with their partners, family and wider community. | June 28, 2022 | gender equality, partnerships, domestic roles, relationships, empowerment |
| Women Fight Back: The Centuries-Long Struggle for Liberation | Goodman | Donna | Women Fight Back: The centuries-long struggle for liberation follows the evolution of a movement that thoroughly transformed society. Donna Goodman, a long-time partisan of the struggle for women’s liberation, recounts how women in the United States confronted a whole society — from the legal system to popular culture to home life — that was immersed in blatant sexism, discrimination and anti-woman violence.Challenging the notion that the women’s movement just reflected the concerns of the middle class, Goodman highlights the contributions of working-class, Black, Latina and other oppressed women, who always made sure their presence was felt and perspectives were heard. Generation after generation, the movement itself became the terrain on which women of different backgrounds articulated and debated the meaning of liberation, often in radical terms. Women Fight Back compares the status of women in the United States with other capitalist societies, and with women under socialism. It concludes with a review of the challenges of women’s organizing today, projecting a vision of how a new wave of militant struggle could be coming in the era of Trump and into the future. | February 7, 2017 | women’s rights, liberation, feminism, social justice, activism |
| We Can’t Talk about That at Work!: How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics | Winters | Mary-Frances | We Need to Talk! Conversations about taboo topics happen at work every day. And if they aren’t handled effectively, they can become polarizing and divisive, impacting productivity, engagement, retention, teamwork, and even employees’ sense of safety in the workplace. In this concise and powerful book, Mary-Frances Winters shows how to deal with sensitive subjects in a way that brings people together instead of driving them apart. She helps you become aware of the role culture plays in shaping people’s perceptions, habits, and communication styles and gives detailed guidance for structuring conversations about those things we’re not supposed to talk about. Preparation is crucial—but so is intent. Winters advises you to “come from your heart, learn from your mistakes, and continue to contribute to making this a more inclusive world for all.” | April 23, 2017 | workplace conversations, diversity, polarizing topics, communication, inclusion |
| The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family | Ali | S.K. | With her new backpack and light-up shoes, Faizah knows the first day of school is going to be special. It’s the start of a brand new year and, best of all, it’s her older sister Asiya’s first day of hijab–a hijab of beautiful blue fabric, like the ocean waving to the sky. But not everyone sees hijab as beautiful, and in the face of hurtful, confusing words, Faizah will find new ways to be strong. Paired with Hatem Aly’s beautiful, whimsical art, Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad and Morris Award finalist S.K. Ali bring readers an uplifting, universal story of new experiences, the unbreakable bond between siblings, and of being proud of who you are. | September 10, 2019 | Hijab, family, culture, identity, empowerment |
| All Because You Matter | Charles | Tami | Discover this poignant, timely, and emotionally stirring picture book, an ode to Black and brown children everywhere that is full of hope, assurance, and love. Tami Charles pens a poetic, lyrical text that is part love letter, part anthem, assuring readers that they always have, and always will, matter. This powerful, rhythmic lullaby reassures readers that their matter and their worth is never diminished, no matter the circumstance: through the joy and wonder of their first steps and first laughs, through the hardship of adolescent struggles, and the pain and heartbreak of current events, they always have, and always will, matter. Accompanied by illustrations by renowned artist Bryan Collier, a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient and a nine-time Coretta Scott King Award winner or honoree, All Because You Matter empowers readers with pride, joy, and comfort, reminding them of their roots and strengthening them for the days to come. Lyrical, personal, and full of love, All Because You Matter is for the picture book audience what The Hate U Give was for YA and Ghost Boys was for middle grade: a conversation starter, a community touchstone, and a deep affirmation of worth for the young readers who need it most. | October 6, 2020 | Self-worth, empowerment, identity, affirmation, love |
| Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America | Cleves | Rachel Hope | Conventional wisdom holds that same-sex marriage is a purely modern innovation, a concept born of an overtly modern lifestyle that was unheard of in 19th-century America. But as Rachel Hope Cleves demonstrates in this eye-opening book, same-sex marriage is hardly new. Born in 1777, Charity Bryant was raised in Massachusetts. A brilliant and strong-willed woman with a clear attraction for her own sex, Charity found herself banished from her family home at age 20. She spent the next decade of her life traveling throughout Massachusetts, working as a teacher, making intimate female friends, and becoming the subject of gossip wherever she lived. At age 29, still defiantly single, Charity visited friends in Weybridge, Vermont. There she met a pious and studious young woman named Sylvia Drake. The two soon became so inseparable that Charity decided to rent rooms in Weybridge. In 1809, they moved into their own home together, and over the years, came to be recognized, essentially, as a married couple. Revered by their community, Charity and Sylvia operated a tailor shop employing many local women, served as guiding lights within their church, and participated in raising their many nieces and nephews. Charity and Sylvia is the intimate history of their extraordinary 40-four year union. Drawing on an array of original documents including diaries, letters, and poetry, Cleves traces their lives in sharp detail. Providing an illuminating glimpse into a relationship that turns conventional notions of same-sex marriage on their head, and reveals early America to be a place both more diverse and more accommodating than modern society might imagine, Charity and Sylvia is a significant contribution to our limited knowledge of LGBT history in early America. | October 14, 2014 | LGBTQ+ history, love, social history, early America, same-sex marriage |
| Antiracist Baby | Kendi | Ibram X. | Take your first steps with Antiracist Baby! Or rather, follow Antiracist Baby’s nine easy steps for building a more equitable world. With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society. | July 14, 2020 | Antiracism, children’s book, education, DEI |
| Between the World and Me | Coates | Ta-Nehisi | In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men – bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son – and listeners – the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. | July 14, 2015 | Race, identity, black experience, social justice, |
| Keepunumuk: Weeachumun’s Thanksgiving Story | Greendeer, Perry, Bunten | Daniell, Anthony, Alexis | The Thanksgiving story that most Americans know celebrates the Pilgrims. But without members of the Wampanoag tribe who already lived on the land where the Pilgrims settled, the Pilgrims would never have made it through their first winter. And without Weeâchumun (corn), the Native people wouldn’t have helped. An important picture book honoring both the history and tradition that surrounds the story of the first Thanksgiving. | August 2, 2022 | Native American culture, Thanksgiving, storytelling, tradition, indigenous identity |
| White by Law 10th Anniversary Edition: The Legal Construction of Race | Haney López | Ian | White by Law was published in 1996 to immense critical acclaim, and established Ian Haney López as one of the most exciting and talented young minds in the legal academy. The first book to fully explore the social and specifically legal construction of race, White by Law inspired a generation of critical race theorists and others interested in the intersection of race and law in American society. Today, it is used and cited widely by not only legal scholars but many others interested in race, ethnicity, culture, politics, gender, and similar socially fabricated facets of American society. | October 1, 2006 | legal history, race, discrimination, social justice, civil rights |
| The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life | Thurman | Wallace | At the time of its publication, Wallace Thurman’s debut novel was deeply provocative. This was due not only to its frank considerations of race and sex, but also to its vivid portrait of a Harlem that few other writers had dared to explore. At the heart of this journey into new terrain is Emma Lou Morgan, a Black woman who leaves her “color-struck” Idaho hometown behind and strikes out, first for Los Angeles and later for Harlem—where, unfortunately, discrimination simply takes on a new form. A controversial look at color prejudice across the country (but particularly across the tenements, employment agencies, cabarets, and movie houses of 1920s Harlem), The Blacker the Berry is a biting and enduringly relevant exploration of personal growth, cultural identity, and the pernicious influence of American racism. | January 31, 2023 | African American experience, identity, racism, social struggles, literature |
| My Heart Full of All | Shao | Jia | Through the eyes of a little girl, this multicultural book for children celebrates the differences and similarities that connect people around the world. Happy to be part of a mixed-race family, the little girl will teach your kids how to accept differences and embrace everyone regardless of their race, culture, or language they speak. Together with her parents, she will place the whole world in her room, organizing the most amazing fashion show. And how will she dress her doll? She will take a little bit from everyone: her African dad’s hairstyle, her Chinese mom’s dress, clogs from her Dutch cousin, and henna from her Indian aunt. | May 25, 2022 | love, emotion, family, identity, connection |
| Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class | Haney López | Ian | Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving “welfare queens” and “strapping young bucks” buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president. In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney Lopez offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog-whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform. Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney Lopez links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party’s increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class – white and nonwhite members alike. | June 13, 2014 | racial politics, racism, social inequality, coded language |
| Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions | Jana & Baran | Tiffany & Michael | The first practical handbook that helps individuals and organizations recognize and prevent microaggressions so that all employees can feel a sense of belonging. Our workplaces and society are growing more diverse, but are we supporting inclusive cultures? While overt racism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination are relatively easy to spot, we cannot neglect the subtler everyday actions that normalize exclusion. Many have heard the term microaggression, but not everyone fully understands what they are or how to recognize them and stop them from happening. Tiffany Jana and Michael Baran offer a clearer, more accessible term, subtle acts of exclusion, or SAEs, to emphasize the purpose and effects of these actions. After all, people generally aren’t trying to be aggressive–usually they’re trying to say something nice, learn more about a person, be funny, or build closeness. But whether in the form of exaggerated stereotypes, backhanded compliments, unfounded assumptions, or objectification, SAE are damaging to our coworkers, friends, and acquaintances. Jana and Baran give simple and clear tools to identify and address such acts, offering scripts and action plans for everybody involved. Knowing how to have these conversations in an open-minded, honest way will help us build trust and create stronger workplaces and healthier, happier people and communities. | March 10, 2020 | microaggressions, exclusion, diversity, social justice, inclusion |
| Courtney’s Birthday Party | Long | Dr. Loretta | Courtney is very excited. Her seventh birthday is only a few days away, and her mother has planned a special party. All of Courtney’s classmates will be invited, including Courtney’s best friend, Dejana. Courtney and Dejana have been best friends for a long time. They ride the bus to school together; they sit next to each other in class. It has never mattered to them that one is white and one is black. Dejana is excited, too. In the days leading up to the party, she works hard at several odd jobs so she can buy a special gift to give to her friend. But when the invitations to the party are passed out, Dejana doesn’t receive one. Courtney’s mother doesn’t want Dejana to attend. Both Dejana and Courtney are devastated. But friendship wins the day when Courtney’s determination forces her mother to change her mind. In engaging prose, actress and educator Loretta Long shows that loyalty and determination can overcome racial prejudice and ignorance. | September 1, 1998 | friendship, fun, family, joy, celebration |
| Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority | Wise | Tim | White Americans have long been comfortable in the assumption that they are the cultural norm. Now that notion is being challenged, as white people wrestle with what it means to be part of a fast-changing, truly multicultural nation. Facing chronic economic insecurity, a popular culture that reflects the nation’s diverse cultural reality, and a future in which they will no longer constitute the majority of the population, and with a black president in the White House, whites are growing anxious. This anxiety has helped to create the Tea Party movement, with its call to “take our country back”. By means of a racialized nostalgia for a mythological past, the Right is enlisting fearful whites into its campaign for reactionary social and economic policies. In urgent response, Tim Wise has penned his most pointed and provocative work to date. Employing the form of direct personal address, he points a finger at whites’ race-based self-delusion, explaining how such an agenda will only do harm to the nation’s people, including most whites. In no uncertain terms, he argues that the hope for survival of American democracy lies in the embrace of our multicultural past, present, and future. | July 5, 2016 | race, identity, social justice, whiteness, reflection |
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| Journal of Diversity in Higher Education: A publication of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education | Linder | Chris | APA and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) have joined together to publish the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Multidisciplinary in perspective, this bimonthly journal offers insights into theory and research that can help guide the efforts of institutions of higher education in the pursuit of inclusive excellence. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education largely publishes empirical research focused on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in post-secondary environments. Our manuscripts address the experiences and outcomes of individuals from underrepresented and underserved communities, focusing on institutional barriers and challenges, patterns of access and achievement, and the impact of engaging with diverse students, faculty, and administrators. We are also interested in work that explores issues related to teaching and learning, policy development and implementation, and leadership and organizational change in diverse learning environments. We are committed to publishing work that supports efforts to transform institutions, inspire colleagues, engage campus, governmental, and private sector leaders, and articulate culturally competent outcomes. | Bimonthly, beginning in Feburary | diversity, higher education, inclusion, social justice, education policy |
| On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World | Rosen | Emma Josephine | In On This Day She Made History, we challenge the notion that women have been mere footnotes in the grand tale of human existence. This empowering book for women offers a daily dose of female historical events that will inspire and educate. Many history books focus on men – rulers, explorers, and warriors. The occasional mention of a remarkable woman only reinforces the idea that history is a male domain. But that’s not the whole story. Women have been dynamic forces in every aspect of life, from rulers and rebels to creators and leaders. Despite the efforts of some historiographers to erase them, women have been shaping our world for millennia. This book is a valuable resource for educators looking to diversify their curricula with often-overlooked stories. It’s the perfect treasure trove of ideas for extra credit projects or classroom discussions that will ignite students’ curiosity. If you’re eager to broaden your horizons, learn, and embrace intellectual adventures, this book is for you. Divided into two parts, the first section offers a wide array of events for each day of the year, showcasing the contributions of inspiring women. The second section lists birth and death anniversaries and female Nobel Prize laureates. “On This Day She Made History” is an invitation to embark on a nerdy adventure of discovery. Welcome to a daily portion of women’s history – we can’t wait to explore together. | October 24, 2023 | women’s history, empowerment, achievment, inspiration, social change |
| Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t | Sinek | Simon | Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation, and failure. Why? The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. “Officers eat last,” he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What’s symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort – even their own survival – for the good of those in their care. Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking. | February 18, 2020 | Leadership, teamwork, trust, organizational culture, collaboration |
| If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad | Levine | Ellen | If you traveled on the Underground Railroad–Where was the safest place to go?–Would you wear a disguise?–What would you do when you were free?This book tells you what it was like to be a slave trying to escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. | February 1, 1993 | slavery, history, freedom, abolition, underground railroad |
| The Encyclopedia of Icebreakers: Stuctured Activities That Warm-Up, Motivate, Challenge, Acquaint and Energize | Forbess-Greene | Sue | This handy two-volume set provides you with an extensive collection of activities and icebreakers that cover a multitude of topics and can be used in a variety of group settings. | January 16, 1991 | icebreakers, team building, activities, motivation, group engagement |
| Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age | Hanson, Antheus | Harry J., Devin | Drag has officially transcended the underground and exploded into the mainstream. Queens have more visibility than ever, and it’s been hard won through decades of perseverance, imagination, and intergenerational support within local drag communities. It’s time to honor the queens who paved the way for the new generation of drag and are still carrying out their work today. To create Legends of Drag, a photo book and archive of living drag history, authors Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus traveled coast to coast, visiting 16 cities to meet 80 legendary entertainers who shared boundless wisdom and powerful anecdotes from their lives. These queens are featured in stunning portraits shot on location and styled with unique floral elements. | June 21, 2022 | drag culture, LGBTQ+, queens, performance, identity |
| Renegade Women in Film & TV | Weitzman | Elizabeth | Renegade Women in Film and TV blends stunning illustrations, fascinating biographical profiles, and exclusive interviews with icons like Barbra Streisand, Rita Moreno, and Sigourney Weaver to celebrate the accomplishments of 50 extraordinary women throughout the history of entertainment. Each profile highlights the groundbreaking accomplishments and essential work of pioneers from the big and small screens, offering little-known facts about household names (Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey, Nora Ephron) and crucial introductions to overlooked pioneers (Alla Nazimova, Anna May Wong, Frances Marion). From 19th century iconoclast Alice Guy Blaché to 21st century trailblazer Ava DuVernay, Renegade Women honors the women who succeeded against all odds, changing their industry in front of the camera and behind the scenes. | Feruary 5, 2019 | women in film, TV industry, empowerment, gender representation, pioneers |
| Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream | Imani | Blair | Over the course of six decades, an unprecedented wave of Black Americans left the South and spread across the nation in search of a better life–a migration that sparked stunning demographic and cultural changes in twentieth-century America. Through gripping and accessible historical narrative paired with illustrations, author and activist Blair Imani examines the largely overlooked impact of The Great Migration and how it affected–and continues to affect–Black identity and America as a whole. Making Our Way Home explores issues like voting rights, domestic terrorism, discrimination, and segregation alongside the flourishing of arts and culture, activism, and civil rights. Imani shows how these influences shaped America’s workforce and wealth distribution by featuring the stories of notable people and events, relevant data, and family histories. The experiences of prominent figures such as James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Ella Baker, and others are woven into the larger historical and cultural narratives of the Great Migration to create a truly singular record of this powerful journey. | January 14, 2020 | great migration, African American history, identity, racial justice, American dream |
| The African American Experience: Volume II From Reconstruction | Trotterr | Joe William Jr. | This narrative text explores the African American experience throughout United States history, with particular emphasis on work, community, and recurring discrimination. Unlike most other texts dealing with this subject matter, The African American Experience provides equal emphasis on the North and South. | December 8, 2000 | African American history, reconstruction, civil rights, social justice, post-civil war America |
| Stacey’s Extraordinary Words | Abrams | Stacey | Stacey is a little girl who loves words more than anything. She loves reading them, sounding them out, and finding comfort in them when things are hard. But when her teacher chooses her to compete in the local spelling bee, she isn’t as excited as she thought she’d be. What if she messes up? Or worse, if she can’t bring herself to speak up, like sometimes happens when facing bullies at school? | December 28, 2021 | Vocabulary, confidence, language, empowerment, learning |
| Uncles Eli’s Special-For-Kids, Most Fun Ever, Under-The-Table Passover Haggadah | Segal | Eliezer Lorne | Every year Jewish families commemorate the ancient exodus from Egypt with a ritual Passover meal, or seder. It’s an important religious event, but for children it can be, well, kind of a snooze. This one-of-a-kind haggadah will change that. Filled with zany characters, wacky rhymes, and humorous color illustrations, Eliezer Segal’s lighthearted and very entertaining look at Passover traditions shows just how much fun a seder can be. | February 1, 1999 | passover, Haggadah, tradition, family, jewish culture |
| Hair Love | Cherry | Matthew A. | Zuri’s hair has a mind of its own. It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Zuri knows it’s beautiful. When Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn. But he LOVES his Zuri, and he’ll do anything to make her — and her hair — happy. Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving your natural hair — and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere. A perfect gift for special occasions including Father’s Day, birthdays, baby showers, and more! | May 14, 2019 | family, love, empowerment, self-care, identity |
| The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish | Lil Miss Hot Mess | The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish encourages readers to boldly be exactly who they are. Written by a founding member of the nationally recognized Drag Story Hour (DSH), this playful picture book offers a quirky twist on a classic nursery rhyme by illustrating all of the ways to “work it”. The story plays off “The Wheels on the Bus” as it follows a drag queen who performs her routine in front of an awestruck audience. A fun frenzy of fierceness, this book will appeal to readers of all ages. | May 5, 2020 | drag queen, LGBTQ+, celebration, fun, self-expression | |
| Black Is A Rainbow Color | Joy | Angela | From the wheels of a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall’s back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and thrive. Stunningly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Ekua Holmes, Black Is a Rainbow Color is a sweeping celebration told through debut author Angela Joy’s rhythmically captivating and unforgettable words. | January 14, 2020 | black identity, empowerment, color symbolism, diversity, culture |
| Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jump Start Conversations about Identity, Privilege, and Bias | Williams | Bari A. | In order to create an inclusive working environment, it is important for companies to understand the experiences that diverse employees face in the workplace. Diversity in the Workplace is a guided tour of what it means to be a minority in today’s labor force. Containing 25 real-life interviews, including stories of trailblazers fighting inequality, you’ll be exposed to a slice of life you may not have been privy to. This book explores real world issues in a modern workday dynamic for members of marginalized communities and managers looking to equalize an imbalance. | March 31, 2020 | diversity, workplace culture, identity, privilege, bias |
| Twas the Night Before Pride | McClintick | Joanna | This joyful picture-book homage to a day of community and inclusion—and to the joys of anticipation—is also a comprehensive history. With bright, buoyant illustrations and lyrical, age-appropriate rhyme modeled on “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” it tackles difficult content such as the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS marches. On the night before Pride, families everywhere are preparing to partake. As one family packs snacks and makes signs, an older sibling shares the importance of the march with the newest member of the family. Reflecting on the day, the siblings agree that the best thing about Pride is getting to be yourself. Debut author Joanna McClintick and Pura Belpré Award–winning author-illustrator Juana Medina create a new classic that pays homage to the beauty of families of all compositions—and of all-inclusive love. | May 3, 2020 | LGBTQ+, pride, celebration, family, love |
| Respect Is Only Human: A Response to Disrespect and Implicit Bias | Shockness | Israelin | Many groups in society are disrespected, discriminated against, and deprived of their basic human rights, to the detriment of their members. Many members of these groups are deprived of the opportunity of improving their education, of obtaining appropriate jobs, and of merely getting ahead, even with the ‘right’ credentials.RESPECT IS ONLY HUMAN – A Response to Disrespect and Implicit Bias . shows us how implicit bias underlies injustice, unfairness, and hatred, often fueling unkind and even deadly actions towards others.RESPECT IS ONLY HUMAN – A Response to Disrespect and Implicit Bias . describes how being human entails displaying respect for self and others and accepting difference based on race, ethnicity, gender and gender orientation, nationality, religion, physical and mental ability, and any other aspect. RESPECT IS ONLY HUMAN – A Response to Disrespect and Implicit Bias .shows us just how implicit bias is nurtured in our society through the many everyday things we take for granted in our lives, in our communities, in our corporations, and in our governments. RESPECT IS ONLY HUMAN – A Response to Disrespect and Implicit Bias . empowers us to use respect to eradicate implicit bias, even with some ideas of how respect can help cope with COVID-19 in our very changed world. | May 28, 2019 | respect, implicit bias, social justice, equality, conflict resolution |
| Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities | Cole, Guy-Sheftall | Johnnetta Betsch, Beverly | Why has the African American community remained silent about gender even as race has moved to the forefront of our nation’s consciousness? In this important new book, two of the nation’s leading African American intellectuals offer a resounding and far-reaching answer to a question that has been ignored for far too long. Hard-hitting and brilliant in its analysis of culture and sexual politics, Gender Talk asserts boldly that gender matters are critical to the Black community in the twenty-first century. In the Black community, rape, violence against women, and sexual harassment are as much the legacy of slavery as is racism. Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall argue powerfully that the only way to defeat this legacy is to focus on the intersection of race and gender. Gender Talk examines why the “race problem” has become so male-centered and how this has opened a deep divide between Black women and men. The authors turn to their own lives, offering intimate accounts of their experiences as daughters, wives, and leaders. They examine pivotal moments in African American history when race and gender issues collided with explosive results—from the struggle for women’s suffrage in the nineteenth century to women’s attempts to gain a voice in the Black Baptist movement and on into the 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement and the upsurge of Black Power transformed the Black community while sidelining women. Along the way, they present the testimonies of a large and influential group of Black women and men, including bell hooks, Faye Wattleton, Byllye Avery, Cornell West, Robin DG Kelley, Michael Eric Dyson, Marcia Gillispie, and Dorothy Height. Provding searching analysis into the present, Cole and Guy-Sheftall uncover the cultural assumptions and attitudes in hip-hop and rap, in the O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson trials, in the Million Men and Million Women Marches, and in the battle over Clarence Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Fearless and eye-opening, Gender Talk is required reading for anyone concerned with the future of African American women—and men. | January 16, 2009 | gender equality, African American women, social justice, feminism, activism |
| Sally Hemings | Chase-Riboud | Barbara | WINNER OF THE KAFKA PRIZE FOR BEST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN WOMAN “One of the great American stories . . . . Gives new luster to the words ‘historical novel’ . . . Vastly enjoyable.” — The New York Times “Exquisitely crafted . . . . A sensitive life study of a truly exceptional woman: complex, courageous, irresistibly attractive, . . . elegantly self-possessed.” — Cosmopolitan One of the greatest love stories in Amercian history is also one of the least known — and most controversial. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, had a mistress for thirty-eight years, whom he loved and lived with until he died — the beautiful and elusive quadroon slave, Sally Hemings. In this brilliant novel, spanning two continents, sixty years, and seven presidencies, Barbara Chase-Riboud re-creates a love story based on the documents and the evidence of the day, but gives free rein to the novelist’s imagination. Incredibly written and beautifully evoked, Barbara Chase-Riboud explores the complex blend of love and hate, tenderness and cruelty, freedom and bondage, that made the lifelong liaison between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson one of the most poignant, tragic, and unforgettable chapters in the history of the races, and of the sexes, in America. | September 20, 1994 | Slavery, African American history, Thomas Jefferson, identity, legacy |
| American Slavery American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia | Morgan | Edmund S. | In the American Revolution, Virginians were the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and quality. George Washington led the Americans in battle against British oppression. Thomas Jefferson led them in declaring independence. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration but also the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; they were elected to the presidency of the United States under that Constitution for thirty-two of the first thirty-six years of its existence. They were all slaveholders. In the new preface Edmund S. Morgan writes: “Human relations among us still suffer from the former enslavement of a large portion of our predecessors. The freedom of the free, the growth of freedom experienced in the American Revolution depended more than we like to admit on the enslavement of more than 20 percent of us at that time. How republican freedom came to be supported, at least in large part, by its opposite, slavery, is the subject of this book. American Slavery, American Freedom is a study of the tragic contradiction at the core of America. Morgan finds the keys to this central paradox, “the marriage of slavery and freedom,” in the people and the politics of the state that was both the birthplace of the Revolution and the largest slaveholding state in the country. | October 17, 2033 | Slavery, colonial America, Virginia history, freedom, racial inequality |
| Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender | Heyam | Kit | Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures. | September 13, 2022 | gender history, trans identity, social change, LGBTQ+, gender evolution |
| The Diversity Gap: Where Good Intentions Meet True Cultural Change | Wilkinson | Bethaney B. | The Diversity Gap is a fearless, groundbreaking guide to help leaders at every level shatter the barriers that are causing diversity efforts to fail.Combining real-world research with honest first-person experiences, racial justice facilitator Bethaney Wilkinson provides leaders a replicable structure to foster a diverse culture of belonging within your organization. | October 12, 2021 | Diversity, cultural change, inclusion, social justice, equity |
| Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture | Wood | Julia T. | Written by the leading gender communication scholar, this text introduces students to theories, research, and pragmatic information that demonstrate the multiple, often interactive ways in which gender images of masculinity and femininity are shaped within contemporary culture. | April 13, 2000 | Gender, communication, culture, identity, socialization |
| You Will Leave A Trail Of Stars: Words of Inspration for Blazing Your Own Path | Congdon | Lisa | In this illustrated guide to life—perfect for graduates and other seekers—acclaimed artist and educator Lisa Congdon offers up wisdom and insights for living. Each inspirational quote, lesson, and piece of advice is brought to life by Congdon’s signature illustration style, making the book a beautiful gift or keepsake. Whether you’re starting a new chapter of your own story, or simply searching for ways to live with more intention, curiosity, and joy, this book will inspire you to connect with yourself and prepare for any adventure life might have in store. | March 16, 2021 | Inspiration, empowerment, motivation, self-discovery, personal growth |
| Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom- and Revenge | Kritzler | Edward | In this lively debut work of history, Edward Kritzler tells the tale of an unlikely group of swashbuckling Jews who ransacked the high seas in the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of the fifteenth century, many Jews had to flee Spain and Portugal. The most adventurous among them took to the seas as freewheeling outlaws. In ships bearing names such as the Prophet Samuel, Queen Esther, and Shield of Abraham, they attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding. Filled with high-sea adventures–including encounters with Captain Morgan and other legendary pirates–Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean reveals a hidden chapter in Jewish history as well as the cruelty, terror, and greed that flourished during the Age of Discovery. | November 3, 2009 | Jewish history, pirates, caribbean, religious freedom, adventure |
| Be A Triangle: How I Went From Being Lost to Getting My Life Into Shape | Singh | Lilly | Everyone – even world-famous actress, author, and creator Lilly Singh – knows that sometimes life just sucks. In this book, Singh provides a safe space where listeners can learn how to create a sense of peace within themselves. Without sugarcoating what it’s like to face adversity – including acknowledging her own intensely personal struggles with identity, success, and self-doubt – Singh teaches listeners to “unsubscribe” from cookie-cutter ideals. With her signature blend of vulnerability, insight, and humor, Singh instructs listeners to “be a triangle”, creating a solid foundation for your life, one that can be built upon but never fundamentally changed or destroyed. As she puts it, we must always find a way to come home to ourselves: “We must create a place, a system of beliefs, a simple set of priorities to come back to should life lead us astray, which it definitely will.” Like a wise, empathetic friend who always keeps you honest, Singh pushes you to adjust your mindset and change your internal dialogue. The result is a deeply humane, entertaining, and uplifting guide to befriending yourself and becoming a true “miracle for the world”. | April 5, 2022 | Personal growth, self-discovery, transformation, motivation, empowerment |
| Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot | Kendall | Mikki | Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others? In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed. | February 23, 2021 | feminism, social justice, intersectionality, empowerment, racial inequality |
| The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heros Who Changed The World | Funk | Mason | The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution. By shining a light on these remarkable stories of bravery and determination, The Book of Pride not only honors an important chapter in American history, but also empowers young people today (both LGBTQ and straight) to discover their own courage in order to create positive change. Furthermore, it serves a critically important role in ensuring the history of the LGBTQ movement can never be erased, inspiring us to resist all forms of oppression with ferocity, community, and most importantly, pride. | May 21, 2019 | LGBTQ+, activism, history, heroes, equality |
| This Long Thread: Women of Color on Craft, Community, and Connection | Hewett | Jen | Celebrate the diverse work of people of color in the craft community and explore the personal, political, and creative potential of textile arts and crafts. In early 2019, the craft community experienced a reckoning when crafters of color began sharing personal stories about exclusion and racial injustice in their field, pointing out the inequity and lack of visible diversity within the crafting world. Author Jen Hewett, who is one of a few prominent women of color in the fiber crafts community, now brings together this book as a direct response to the need to highlight the diverse voices of artists working in fiber arts and crafts. Weaving together interviews, first-person essays, and artist profiles, This Long Thread explores the work and contributions of people of color across the fiber arts and crafts community, representing a wide spectrum of race, age, region, cultural identity, education, and economic class. These conversations explore techniques and materials, belonging, identity, pride of place, cultural misappropriation, privilege, the value (or undervaluing) of craft, community support structures, recognition or exclusion, intergenerational dialogue, and much more. Be inspired by the work and stories of innovative people of color who are making exceptional contributions to the world of craft. The diverse range of textile artists and craftspeople featured include knitters, quilters, sewers, weavers, and more who are making inspiring and innovative work, yet who are often overlooked by mainstream media. | November 16, 2021 | Women of color, craftsmanship, community, identity, creativity |
| Lead From The Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change | Abrams | Stacey | Leadership is hard. Convincing others―and often yourself―that you possess the answers and are capable of world-affecting change requires confidence, insight, and sheer bravado. Lead from the Outside is the handbook for outsiders, written with the awareness of the experiences and challenges that hinder anyone who exists beyond the structure of traditional white male power―women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make a difference. In Lead from the Outside, Stacey Abrams argues that knowing your own passion is the key to success, regardless of the scale or target. From launching a company, to starting a day care center for homeless teen moms, to running a successful political campaign, finding what you want to fight for is as critical as knowing how to turn thought into action. Stacey uses her experience and hard-won insights to break down how ambition, fear, money, and failure function in leadership, while offering personal stories that illuminate practical strategies. Stacey includes exercises to help you hone your skills and realize your aspirations. She discusses candidly what she has learned over the course of her impressive career: that differences in race, gender, and class are surmountable. With direction and dedication, being in the minority actually provides unique and vital strength. | March 26, 2019 | Leadership, empowerment, change, strategy, personal growth |
| Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir | Ziyad | Hari | An eloquent, restless, and enlightening memoir by one of the most thought-provoking journalists today about growing up Black and queer in America, reuniting with the past, and coming of age their own way. One of nineteen children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu Hare Kṛṣṇa mother and a Muslim father. Through reframing their own coming-of-age story, Ziyad takes listeners on a powerful journey of growing up queer and Black in Cleveland, Ohio, and of navigating the equally complex path toward finding their true self in New York City. Exploring childhood, gender, race, and the trust that is built, broken, and repaired through generations, Ziyad investigates what it means to live beyond the limited narratives Black children are given and challenges the irreconcilable binaries that restrict them. Heartwarming and heart-wrenching, radical and reflective, Hari Ziyad’s vital memoir is for the outcast, the unheard, the unborn, and the dead. It offers us a new way to think about survival and the necessary disruption of social norms. It looks back in tenderness as well as justified rage, forces us to address where we are now, and, born out of hope, illuminates the possibilities for the future. | March 1, 2021 | Memoir, identity, race, growing up, family |
| Faculty of Color in Academe: Bittersweet Success | Sotello Viernes Turner & Myers | Caroline & Samuel L. | Key Benefits: Faculty of Color in Academe focuses on inequities based on racial and ethnic differences within the professional workplace in higher education. This book draws on a comprehensive study of African American, Asian, Pacific American, American Indian, and Latino faculty in eight mid-western states. By using both narrative and statistical data, this book provides an in-depth view of the issues surrounding the successful recruitment, retention, and development of faculty of color. Key Topics: The authors attempt to capture and describe some of the similarities and differences experienced by faculty among each of the above mentioned racial/ethnic groups. Includes a comprehensive discussion of what needs to be done in order to achieve diversity in the teaching profession. Market: Scholars, practitioners, and decision-makers will benefit from the information provided in this book. | June 25, 1999 | Academia, diversity, faculty, race, struggles |
| The Stonewall Reader | White | Edmund & New York Public Library | For the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it, with a foreword by Edmund White. June 28, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library’s archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly, the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969. | April 30, 2019 | LGBTQ+, history, activism, revolution, Stonewall uprising |
| Women Don’t Owe You Pretty | Given | Florence | A primer on modern feminism for the Instagram generation encouraging us to question the insidious narratives that would hold us back from self-acceptance, self-love, and our own power. With her refreshingly audacious voice, Florence Given explores all corners of the conversation, from overcoming insecurity projection and the tendency to find comfort in other women’s flaws to how to recognize and fight against the male gaze and other toxic cultural baggage and embracing sex and body positivity. Women Don’t Owe You Pretty is here to remind us that everyone is valuable as they are, and we owe the world nothing, least of all pretty. | June 27, 2023 | Feminism, empowerment, self-worth, gender equality, body positivity |
| Black Ballerinas: My Journey to our Legacy | Copeland | Misty | As a young girl living in a motel with her mother and her five siblings, Misty Copeland didn’t have a lot of exposure to ballet or prominent dancers. She was sixteen when she saw a black ballerina on a magazine cover for the first time. The experience emboldened Misty and told her that she wasn’t alone—and her dream wasn’t impossible. In the years since, Misty has only learned more about the trailblazing women who made her own success possible by pushing back against repression and racism with their talent and tenacity. Misty brings these women’s stories to a new generation of readers and gives them the recognition they deserve. With an introduction from Misty about the legacy these women have had on dance and on her career itself, this book delves into the lives and careers of women of color who fundamentally changed the landscape of American ballet from the early 20th century to today. | November 2, 2021 | Ballet, identity, black excellence, legacy, representation |
| Heartstopper #1: A Graphic Novel | Oseman | Alice | Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. A sweet and charming coming-of-age story that explores friendship, love, and coming out. This edition features beautiful two-color artwork. Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn’t think he has a chance. But Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works. | May 5, 2020 | LGBTQ+, romance, friendship, coming-of-age, graphic novel |
| The Undocumented Americans | Cornejo Villavicencio | Karla | Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own. Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American. | April 6, 2021 | Immigration, identity, Latinx, struggle, storytelling |
| Minorities On Campus: A Handbook for Enhancing Diversity | Green | Madeleine | Disturbed by the faltering pace of minority advancement in American life and by the discouraging decline of participation of minority individuals in higher education, the American Council on Education (ACE) Board of Directors convened a special meeting in February 1987 to consider how higher education could take a leadership role in rekindling the nation’s commitment to the full participation of minority citizens. One outcome of the ACE Board’s deliberations was the development of the Commission on Minority Participation in Education and American Life, cosponsored by the Education Commission of the States. Former presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter served as honorary co-chairs of a bipartisan commission of 37 prominent Americans from government, business and the nonprofit sector. In its report, One-Third of a Nation, the commission delivered an urgent message to the nation “that America is moving backward-not forward-in its effort to achieve the full participation of minority citizens in the life and prosperity of the nation. The Commission called for a re-dedication of all segments of society to “overcoming the current inertia and removing the remaining barriers to full participation of education and in all other aspects of American life. The ACE Board also recognized that higher education’s most important and productive efforts would b e centered on our own campuses. In the last decade we have lost momentum in our efforts to ensure that minority groups are fully represented, welcomed, and involved on our campuses. But this cannot result in an attitude of resignation and defeat. We cannot resign ourselves to anything less than success in creating a truly pluralistic campus. The injustice is too great for a democratic nation to condone; the costs are too high for all citizens. | January 1, 1989 | DEI, higher education, minority groups, campus culture |
| Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy | Ricketts | Rachel | Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses racial justice from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spirit-based perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that will help us all fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. It is a loving and assertive call to do the deep—and often uncomfortable—inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change. Filled with carefully curated soulcare activities—such as guided meditations and transformative breathwork—“Do Better answers prayers that many have prayed. Do Better offers a bold possibility for change and healing.” | March 15, 2022 | Activism, spirituality, healing, white supremecy, social justice |
| Showing Up: How Men Can Become Effective Allies in the Workplace | Arata | Ray | A Revolutionary Step-by-step Guide—by and for Men—to Ending Toxic Masculinity Organizations worldwide are finally realizing the critical importance of diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) for underrepresented people. Men are being called to enact heart-based leadership, increase diversity, bolster the bottom line, and create a culture so everyone in the workplace wins. The Times Up, Me Too, and Black Lives Matter movements have been wake-up calls to all of us, but perhaps mostly for men. And It’s abundantly clear: the default model of masculinity isn’t working for anyone. For a new and healthier infrastructure, for permanent and transformational shifts, we need a plan that includes men. Enter Ray Arata, a world-recognized industry expert on engaging men in workplace DEI. The founder of the Better Man Conference and co-founder of Better Man Leadership, Arata argues that mainstream gender training and its focus on the avoidance of toxic masculinity is not enough. In Showing Up, you’ll discover the DIY method of heart-based leadership Ray has used with such companies as Verizon, Bloomberg, Moody’s, Intel, Toyota, Hearst, and more—a male-modeled, real-solutions approach by and for men to increase diversity, bolster the bottom line, and create a culture so everyone in the workplace wins. | January 4, 2022 | Allyship, gender equality, workplace diversity, men’s role, inclusion |
| The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap | Baradaran | Mehrsa | When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1 percent of the total wealth in America. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money seeks to explain the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. With the civil rights movement in full swing, President Nixon promoted “black capitalism,” a plan to support black banks and minority-owned businesses. But the catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. In this timely and eye-opening account, Baradaran challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever really hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. | March 11, 2019 | Racial wealth gap, Black banks, economics, financial inequality, systemic racism |
| The Dream-Keepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children | Ladson-Billings | Gloria | In the newly revised Third Edition of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, distinguished professor Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings delivers an encouraging exploration of the future of education for African American students. She describes eight exemplary teachers, all of whom differ in their personal style and methods, who share an approach to teaching that affirms and strengthens cultural identity. In this mixture of scholarship and storytelling, you’ll learn how to create intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of all children. | June 8, 2022 | Education, African American children, teaching strategies, empowerment, success |
| Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class | Graham | Lawrence Otis | Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha’s Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group. Author and TV commentator Lawrence Otis Graham, one of the nation’s most prominent spokesmen on race and class, spent six years interviewing the wealthiest black families in America. He includes historical photos of a people that made their first millions in the 1870s. Graham tells who’s in and who’s not in the group today with separate chapters on the elite in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nashville, and New Orleans. A new Introduction explains the controversy that the book elicited from both the black and white communities. | December 22, 1999 | Black elite, class, identity, social status, African American history |
| Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants | Kimmerer | Robin Wall | Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return. | August 11, 2015 | Indigenous women, nature, environmentalism, plants, science |
| African Proverbs | Leslau | Charlotte and Wolf | Scarce 1962 Hand Held “African Proverbs” by Charlotte & Wolf Leslau (Author). Decorations by Jeff Hill. | January 1, 1962 | Wisdom, culture, tradition, life lessons, heritage |
| This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education | Vilson | Jose Luis | José Vilson writes about race, class, and education through stories from the classroom and researched essays. His rise from rookie math teacher to prominent teacher leader takes a twist when he takes on education reform through his now-blocked eponymous blog, TheJoseVilson.com. He calls for the reclaiming of the education profession while seeking social justice. | May 27, 2014 | Race, education, class, inequality, social change |
| Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity | Stein | Arlene | Award-winning sociologist Arlene Stein takes us into the lives of four strangers who find themselves together in a sun-drenched surgeon’s office, having traveled to Florida from across the United States in order to masculinize their chests. Ben, Lucas, Parker, and Nadia wish to feel more comfortable in their bodies; three of them are also taking testosterone so that others recognize them as male. Following them over the course of a year, Stein shows how members of this young transgender generation, along with other gender dissidents, are refashioning their identities and challenging others’ conceptions of who they are. During a time of conservative resurgence, they do so despite great personal costs. Transgender men comprise a large, growing proportion of the trans population, yet they remain largely invisible. In this powerful, timely, and eye-opening account, Stein draws from dozens of interviews with transgender people and their friends and families, as well as with activists and medical and psychological experts. Unbound documents the varied ways younger trans men see themselves and how they are changing our understanding of what it means to be male and female in America. | June 5, 2018 | Transgender men, identity, gender, transition, personal stories |
| The Diversity Myth: “Multiculturalism” and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford | Sacks, Thiel | David O., Peter A. | This is a powerful exploration of the debilitating impact that politically-correct “multiculturalism” has had upon higher education and academic freedom in the United States. In the name of diversity, many leading academic and cultural institutions are working to silence dissent and stifle intellectual life. This book exposes the real impact of multiculturalism on the institution most closely identified with the politically correct decline of higher education—Stanford University. Authored by two Stanford graduates, this book is a compelling insider’s tour of a world of speech codes, “dumbed-down” admissions standards and curricula, campus witch hunts, and anti-Western zealotry that masquerades as legitimate scholarly inquiry. Sacks and Thiel use numerous primary sources—the Stanford Daily, class readings, official university publications—to reveal a pattern of politicized classes, housing, budget priorities, and more. They trace the connections between such disparate trends as political correctness, the gender wars, Generation X nihilism, and culture wars, showing how these have played a role in shaping multiculturalism at institutions like Stanford. The authors convincingly show that multiculturalism is not about learning more; it is actually about learning less. They end their comprehensive study by detailing the changes necessary to reverse the tragic disintegration of American universities and restore true academic excellence. | January 1, 1998 | multiculturalism, diversity, college campus, intolerance, politics |
| All are Welcome | Penfold, Kaufman | Alexandra, Suzanne | Follow a group of children through a day in their school, where everyone is welcomed with open arms no matter their race, religion, or background. With vividly detailed illustrations and a gently reassuring text, Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman celebrate kindness, inclusivity, and diversity in a joyous read-aloud that is a must for every child’s bookshelf. | July 10, 2018 | DEI, community, acceptance, belonging |
| Black Af History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America | Harriot | Michael | America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington’s cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. It is the fantastic tale of slaves that spontaneously teleported themselves here with nothing but strong backs and negro spirituals. It is a sugarcoated legend based on an almost true story. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. With incisive wit, Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans. From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force, this long overdue corrective provides a revealing look into our past that is as urgent as it is necessary. For too long, we have refused to acknowledge that American history is white history. Not this one. This history is Black AF. | September 19, 2023 | Blackness, truth, resistance, erasure, reclamation |
| The Gay Icon’s Guide to Life | Joosten | Michael | If life had its own GPS system, navigating it would be a far less stressful slog. Alas, we suffer this pothole-filled dirt road alone… guideless. Thankfully, there’s one thing more knowledgeable and dependable than a GPS, and that’s a Gay Icon! From Beyonce to Betty White and RuPaul to David Bowe, no one understands the highs and lows, loves and losses quite like a gay icon. Featuring inspiring and entertaining quotes and dynamic illustrations of the icons who said them, you’ll find these musings priceless, refreshing, and relatable… even if they’re coming from Oscar-winners, music legends, and fashion royalty. | April 2, 2024 | Icons, pride, wisdom, LGBTQ+, inspiration |
| Liberal White Supremacy: How Progressives Silence Racial and Class Oppression (Sociology of Race and Ethnicity) | Beeman | Angie | In Liberal White Supremacy, Angie Beeman argues that white supremacy is maintained not only by right-wing conservatives or stereotypically uneducated working-class racial bigots but also by progressives who operate from a liberal ideology of color-blindness, racism-evasiveness, and class elitism. This distinction provides insight on divisions among progressives at the local level, in community organizations, and at the national level, in the Democratic Party. By distinguishing between liberal and radical approaches to racism, class oppression, capitalism, and social movement tactics, Beeman shows how progressives continue to be limited by liberal ideology and perpetuate rather than dismantle white supremacy, all while claiming to be antiracist. She conceptualizes this self-serving process as “liberal white supremacy,” the tendency for liberal European Americans to constantly place themselves in the superior moral position in a way that reinforces inequality. Beeman advances what she calls action-oriented and racism-centered intersectional approaches as alternatives to progressive organizational strategies that either downplay racism in favor of a class-centered approach or take a talk-centered approach to racism without developing explicit actions to challenge it. | September 1, 2022 | Power, racism, progressivism, silencing, inequality |
| Gay Science: The Totally Scientific Examination of LGBTQ+ Culture, Myths, and Stereotypes | Anderson | Rob | Class is in session, babe! Discover the inner workings of the LGBTQ+ community with this humorous and informative book. Author and comedian Rob Anderson borrows the familiar science textbook format to skewer ridiculous queer stereotypes with his own version of science. Using the principles of natural, social, and formal sciences, Rob answers extremely serious questions like: Why can’t gays sit in a chair properly? Why don’t lesbians have electricity in their movies? Are colleges turning people bisexual? How does gaydar work? Will bottoms survive the apocalypse? You’ll read about the three subtypes of the gay uncle species, examine the Periodic Table of LGBTQ+ Elements, understand gay crime and punishment, and get educated on the types of bacteria and viruses that exclusively affect the LGBTQs, like the state of Florida. Inspired by his viral “Gay Science” series, Rob recreates some of his most popular episodes in a literary format, and also tackles completely fresh subjects, presenting them with super empirical and totally evidence-based homosexual data. | April 23, 2024 | LGBTQ+, science, stereotypes, culture, humor |
| The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II | Eder | Mari | For fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII―in and out of uniform―for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come. From daring spies to audacious pilots, from innovative scientists to indomitable resistance fighters, these extraordinary women stepped out of line and into history, forever altering the world’s landscape. This page-turning narrative, crafted with meticulous historical accuracy by retired U.S. Army Major General Mari K. Eder, provides a fresh perspective on the integral roles that women played during WWII. Liane B. Russell fled Austria with nothing and later became a renowned U.S. scientist whose research on the effects of radiation on embryos made a difference to thousands of lives. Gena Turgel was a prisoner who worked in the hospital at Bergen-Belsen and cared for the young Anne Frank, who was dying of typhus. Gena survived and went on to write a memoir and spent her life educating children about the Holocaust. Ida and Louise Cook were British sisters who repeatedly smuggled out jewelry and furs and served as sponsors for refugees, and they also established temporary housing for immigrant families in London. Whether you’re a history enthusiast, a lover of powerful women’s stories, or an avid reader of WWII nonfiction, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line is a must-read and a poignant testament to the forgotten women who stepped up when the world needed them most. | May 1, 2022 | Women, courage, wartime, unsung heroes, history |
| Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace | Helgesen | Sally | In this follow-up to her international bestseller How Women Rise, Sally Helgesen draws on three decades of work with executives and aspiring leaders around the world to offer practical ways to build more inclusive relationships, teams, and workplaces. Participants at leadership conferences often tell Sally, “Please don’t spend your time telling us why developing and retaining a diverse workforce is important. We get it. The problem is, we don’t know how to do it.” Rising Together provides that missing how in full detail by identifying both what holds us back and specific tactics that can help us move forward. First, Sally identifies the eight common triggers most likely to undermine our ability to collaborate across divides—not only of gender, but also of age, ethnicity, race, sexuality, and life experience. These triggers are widespread, yet rarely acknowledged. They include differences in how people from different backgrounds view ambition, competence, perceptions, fairness, communication, networks, attraction, and humor. Sally then offers specific practices designed to address these triggers: simple behavioral tweaks that we can use on a daily basis; a method for informally enlisting allies to hold us to account; and a means for cultivating and disseminating the dynamic power of we. Rising Together is for readers at every stage and level in their careers who recognize that building a broad range of relationships is essential to their advancement, now and in the future. This book also serves as an indispensable guide for HR, diversity, and leadership professionals tasked with addressing the misunderstandings, resentments, and derailments caused by the eight triggers. Sally’s focus on behaviors—how we act—rather than bias—how we think—promises to redirect the inclusion conversation in a grounded, real-world way that brings us together. | February 28, 2023 | DEI, leadership, workplace, collaboration |
| Self-Care for Black Women: 150 Ways to Radically Accept & Prioritize Your Mind, Body, & Soul | Adeeyo | Oludara | Prioritize your wellbeing with these 150 self-care exercises designed specifically to help Black women revitalize their outlook on life, improve their mental health, eliminate stress, and self-advocate. Between micro- and macro-aggressions at school, at work, and everywhere in between, it’s tough to prioritize physical and mental wellness as a Black woman, especially with a constant news cycle highlighting Black trauma. Now, with The Self-Care for Black Women you’ll find more than 150 exercises that will help you radically choose to put yourself first. Whether you need a quick pick-me-up in the middle of the day, you’re working through feelings of burnout, or you need to process a microaggression, this book has everything you need to feel more at peace. You’ll find prompts like: -Map out your feelings about a microaggression -Make a list of your safe spaces -Detail out an entire day dedicated to your self-care -And more! It’s time to put yourself first and prioritize your self-care once and for all—and this book is here to help you do just that. | January 11, 2022 | Self-care, healing, empowerment, mindfulness, wellness |
| The American Jewish Story through Cinema (The Jewish History, Life, and Culture) | Goldman | Eric A. | Like the haggadah, the traditional “telling” of the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt that is read at the Passover seder, cinema offers a valuable text from which to gain an understanding of the social, political, and cultural realities of Jews in America. In an industry strongly influenced by Jewish filmmakers who made and continue to make the decisions as to which films are produced, the complex and evolving nature of the American Jewish condition has had considerable impact on American cinema and, in particular, on how Jews are reflected on the screen. This groundbreaking study analyzes select mainstream films from the beginning of the sound era to today to provide an understanding of the American Jewish experience over the last century. In the first half of the twentieth century, Hollywood’s movie moguls, most of whom were Jewish, shied away from asserting a Jewish image on the screen for fear that they might be too closely identified with that representation. Over the next two decades, Jewish moviemakers became more comfortable with the concept of a Jewish hero and with an overpowered, yet heroic, Israel. In time, the Holocaust assumed center stage as the single event with the greatest effect on American Jewish identity. Recently, as American Jewish screenwriters, directors, and producers have become increasingly comfortable with their heritage, we are seeing an unprecedented number of movies that spotlight Jewish protagonists, experiences, and challenges. | April 15, 2013 | Cinema, jewish identity, hollywood, representation, culture |
| Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging | McBride | Ben | Can you imagine a future that includes your enemies? If not, what happens next? From one of the most courageous and visionary leaders of our time comes Troubling the Water, an immersive book about the violence and injustice that threaten to drown us all. Activist Ben McBride recounts how he first waded into the water: from the Kill Zone in Oakland, where he moved with his young family, to the uprising in Ferguson, to the moral impoverishment of the white evangelical church. In the truth-telling tradition of Bryan Stevenson and Bishop William Barber, McBride leads us right into the fury and fragmentation of our moment, and then steadies us once we’re there. What would it take to truly belong to each other? Radical belonging, McBride argues, means looking at our implicit biases, at our faulty understandings of power, and at how we “other”–or “same”–people. Sometimes it even means troubling the waters―speaking hard truths in situations that appear calm but that cloak injustice. With a blend of provocation and good humor, McBride leads us beyond inaction on the one hand and polemic on the other. What results is an indelible manifesto–a troublemaking reverend’s call to the most urgent task of our time. As inequality, racism, and alienation weaken our common life, well-meaning people ask: What do I need to do to create a world where all can belong? But McBride asserts that instead, we need to ask: Who do I need to become? Building a shared humanity is hella messy. “Peacemaking” sounds cloying and staying apart seems safer. But unless we want violence to intensify, we are running out of options. In this unforgettable book, McBride reminds us that wading into conflict and stirring up truth is the only way to find real healing. | October 24, 2023 | Belonging, radical, community, identity, social justice |
| The Spokane Indians: Children of the Sun (The Civilization of the American Indian Series) | Ruby, Brown | Robert H., John A. | This tribal history of the Spokane Indians begins with an account of their early life in the Pacific Northwest central plateau region. It then describes in harrowing detail the U.S. government’s encroachment on their lands and the subsequent enforced settlement of Spokane people on reservations. The volume concludes with a presentation of twentieth-century developments. This edition of The Spokane Indians features a new foreword and introduction, which provide up-to-date information on the Spokane people and their most recent efforts to recover and strengthen their historical and cultural heritage. | April 30, 2020 | Spokane tribe, Indigenous culture, history, Native American heritage, survival |
| What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma | Foo | Stephanie | By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. Both of Foo’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she’d moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD. In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don’t move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it. Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman’s ability to reclaim agency from her trauma. | February 21, 2023 | Trauma, healing, resilience, memory, self discovery |
| African Americans in Spokane (Images of America) | Williamson, Black Pioneers | Jerrelene, Spokane Northwest | In 1888, black men were recruited from the southern states to come to Roslyn, Washington, to work in the mines. What they had not known until their arrival was that they were there to break the strike against the coal company. Upon their arrival on the Northern Pacific Coal Company train, they were met with much violence. When the strike was finally settled, everyone-black and white-went to work. After the mines closed, the blacks migrated across the Pacific Northwest. Arcadia’s African Americans in Spokane is about those black families who arrived in Spokane, Washington, in 1899. This collection of historic images reveals the story of their survival, culture, churches, and significance in the Spokane community throughout the decades that followed; this is the story of the journey that began once their final destination was reached, in Spokane. | January 20, 2010 | African American history, Spokane, community, culture, legacy |
| Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings | Shaw, Lee | Susan, Janet | As a leading introductory women’s and gender studies reader, Shaw and Lee’s Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions offers an excellent balance of classic, conceptual, and experiential selections including new contemporary readings. This student-friendly text provides short and accessible readings reflecting the diversity of women’s experinces. | 2001 | feminism, gender equality, empowerment, activism, intersectionality |
| If Keanu Were Your Boyfriend: The Man, The Myth, The Whoa | Polansky | Marisa | Keanu Reeves insists he’s “just a normal guy” despite being one of the most recognizable (and most excellent) faces in Hollywood. Apparently, Keanu’s humility knows no bounds–just like our love for him. After all, the Keanusance didn’t just come out of nowhere. He’s had an epic four-decade-long acting career that includes the heart-stopping John Wick, the heart-melting Always Be My Maybe, and the heart-pounding The Matrix. His generosity and kindness are legendary, and he remains an enigmatic mystery we’re dying to solve. And how could we forget, he’s the Sexiest Man Alive! | 2019 | celebrity, pop culture, humor, adoration |
| Guide to Your Personal Strategic Plan | Jones | Angela R. | Dr. Angela Jones aspires to be more than just an archive collecting dust. In The Queen Code Guide to Personal Strategic Plan, Jones shares her hard earned life lessons. She goes beyond the autobiographical and shares the levers she used to pull herself up out of her circumstances from broke, single mom with her heat shut off to spiritual, mental and financial freedom. In her debut book, Jones introduces the 3 tenets of the Queen Code underscored by her Personal Strategic Plan, Sacred Circle and tools to help you reframe your mindset and examine your purpose. She goes beyond templates and also shares her resources and information for those who helped her get back on track and remain a part of her ecosystem today. | December 5, 2024 | goal setting, personal growth, strategy, empowerment, success |
Office of Employee Belonging, Development & Leadership
Eastern Washington University
