Intersectionality

"A sitting federal judge's recounting of six cases, to make the argument for revisiting overly punitive sentences"--

"Revisits the world of social epidemics first explored in Gladwell's 2000 book "The tipping point," this time taking a closer look at the dark side of social engineering. Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami... Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world's most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell's most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It's time we took tipping points seriously"--

Why it's time to enshrine the right to vote in the Constitution Throughout history, too many Americans have been disenfranchised or faced needless barriers to voting. Part of the blame falls on the Constitution, which does not contain an affirmative right to vote. The Supreme Court has made matters worse by failing to protect voting rights and limiting Congress’s ability to do so. The time has come for voters to take action and push for an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee this right for all.Drawing on troubling stories of state attempts to disenfranchise military voters, women, African Americans, students, former felons, Native Americans, and others, Richard Hasen argues that American democracy can and should do better in assuring that all eligible voters can cast a meaningful vote that will be fairly counted. He shows how a constitutional right to vote can deescalate voting wars between political parties that lead to endless rounds of litigation and undermine voter confidence in elections, and can safeguard democracy against dangerous attempts at election subversion like the one we witnessed in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.The path to a constitutional amendment is undoubtedly hard, especially in these polarized times. A Real Right to Vote explains what’s in it for conservatives who have resisted voting reform and reveals how the pursuit of an amendment can yield tangible dividends for democracy long before ratification.

"The Myth of American Idealism offers a timely and comprehensive introduction to the incisive critiques of U.S. power that have made Noam Chomsky a "global phenomenon," one of the most widely known public intellectuals of all time. Surveying the history of U.S. military and economic activity around the world, Chomsky and his co-author Nathan J. Robinson vividly trace the way the American pursuit of global domination has wrought havoc in country after country--without, ironically, making Americans any safer. And they explore how dominant elites in the United States have pushed self-serving myths about this country's commitment to "spreading democracy," while pursuing a reckless foreign policy that served the interest of few and endangered all too many. Chomsky and Robinson range across the globe, offering penetrating accounts of Washington's relationship with the Global South, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--all justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and the benevolent intentions of American policy makers. The same kinds of myths that have led to repeated disastrous wars, they argue, are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China that imperil humanity's future. Examining nuclear proliferation and climate change, they show how U.S. policies are continuing to exacerbate global threats. For well over half a century, Noam Chomsky has committed himself to exposing governing ideologies and criticizing his country's unchecked use of military power. At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions he has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism"--

"A new kind of history of the Southwest (mainly New Mexico and Arizona) that foregrounds the stories of Latino and Indigenous peoples who made the Southwest matter to the nation in the twentieth century"--Provided by publisher.

"A brutal killing, an all-out manhunt, and a riveting account of the first murder trial in U.S. history--set in the 1600s in colonial New England against the backdrop of the Pequot War (between the Pequot tribe and the colonists of Massachusetts Bay), an explosive trial whose outcome changed the course of history, ended a two-year war, and brought about a peace that allowed the colonies to become a full-blown nation. The year: 1638. The setting: Providence, Plymouth Colony. A young Nipmuc tribesman, returning home from trading beaver pelts, is fatally stabbed in a robbery in the woods near Plymouth Colony, by a white runaway servant and fellow rogues. The young tribesman, fighting for his life, is able, with his final breaths, to reveal the details of the attack to Providence's governor, Roger Williams. A frantic manhunt by the fledgling government of Plymouth ensues, followed by the convening of the first trial, with Plymouth's governor Thomas Prence presiding as judge. The jury: local settlers (white) whose allegiance seems more likely to be with the accused than with the murdered (a native) . . . Tobey Pearl, piecing together a fascinating narrative through original research and first-rate detective work, re-creates in detail the full and startling, pivotal moment in pre-revolutionary America, as she examines the evolution of our nascent civil liberties and the role of the jury as a safeguard against injustice"--

"A blistering expose of Clarence Thomas and the conservative regime of corruption that has usurped the Supreme Court -- by a Democratic activist and former Republican political operative. Public confidence in the Supreme Court has plummeted to new lows in the last few years -- and for good reason. In the past three decades, six conservative justices have gained a supermajority through questionable means: a dubious intervention in a presidential election, perjury during Senate testimony, and a GOP Senate Leader's unethical blockade of a Supreme Court nomination. Behind this strategic dismantling of our Supreme Court is a vast, well-funded political machine--backed by the extreme right-wing Federalist Society, the notoriously secretive Catholic organization Opus Dei, and GOP megadonors operating from behind closed doors. Armed with an insider's perspective from his time within the conservative movement, David Brock reveals how the efforts to stack the court in service of extreme right-wing interests stem from a decades-long strategy to weaponize our judicial system into an extension of the Republican party itself. Stench investigates the ethics scandals that surround Clarence Thomas and his wife, the rightwing activist Ginni Thomas, culling new material from Thomas' accusers, along with original reporting and Brock's first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the GOP. Stench is a staggering expose, one that only Brock could write--exhaustive in its research and revelatory in its access to the world of what has effectively become the Thomas Court"--

"This work identifies our two-party, comparatively non-representative form of democracy as the main culprit of why American politics are so dysfunctional-and shows us how to fix it"--

"Focusing on the intimate relations that develop between plants and humans in the northern rural region of El Salvador, this book explores the ways in which more-than-human intimacies travel away from and return to the milpa through human networks. The chapters present innovative methodological and conceptual contributions to the study of relationships that form between plants and people"--

A tested approach to DEI that creates lasting change.

Proponents of DEI face an enormous struggle over the next four years. The incoming Trump administration has signaled it will escalate the already virulent anti-DEI backlash in the workplace. Leaders who want to build just and inclusive organizations amid these challenging conditions can look to a framework developed eight years ago to help multinational corporations support LGBTQ+ inclusion in countries that are hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. Companies can follow: 1) the “When in Rome” model, in which they adhere to local norms and laws, even if that means diluting some of their DEI commitments; 2) the “Embassy” model, in which they adopt DEI policies internally but do not push for larger societal change; or 3) the “Advocate” model, in which they seek to shift local laws and social norms in a pro-DEI direction.

"An inside look at how police officers are trained to perpetuate state violence. Michael Brown. Philando Castile. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. As the names of those killed by the police became cemented into public memory, the American public took to the streets in unprecedented numbers to mourn, organize, and demand changes to the current system of policing. In response, police departments across the country committed themselves to change, pledging to hire more women and people of color, incorporate diversity training, and instruct officers to verbally de-escalate interactions with the public. These reform efforts tend to rely on a "bad apple" argument, focusing the nature and scope of the problem on the behavior of specific individuals and rarely considering the broader organizational process that determines who is allowed to patrol the public and how they learn to do their jobs. In Before the Badge, Samantha J. Simon provides a firsthand look into how police officers are selected and trained, describing every stage of the process, including recruitment, classroom instruction, and tactical training. Simon spent a year at police academies participating in the training alongside cadets, giving her a visceral, hands-on understanding of how police training operates. Using rich and detailed examples, she reveals that the process does more than test a cadet's physical or intellectual abilities. Instead, it socializes cadets into a system of state violence. As training progresses, cadets are expected to see themselves as warriors and to view Black and Latino/a members of the public as their enemies. Cadets who cannot or will not uphold this approach end up washing out. In Before the Badge, Simon explains how this training creates a context in which patterns of police violence persist and implores readers to re-envision the future of policing in the United States"--Provided by publisher.

"Imagine a world without bias. A world where all human beings can truly be just as they are and unleash their full potential. Take a moment to imagine how you feel in such a world--not what you think about it, or whether you believe it's possible, but how you feel. This is the proposition that opens Breaking Bias. It's your invitation to embark on a journey that will radically change your experience and show you how you, in turn, can help reshape our world."--Publisher's website.

"This book makes explicit the racial, ethnic, and gendered forms of environmental injustice that culminate from the collective, intersecting, and multi-scaler consequences of a seemingly anonymous authoritarian state willing to maintain white supremacy at any cost, including poisoning an entire city and shutting off water to thousands of people"--

"The first English-language collection of Latina/x caregiving testimonios, this volume gives voice to diverse Chicana/x Latina/x caregiving experiences. Bringing together thirteen first-person accounts of how Latinx people deal with serious health conditions as caregivers, these testimonies highlight tragic flaws in the healthcare system, how woefully undervalued caregiving is, and how as care-recipients and caregivers they have been harmed by the for-profit healthcare system"--

"Throughout my career, I have defended clients in numerous matters where I needed to litigate issues related to every possible variety of prosecutorial misconduct - false statements in search warrant affidavits, improper conduct before the grand jury, improper closing argument, etc. While I continue to believe that the overwhelming majority of prosecutors are professional and ethical, our recent history demonstrates that there are far too many individuals serving prison sentences due to unchecked prosecutorial misconduct. This book aims to arm criminal defense attorneys with the tools needed to fight back against the minority of prosecutors who choose to use their immense power in the wrong way"--

"If you're woke, you're left. If you're left, you're woke. We blur the terms, assuming that if you're one you must be the other. That, Susan Neiman argues, is a dangerous mistake. The intellectual roots and resources of wokeism conflict with ideas that have guided the left for more than 200 years: a commitment to universalism, a firm distinction between justice and power, and a belief in the possibility of progress. Without these ideas, Neiman argues, they will continue to undermine their own goals and drift, inexorably and unintentionally, towards the right. In the long run, they risk becoming what they despise. One of the world's leading philosophical voices, Neiman makes this case by tracing the malign influence of two titans of twentieth-century thought, Michel Foucault and Carl Schmitt, whose work undermined ideas of justice and progress and portrayed social life as an eternal struggle of us against them. A generation schooled with these voices in their heads, raised in a broader culture shaped by the ruthless ideas of neoliberalism and evolutionary psychology, has set about changing the world. It's time they thought again."--

When you look at a photograph, you are essentially looking through the eyes of the photographer as they point something out. Their sense of artistry and structure should be clear to see, but also their biases, and their power dynamic with their subjects. In southern California’s Riverside, Report for America corps member and CatchLight fellow

This was the primary takeaway from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) Part 1, which was released on December 15. The AHAR Part 1 compiles data from Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts conducted […]

"The futures of reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ liberation are intimately connected. Both movements were born out of the desire to love and build families of our choosing--when and how we decide. Both movements are rooted in broader social justice liberationist traditions that center the needs of Black and brown communities, the LGBTQIA+ community, gender-nonconforming folks, femmes, poor folks, parents, and all those who have been forced to the margins of society. Taking as its starting point the idea that we all have the human right to bodily autonomy, to sexual health and pleasure, and to exercise these rights with dignity, Queering Reproductive Justice sets out to re-envision the seemingly disparate strands of the reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ movements and offer an invitation to reimagine these movements as one integrated vision of freedom for the future. Candace Bond-Theriault asserts that for reproductive justice to be truly successful, we must acknowledge that members of the LGBTQIA+ community often face distinct, specific, and interlocking oppressions when it comes to these rights. Family formation, contraception needs, and appropriate support from healthcare services are still poorly understood aspects of the LGBTQIA+ experience, which often challenge mainstream notions of the nuclear family, and the primacy of blood-relatives. Blending advocacy with a legal, rights-based framework, Queering Reproductive Justice offers a unified path for attaining reproductive justice for LGBTQIA+ people. Drawing on U.S. law and legislative history, healthcare policy, human rights, and interviews with academics and activists, Bond-Theriault presents incisive new recommendations for queer reproductive justice theory, organizing, and advocacy. This book offers readers an invitation to join the conversation, and ultimately to join the movement to that is unapologetically queering reproductive justice"--

"In today's political climate, it's hard not to get discouraged. Isolated, doom scrolling, lacking a sense of purpose or community... it's easy to become overwhelmed by the dire state of American democracy and do nothing, because why try when the odds are never in our favor? At this fragile moment in history, Emily Amick, lawyer and former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, alongside New York Times bestselling author and Betches Media cofounder Sami Sage, want to reframe civic engagement as a form of self-care: an assertion of one's values and self-respect. This book is not just about voting, but about claiming your singular place in your country and community"--

COVID-19 was a global pandemic that altered many aspects of American life. From January 2020 to August 2024, over 1,100,000 Americans died from the disease. Quarantine measures, enacted to avoid the spread of COVID-19, altered the way Americans worked and lived. Many social activities—including school and faith-based gatherings—moved online. Even at this writing, COVID-19 continues to impact many Americans’ everyday experiences.

The health of the planet and its people are at risk. The deterioration of the global commons—ie, the natural systems that support life on Earth—is exacerbating energy, food, and water insecurity, and increasing the risk of disease, disaster, displacement, and conflict. In this Commission, we quantify safe and just Earth-system boundaries (ESBs) and assess minimum access to natural resources required for human dignity and to enable escape from poverty. Collectively, these describe a safe and just corridor that is essential to ensuring sustainable and resilient human and planetary health and thriving in the Anthropocene.

Federalism is rightly viewed as a bulwark of human rights. Yet rights advocates should be aware of its limitations in the protection of marginalized communities and democratic norms.

As Publishers Weekly reported this week, the Internet Archive, nonprofit home to a robust digital library, has lost its latest appeal in a case brought by publishers. A panel from New York’s …

"Medicine, Power, and the Law demonstrates that criminal and civil justice interact with medicine and public health more than is presently understood. The book focuses on the role of healthcare practitioners and an array of other professionals across industries in identifying wrongdoers, reporting behavior, and testifying on behalf of the state or government agencies. It also covers circumstances in which law enforcement relies on medicine for evidence or support in ways that compromise medical ethics. By reporting or testifying as experts, a range of people, from specialist pediatricians to flight attendants, can have a life-changing impact on individuals in the name of public health or medicine. People who work in hospitals, social work settings, and even airlines, often contribute to wrongful and aggressive criminal and civil actions against society's most vulnerable people, including parents, older adults, and people living with poverty. The book explores a number of examples, including police use of medicine as a restraint or the collection of blood as evidence and the risks of opting out of certain scientific discoveries, such as pharmaceuticals. It describes the harms that may come to those who engage in suboptimal but generally heretofore legal child-raising behaviors, and people opting to live independently as older adults. These can lead to civil and criminal charges when noticed by those in a position of power. Medicine, Power, and the Law is an important contribution for researchers and practitioners in medicine, the law, and the expanding field of bioethics."

"This book argues that hate speech is not protected. Based on an examination of Supreme Court case law and First Amendment theory, the book finds that hate speech lies outside the Supreme Court's hierarchy of speech protection because it advances no ideas of social value"--;"Hate speech has been a societal problem for many years and has seen a resurgence recently alongside political divisiveness and technologies that ease and accelerate the spread of messages. Methods to protect individuals and groups from hate speech have eluded lawmakers as the call for restrictions or bans on such speech are confronted by claims of First Amendment protection. Problematic speech, the argument goes, should be confronted by more speech rather than by restriction. Debate over the extent of First Amendment protection is based on two bodies of law--the practical, precedent determined by the Supreme Court, and the theoretical framework of First Amendment jurisprudence. In Hate Speech is Not Free: The Case Against Constitutional Protection, W. Wat Hopkins argues that the prevailing thought that hate is protected by both case law and theory is incorrect. Within the Supreme Court's established hierarchy of speech protection, hate speech falls to the lowest level, deserving no protection as it does not advance ideas containing social value. Ultimately, the Supreme Court's cases addressing protected and unprotected speech set forth a clear rationale for excommunicating hate speech from First Amendment protection." --

Toxic intent : environmental harm, corporate crime, and the criminal enforcement of federal environmental laws in the United States-book

"The story of a group of Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers fatally exposed to toxic chemicals, the lawyer who sought justice on their behalf, and the shameful lack of protection our society affords all workers. A gripping narrative in the tradition of A Civil Action and Toms River"--;"Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century--that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a small boat for the lake. But it was also the kind of job that exposed you to toxic chemicals and offered little to no protection from them, either in the way of protective gear or adequate ventilation. Eventually, it was a job that gave you bladder cancer. The Cancer Factory tells the story of the workers who experienced one of the nation's worst, and best-documented, outbreaks of work-related cancer, and the lawyer who has represented the bladder-cancer victims at the plant for more than 30 years. Goodyear, and its chemical supplier, DuPont, knew that two of the chemicals used in the plant had been shown to cause cancer, but made little effort to protect the plant's workers until the cluster of cancer cases--and deaths--was undeniable. In doing so it tells a broader story of corporate malfeasance and governmental neglect. Workers have only weak protections from exposure to toxic substances in America, and regulatory breaches contribute to an estimated 95,000 deaths from occupational illness each year. Based on 4 decades of reporting and delving deeply into the scientific literature about toxic substances and health risks, the arcana of worker regulations, and reality of loose enforcement, The Cancer Factory exposes the terrible health risks too many workers face"--