Do All Lives Matter?


Book Description

Something is wrong in our society. Deeply wrong. The belief that all lives matter is at the heart of our founding documents--but we must admit that this conviction has never truly reflected reality in America. Movements such as Black Lives Matter have arisen in response to recent displays of violence and mistreatment, and some of us defensively answer back, "All lives matter." But do they? Really? This book is an exploration of that question. It delves into history and current events, into Christian teaching and personal stories, in order to start a conversation about the way forward. Its raw but hopeful words will help move us from apathy to empathy and from empathy to action. We cannot do everything. But we can each do something.




Black Lives Matter at School


Book Description

This inspiring collection of accounts from educators and students is “an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system” (Ibram X. Kendi). Since 2016, the Black Lives Matter at School movement has carved a new path for racial justice in education. A growing coalition of educators, students, parents and others have established an annual week of action during the first week of February. This anthology shares vital lessons that have been learned through this important work. In this volume, Bettina Love makes a powerful case for abolitionist teaching, Brian Jones looks at the historical context of the ongoing struggle for racial justice in education, and prominent teacher union leaders discuss the importance of anti-racism in their unions. Black Lives Matter at School includes essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from participants across the country who have been building the movement on the ground.




The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter


Book Description

This book examines the complex relationship between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter as it unfolds on social media and in offline interpersonal relationships. In so doing, it demonstrates the ongoing influence of history within the contemporary fight for social justice.




On the Offensive


Book Description

"You people ... She was asking for it ... That's so gay ... Don't be a Jew ... My ex-girlfriend is crazy ... You'd be pretty if you lost weight ... You look good ... for your age ... These statements can be offensive to some people, but it is complicated to understand exactly why. It is often difficult to recognize the veiled racism, sexism, ableism, lookism, ageism, and other -isms that hide in our everyday language. From an early age, we learn and normalize many words and phrases that exclude groups of people and reinforce bias and social inequality. Our language expresses attitudes and beliefs that can reveal internalized discrimination, prejudice, and intolerance. Some words and phrases are considered to be offensive, even if we're not trying to be"--




When They Call You a Terrorist


Book Description

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. New York Times Editor’s Pick. Library Journal Best Books of 2019. TIME Magazine's "Best Memoirs of 2018 So Far." O, Oprah’s Magazine’s “10 Titles to Pick Up Now.” Politics & Current Events 2018 O.W.L. Book Awards Winner The Root Best of 2018 "This remarkable book reveals what inspired Patrisse's visionary and courageous activism and forces us to face the consequence of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation. This book is a must-read for all of us." - Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America—and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free. Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free, Patrisse’s outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin. Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country—and the world—that Black Lives Matter. When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.




Making All Black Lives Matter


Book Description

"A powerful — and personal — account of the movement and its players."—The Washington Post “This perceptive resource on radical black liberation movements in the 21st century can inform anyone wanting to better understand . . . how to make social change.”—Publishers Weekly The breadth and impact of Black Lives Matter in the United States has been extraordinary. Between 2012 and 2016, thousands of people marched, rallied, held vigils, and engaged in direct actions to protest and draw attention to state and vigilante violence against Black people. What began as outrage over the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin and the exoneration of his killer, and accelerated during the Ferguson uprising of 2014, has evolved into a resurgent Black Freedom Movement, which includes a network of more than fifty organizations working together under the rubric of the Movement for Black Lives coalition. Employing a range of creative tactics and embracing group-centered leadership models, these visionary young organizers, many of them women, and many of them queer, are not only calling for an end to police violence, but demanding racial justice, gender justice, and systemic change. In Making All Black Lives Matter, award-winning historian and longtime activist Barbara Ransby outlines the scope and genealogy of this movement, documenting its roots in Black feminist politics and situating it squarely in a Black radical tradition, one that is anticapitalist, internationalist, and focused on some of the most marginalized members of the Black community. From the perspective of a participant-observer, Ransby maps the movement, profiles many of its lesser-known leaders, measures its impact, outlines its challenges, and looks toward its future.




Stay Woke


Book Description

The essential guide to understanding how racism works and how racial inequality shapes black lives, ultimately offering a road-map for resistance for racial justice advocates and antiracists When #BlackLivesMatter went viral in 2013, it shed a light on the urgent, daily struggles of black Americans to combat racial injustice. The message resonated with millions across the country. Yet many of our political, social, and economic institutions are still embedded with racist policies and practices that devalue black lives. Stay Woke directly addresses these stark injustices and builds on the lessons of racial inequality and intersectionality the Black Lives Matter movement has challenged its fellow citizens to learn. In this essential primer, Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith inspire readers to address the pressing issues of racial inequality, and provide a basic toolkit that will equip readers to become knowledgeable participants in public debate, activism, and politics. This book offers a clear vision of a racially just society, and shows just how far we still need to go to achieve this reality. From activists to students to the average citizen, Stay Woke empowers all readers to work toward a better future for black Americans.




From Racist to Non-Racist to Anti-Racist


Book Description

This book is intended to be an aid to moving people from racist to non-racist to anti-racist. I am writing this book for people who want to be change agents in the area of racial justice. I am writing this book for true patriots, who want the best for America. This book isn't written to teach the reader about slavery, Jim Crow, Black History or the history of the civil rights movement. There are plenty of well written books, written by very dedicated and detailed historians, who can make a reader a walking wealth of historical civil rights information. Some may say, in order to fix the future, we must know and understand the past. To a certain degree, I agree. But living in the historical, can sometimes prevent action towards improving the future. I decided to teach people the difference between a racist, a non-racist and an anti-racist. Here's why; the lack of understanding and defining who is a racist, a non-racist and an anti-racist; has always been a dagger sticking through the heart of America. This lack of admitting, knowing, understanding and defining racism has been one of the biggest obstacles keeping America from realizing its true potential and obligation to provide equality to all its citizens. Also, the lack of admitting, knowing, understanding and defining racism is a major reason why America cannot rid itself of racism. And ifAmerica doesn't understand what racism is, and deal with it once and for all, America will eventually commit social suicide. So, who will this book help? We have many important social situations going on in America. People are dealing with healthcare issues. People are becoming aware that the top one percent of Americans own ninety percent of America's wealth. Americans are realizing that the American Dream has all but disappeared. But, believe me when I say, ahead of them all, is racism; and it has dominated America since the first Europeans sailed here and settled in a place and called it Jamestown in 1607. Racism is why they quickly massacred the native people. Racism allowed them to buy, steal and sell Africans into slavery. Racism was the catalyst behind forcing the Chinese to work the railroads and live in underground cities. Racism put Japanese people into internment camps and stole their property. Within the words of America's documents of freedom and sown within the fabric of the America's institutions and flag, is a powerful ideology called racism. It dwells smack dab in the heart of social and civic justice, education, religion, health and financial wealth. Racism continues to chug along throughout American society like a locomotive, purposely set to steamroll anyone who isn't the right color. Racism never gets fixed because Americans have been taught to not truly understand it or speak freely about it. Racism never gets fixed because anyone with a pair of lips and a tongue thinks and speaks as if their feelings are facts. Racism never gets fixed because White people think people of color are the only victims of it. Racism never gets fixed because whites in power have been able to convince poor whites, that people of color are the reason they are in the financial and social predicament they're in. Racism never gets fixed because White America doesn't invest in ridding America of racism. The bottom line is racism never gets fixed because people do not understand that racism was perpetrated on purpose, therefore it must be un-done on purpose. Racism isn't just going to go away because of a moving speech. It will take love, desire, money and White people willing to take a backseat (until they acquire real knowledge) to people of color, in regards to moving people from racist to non-racist to anti-racist.




The Purpose of Power


Book Description

An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter “Excellent and provocative . . . a gateway [to] urgent debates.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time • Marie Claire • Kirkus Reviews In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote: Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do. Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve. This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.




The Matter of Black Lives


Book Description

A collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America—including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more—with a foreword by Jelani Cobb This anthology from the pages of the New Yorker provides a bold and complex portrait of Black life in America, told through stories of private triumphs and national tragedies, political vision and artistic inspiration. It reaches back across a century, with Rebecca West’s classic account of a 1947 lynching trial and James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind” (which later formed the basis of The Fire Next Time), and yet it also explores our current moment, from the classroom to the prison cell and the upheavals of what Jelani Cobb calls “the American Spring.” Bringing together reporting, profiles, memoir, and criticism from writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Elizabeth Alexander, Hilton Als, Vinson Cunningham, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Malcolm Gladwell, Jamaica Kincaid, Kelefa Sanneh, Doreen St. Félix, and others, the collection offers startling insights about this country’s relationship with race. The Matter of Black Lives reveals the weight of a singular history, and challenges us to envision the future anew.