Listen to this episode from Today, Explained on Spotify. America is undergoing a new racial reckoning. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains why this time is different. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bringing Ben home : a murder, a conviction, and the fight to redeem American justice - Barbara Bradley Hagerty.
"In 1989, Ben Spencer was convicted of murdering businessman Jeffrey Young-a crime he didn't commit. Spencer to spent more than half his life in prison until independent investigators, the foreman of the jury that convicted him, and a new district attorney convinced a judge that Spencer had nothing to do with the killing. He was released from prison in 2022. Journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty spent years immersed in Spencer's case. She combed police files and court records, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and had extensive conversations with Spencer. In Bringing Ben Home, she weaves together two narratives: how an innocent Black man got caught up in and couldn't escape a legal system that refused to admit its mistakes; and what Texas and other states are doing to address wrongful convictions to make the legal process more equitable for everyone"--
The anti-racist vocab guide : an illustrated introduction to dismantling anti-Blackness - Maya Easley.
"From 'Assimilation' to 'Decolonization,' 'Black Wall Street' to 'Police Brutality,' and 'Colorism' to 'White Supremacy,' this book equips you with the language to engage in crucial conversations around anti-Black racism. The Anti-Racist Vocab Guide is a boldly illustrated visual glossary that distills complex subjects into comprehensive yet accessible definitions of terms and provides concise and insightful explanations of historical moments. With reflection questions to use for introspection or as a starting point for hard conversations with those close to you, this book will encourage both your learning and unlearning--no matter where you are in your journey to understanding race in America"--
Listen to this episode from Salud Talks on Spotify. In light of the recent tragedies, co-hosts Tenoch Aztecatl and Josh McCormack discuss systemic injustice as well as the violence committed against communities of color.
Unsettled : American Jews and the movement for justice in Palestine - Oren Kroll-Zeldin.
"Unsettled examines the role of young American Jews in the Palestine solidarity movement and argues that their activism and commitment to ending the occupation and Israeli apartheid is a Jewish value, which is a necessary response to the changing conditions of American Jewish life in the twenty-first century"--
Listen to this episode from Today, Explained on Spotify. There hasn’t been an arrest in the case in the three months since police shot and killed Taylor in her home in Louisville, Kentucky. But now the “Justice for Breonna” movement has the potential to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
"Are you calling me a racist?" : why we need to stop talking about race and start making real antiracist change Sarita Srivastava
Antiracism workshops and diversity policies have long been the response to racial tensions and incidents in corporations, schools, and nonprofit organizations. There is little evidence, however, that they create employment equity, reduce racial prejudice, or increase cross-cultural sensitivity. Sociologist Sarita Srivastava argues they often create more division and acrimony than progress. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" reveals why these efforts have failed to effectively challenge racism and offers a new way forward. Drawing from her own experience as an educator and activist, as well as extensive interviews and analyses of contemporary events, Srivastava shows that racial encounters among well-meaning people are ironically hindered by the emotional investment they have in being seen as good people. Diversity workshops devote energy to defending, recuperating, educating, and inwardly reflecting, with limited results, and these exercises often make things worse. These "feel-good politics of race," Srivastava explains, train our focus on the therapeutic and educational, rather than on concrete practices that could move us toward true racial equity. In this type of approach to diversity training, people are more concerned about being called a racist than they are about changing racist behavior. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" is a much-needed challenge to the status quo of diversity training, and will serve as a valuable resource for anyone dedicated to dismantling racism in their communities, educational institutions, public or private organizations, and social movements
The architecture of desire : how the law shapes interracial intimacy and perpetuates inequality. Solangel Maldonado
This book examines how the law influences our most personal and private choices-who we desire and choose as intimate partners-and explores the psychological, economic, and social effects of these choices. It proposes ways to minimize law's influence over who we desire, love, and bring into our families, including changes to dating platforms, as well as housing, education, and transportation policies
Reparations and reparatory justice : past, present, and future - Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua 1953- editor. ; Mary Frances Berry editor. ; V. P Franklin (Vincent P.), 1947- editor.
"Changes at the global, federal, state, and municipal level are pushing forward the reparations movement for people of African descent. The distinguished editors of this volume have gathered works that chronicle the historical movement for reparations both in the United States and around the world. Sharing a focus on reparations as an issue of justice, the contributors provide a historical primer of the movement; introduce the philosophical, political, economic, legal and ethical issues surrounding reparations; explain why government, corporations, universities, and other institutions must take steps to rehabilitate, compensate, and commemorate African Americans; call for the restoration of Black people's human and civil rights and material and psychological well-being; lay out specific ideas about how reparations can and should be paid; and advance cutting-edge interpretations of the complex long-lasting effects that enslavement, police and vigilante actions, economic discrimination, and other behaviors have had on people of African descent. Groundbreaking and innovative, Reparations and Reparatory Justice offers a multifaceted resource to anyone wishing to explore a defining moral issue of our time"--
Racial justice at work : practical solutions for systemic change - Mary-Frances Winters
There is no DEI without justice. This book brings the J in DEIJ to life, giving organizations a road map to justice-centered action. We have not yet succeeded at dismantling systems that perpetuate harm and exclude non-white groups. Many organizational DEI efforts fail because they are too tactical and focus on "fixing" marginalized communities rather than reworking the systems that uphold inequity. A component is missing from the diversity, equity, and inclusion equation-- justice. Justice as an orientation focuses on repairing broken systems, acknowledging harm, and implementing deliberate processes and practices that produce equity and shift power. Justice work diverges from traditional metrics-driven DEI work and requires a new approach to thought and action to effectively dismantle power structures. DEIJ pioneer Mary-Frances Winters seeks to provide understanding and guidance to organizations committed to doing the work properly. With additional chapters written by the Winters Group's core team and strategic partners, this book shares relevant theory and practical remedies to achieve equitable workplaces and features advice on how to ditch neutrality, practice restorative dialogue, amplify anti-racist practices, and more. By taking a justice perspective, this book will help readers to both achieve equity and sustain it. --
Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as protests have occurred in all fifty states calling for justice on his behalf. But this tension between African American communities and the police has existed for centuries. This week, the origins of American policing and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the system.
Police interrogation, language, and the law : the invocation game - Marianne Mason
"Drawing on a wide range of case studies, this book provides an examination of the role of United States federal law in shaping the invocation game of police interrogation. It is essential reading for researchers and students in the fields of forensic linguistics, law and society, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis"--
Get off my neck : Black lives, white justice, and a former prosecutor's quest for reform - Debbie Hines
"An examination of the historical and present racial inequities of the prosecutorial system and a blueprint for transforming the system to one of fairness and justice"--;A deeply revealing expos of the American prosecutorial system and its historic and present racial inequities -- and how we can transform the system to one of fairness and justice. In Get Off My Neck, Debbie Hines draws on her unique perspective as a trial lawyer, former Baltimore prosecutor, and assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland to argue that US prosecutors, as the most powerful players in the criminal justice system, systematically target and criminalize Black people. Hines describes her disillusionment as a young Black woman who initially entered the profession with the goal of helping victims of crimes, only to discover herself aiding and abetting a system that prizes plea bargaining, speedy conviction, and excessive punishment above all else. In this book, she offers concrete, specific, and hopeful solutions for just how we can come together in a common purpose for criminal justice and racial justice reform. Get Off My Neck explains that the racial inequities in the prosecutorial system are built into our country's DNA. What's more, they are the direct result of a history that has conditioned Americans to perceive the Black body as insignificant at best and dangerous at worst. Unlike other books that discuss the prosecutor's office and change from inside the office, Hines offers a proactive approach to fixing our broken prosecutorial system through a broad-based alliance of reform-minded prosecutors, activists, allies, communities, and racial justice organizations -- all working together to end the racist treatment of Black people. Told intimately through personal, family, and client narratives, Get Off My Neck is not only a deeply sobering account of our criminal justice system and its devastating impact on Black children, youth, and adults but also a practical and inspiring roadmap for how we can start doing better right now. -- Provided by publisher.
Jim Crow : voices from a century of struggle. Part One, 1876-1919 : Reconstruction to the Red Summer - Tyina L. Steptoe, editor
This collection of 80 dramatic firsthand writings by Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and others brings to life the struggle for racial justice from the Civil War to World War. A vital resource for the teaching of the history of race in America that traces the ascendancy of white supremacy after Reconstruction--and the outspoken resistance to it led by Black Americans and their allies. W.E.B. Du Bois famously identified "the problem of the color-line" as the defining issue in American life. The powerful writings gathered here reveal the many ways Americans, Black and white, fought against white supremacist efforts to police the color line, envisioning a better America in the face of disenfranchisement, segregation, and widespread lynching, mob violence, and police brutality.;"Jim Crow: Part One, Reconstruction to the Red Summer brings together speeches, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, public testimony and appeals, judicial opinions, letters, and poems and song lyrics from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the bloody "Red Summer" of 1919. These writings record and illuminate the ways Americans, Black and white, fought against white supremacy and envisioned a better America in the face of disenfranchisement, segregation, and widespread lynching, mob violence, and police brutality. The volume includes writing by both famous and lesser known individuals, including Ida B. Wells on the myths of lynching, Richard T. Greener's scathing critique of America's "White Problem," Charles Chesnutt on the nullification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Booker T. Washington's historic Atlanta address, John Marshall Harlan's eloquent and prophetic dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, Robert Smalls's protest against disenfranchisement in South Carolina, Mary Church Terrell on segregation in the nation's capital and the convict lease system, William Monroe Trotter's dramatic White House confrontation with Woodrow Wilson, and Jeanette Carter's tribute to the men and women who fought back white mobs in 1919. The volume also presents revealing examples of white supremacist advocacy by Nathaniel Shaler and Benjamin Tillman; testimony about the "Exoduster" migration to Kansas in the 1870s; celebrations of path-breaking Black musicians and stage performers; writing about the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, the founding of the NAACP, and Black soldiers in World War I; and contrasting editorials from the Black and white press on prizefighter Jack Johnson and the outlaw Robert Charles"-- Provided by publisher.
As Americans take to the streets, we hear from the person prosecuting the police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing. We also hear from protesters around the country and remember the history of policing in black communities.
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Books through bars : stories from the prison books movement - Dave Mac Marquis (Editor), et al
"Co-edited by two activists with deep experience in organizing prison books programs (PBPs), Books Behind Bars introduces readers to PBPs and their decentralized organization. PBPs are a grassroots-level and nationwide activist movement challenging the largest prison industry in the world by refusing to let incarcerated people remain isolated and forgotten. Operating on shoestring budgets, will all-volunteer workforces and donated libraries, books to prisoner programs are examples of ordinary people acting to undermine the isolation and judgment of incarceration. Although there are currently fifty-three books to prisoners groups serving in all fifty states, these programs remain relatively unknown. The goal of this book is to bring awareness to this diffuse and long-standing social movement and offer readers a way to get involved. In addition to highlighting voices from PBPs throughout the United States, the volume also includes essays, images, and artwork from independent bookstore owners, formerly and currently incarcerated folks, activists, artists, journalists, volunteers, organizers, and scholars"--
The DEI Podcast at Notre Dame Law School explores concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, culture, belonging, and justice as they arise in law and key social and cultural issues. The podcast is hosted by Max Gaston, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Notre Dame Law School.
Terrorism on trial : political violence and abolitionist futures - Nicole Nguyen
"Terrorism on Trial examines the contemporary role that U.S. domestic courts play in the global war on terror and their use as a weapon of war. Retheorizing terrorism as political violence, Nicole Nguyen invites readers to carefully consider the role of power and politics in the making of armed resistance, addressing the root causes of political violence, with a goal of building toward a less violent and more liberatory world"--
The History Of The Crack Era From People Who Lived Through It - Fresh Air
Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair
Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum - Antonia Hylton
"On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state's Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick walls of a Jim Crow asylum. In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family's experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations. As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America's evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital's wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America's new focus. In Madness, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable"--
When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus : Code Switch
As international health agencies warn that COVID-19 could become a pandemic, fears over the new coronavirus' spread have activated old, racist suspicions toward Asians and Asian Americans. It's part of a longer history in the United States, in which xenophobia has often been camouflaged as a concern for public health and hygiene.
Law democratized : a blueprint for solving the justice crisis - Renee Knake Jefferson
"Millions of Americans do not recognize their problems can be solved through legal tools. Law democratized offers a blueprint for expanding access to legal help for all regardless of resources. Building upon more than a decade of research about innovation in legal services around the globe, the book features stories of what works and what doesn't to craft a series of recommendations for solving the justice crisis"--
Listen to this episode from Women at Work on Spotify. As we wait for company leaders to make good on the anti-racism commitments they made earlier this year, we check in with four Black women about how their work lives have and haven’t changed. Then we talk with an expert who helps us understand how to keep pushing forward and supporting our Black colleagues while we wait for long-overdue change.
Problem with capital punishment and why it should be abolished in America - Vincent R. Jones
"This book takes a harsh, critical look at capital punishment and points out the glaring flaws and misconceptions about its effectiveness. It makes a factual, legal, and moral argument for its abolition while refuting the main arguments in support of the death penalty"--
The Jabot: How the Recent Black Lives Matter Protests are Changing Biglaw -- Hopefully for the Better with Lia Dorsey - Episode 39
Kathryn Rubino talks to Lia Dorsey, newly elected President of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals, and Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Dentons, about Biglaw's response to the violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and to Black Lives Matter. Episode Resources Episode Highlights A difficult topic - 1:13 Tangible actions behind words - 2:34 Lia’s role and Biglaw’s role - 3:20 All the firms' different statements - 4:25 Lia’s piece of advice for law firms - 7:20 The culture of a firm - 9:13 An opportunity for the firms’ leaders - 10:06 Everybody has a role to play - 11:42 How we can move forward - 14:11 Having access to money and resources - 18:49 Promoting diversity - 19:57 Nobody has the right answer right now - 23:36 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player. Subscribe with Follow on Leave a review on
DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE: One Lawyer's Pursuit of Equal Justice for All - Robert L. Tsai
A law professor examines four Supreme Court cases won by a trailblazing Kentucky-born lawyer dedicated to seeking just treatment for those condemned to death.
