Through the Fog by
Drawing from over 20 years of teaching experience in the U.S., ranging from pre-kindergarten to post­ graduate, Affolter illustrates personal, practical, and theoretical ways for teachers to grapple with the complexities of race and racism within their own schools and communities and develop as inclusive anti­ racist teachers. The work aims to take into account the deeply human dimensions of inclusive anti-racist teaching, while drawing attention to the threat of burnout, inviting closer inspection of curricula development, and exploring tangible ways to sustain this important work for teaching. Resisting racism, agitating for change, and walking an inclusive anti-racist path requires commitment to unflinchingly look at one's failures and examine silences. It is work that must be done in all settings: rural, urban, suburban. This book offers all pre-teachers and in-service teachers some perspectives and reflections on engaging anti-racist inclusive practice. The questions raised here ask each of us to consider our own positioning and interrogate the stories we tell ourselves about "the other." The book seeks to call in white teachers in particular to carefully examine our own biases and the ways we may replicate white supremacist ideology within our pedagogy and curricula. The questions posed here and the work ahead is not easy. This is work best taken on with those that can challenge with love and help support one other as we imagine and work towards a more just world.
Bread by
When she was 54, Lisa Knopp's weight dropped to a number on the scale that she hadn't seen since seventh grade. The severe food restricting that left her thin and sick when she was 15 and 25 had returned. This time, she was determined to understand the causes of her malady and how she could heal from a condition that is caused by a tangle of genetic, biological, familial, psychological, cultural, and spiritual factors. This compelling memoir, at once a food and illness narrative, explores the forces that cause eating disorders and disordered eating, including the link between those conditions in women, middle-aged and older, and the fear of aging and ageism. Winner of the 2017 Nebraska Book Award for Memoir 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Black Fatigue by
This is the first book to define and explore "black fatigue," the multigenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and mental health of black people--and how to combat its pernicious effects. 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." Reading group discussion guide available.
Antiracist School Leadership by
Since the passing of Brown versus Board of Education to the election of the first Black president of the United States, there has been much discussion on how far we have come as a nation on issues of race. Some continue to assert that Barack Obamas election ushered in a new era-making the US a post-racial society. But this argument is either a political contrivance, borne of ignorance or a bold-faced lie. There is no recent data on school inequities, or inequity in society for that matter, that suggests we have arrived at Dr. Kings dream that his "four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Children today are instead still judged by the color of their skin, and this inequitable practice is manifest in todays schools for students of color in the form of: disproportionate student discipline referrals, achievement and opportunity gaps, pushout rates, overrepresentation in special education and underrepresentation in advanced coursework, among other indicators (Brooks, 2012). Though issues of race in the public education system may take an overt or covert form; racial injustice in public schools is still pervasive, complex and cumulative. For example, many students of color, year after year, do not have access to "good" teachers, experience low staff expectations, and are subject to "new and improved" forms of tracking (Brooks, Arnold & Brooks, in press). The authors in this book explore various ways that racism are manifest in the American school system. Through a plurality of perspectives, they deconstruct, challenge and reconstruct an educational leadership committed to equity and excellence for marginalized students and educators.
Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People by
Winner of the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars and the APA's Florence L. Denmark Award for Contributions to Women and Aging When the term "ageism" was coined in 1969, many problems of exclusion seemed resolved by government programs like Social Security and Medicare. As people live longer lives, today's great demotions of older people cut deeper into their self-worth and human relations, beyond the reach of law or public policy. In Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People, award-winning writer and cultural critic Margaret Morganroth Gullette confronts the offenders: the ways people aging past midlife are portrayed in the media, by adult offspring; the esthetics and politics of representation in photography, film, and theater; and the incitement to commit suicide for those with early signs of "dementia." In this original and important book, Gullette presents evidence of pervasive age-related assaults in contemporary societies and their chronic affects. The sudden onset of age-related shaming can occur anywhere--the shove in the street, the cold shoulder at the party, the deaf ear at the meeting, the shut-out by the personnel office or the obtuseness of a government. Turning intimate suffering into public grievances, Ending Ageism, Or How Not to Shoot Old People effectively and beautifully argues that overcoming ageism is the next imperative social movement of our time. About the cover image: This elegant, dignified figure--Leda Machado, a Cuban old enough to have seen the Revolution--once the center of a vast photo mural, is now a fragment on a ruined wall. Ageism tears down the structures that all humans need to age well; to end it, a symbol of resilience offers us all brisk blue-sky energy. "Leda Antonia Machado" from "Wrinkles of the City, 2012." Piotr Trybalski / Trybalski.com. Courtesy of the artist. For more information, an excerpt, links to reviews, and special offers on this book, go to: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/ending-ageism Related website: (https://www.brandeis.edu/wsrc/scholars/profiles/gullette.html)