Intersectionality

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation. In these essays, the author takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the 2010s (Girls, Django Unchained) and commenting on the state of feminism (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. This book takes a look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and serves as a call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.

Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would decriminalize homeless encampments in public places and allow homeless people to sue for $1,000 if harassed or told to leave.

By Marcelo Rodríguez (Follow us on LinkedIn) On April 11th, 2023, an anti-abortion group decided to display swastikas, pictures of the Holocaust as well as the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides …

From ABC News (via YouTube): ABC News’ Jaclyn Lee reports on libraries being on the frontlines of the increasing homelessness crisis across the U.S. and how librarians are learning techniques to help.

An interview with Laura Moulton, founder of Street Books, a mobile library which serves Portland's houseless community. SSP annual meeting attendees are invited to bring paperback books to donate to Street Books.

This week, protests were held across the United States against right-wing efforts to ban books and antiracism education in schools. Fourteen protesters with Florida’s Dream Defenders were arrested Wednesday for staging a peaceful sit-in inside the office of Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis at the end of the state’s legislative session, in which he backed efforts to ban abortion after six weeks, deny gender-affirming care for youth, roll back rent control, censor discussions of LGBTQ issues and Black history in schools, and crack down on immigrants and unions in his political crusade against “wokeness.” We speak with one of the arrested protesters, Nailah Summers-Polite, co-director of Dream Defenders, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, the legal scholar well known for her work in the field of critical race theory, about the Freedom to Learn protests and the push to preserve the integrity of the AP African American studies course attacked by DeSantis and other far-right activists.

A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. “Sing Your Song”: Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Stardom to Help MLK & Civil Rights Movement; Harry Belafonte in His Own Words on Opposing Iraq War & Calling George W. Bush a “Terrorist”; “Get Down to Business”: Harry Belafonte in 2016 on Trump, Socialism & Fighting for Justice

Landlords moved to evict Valley renters more than 67,000 times in 2022.

Colorism is an insidious, globally prevalent bias that deeply impacts the lives and livelihoods of darker-skinned women. The term refers not only to the preference for lighter skin between different racial and ethnic communities, but also within those communities. Colorism is an enduring vestige of colonialism and white dominance around the globe and disproportionately harms women of color. Inclusive leaders must work to prevent women of color from experiencing colorism at work — and make sure they don’t leave. The author presents three ways to disrupt colorism in the workplace.

More than 70 million Americans with arrest records face barriers to find work or a decent place to live.

The president will also be urging governors to do the same for cases regarding state offenses of civil possession of marijuana.

Eco-friendly tiny houses offer safety, stability, and savings.

AALL Spectrum - AALL Spectrum / September/October 2022 / Volume 27, Number 1

Patients without any insurance will now start to see some of those free Covid testing options disappear as further Covid relief funding remains stalled in Congress.

"In the updated second edition of Whipping Girl, Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist, shares her powerful experiences and observations -- 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 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, and how this "feminine" weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire. In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about transsexuality, Serano makes the case that today's feminists and transgender activists must work to embrace and empower femininity -- in all of its wondrous forms."--provided by Amazon.com.

"A progressive takedown of the uber-capitalist status quo that has enriched millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the working class, and a blueprint for what transformational change would actually look like. It's OK to be angry about capitalism. Reflecting on our turbulent times, Senator Bernie Sanders takes on the billionaire class and speaks blunt truths about our country's failure to address the destructive nature of a system that is fueled by uncontrolled greed and rigidly committed to prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of ordinary Americans. Sanders argues that unfettered capitalism is to blame for an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality, is undermining our democracy, and is destroying our planet. How can we accept an economic order that allows three billionaires to control more wealth than the bottom half of our society? How can we accept a political system that allows the super rich to buy elections and politicians? How can we accept an energy system that rewards the fossil fuel corporations causing the climate crisis? Sanders believes that, in the face of these overwhelming challenges, the American people must ask tough questions about the systems that have failed us and demand fundamental economic and political change. This is where the path forward begins. It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism presents a vision that extends beyond the promises of past campaigns to reveal what would be possible if the political revolution took place, if we would finally recognize that economic rights are human rights, and if we would work to create a society that provides a decent standard of living for all. This isn't some utopian fantasy; this is democracy as we should know it."--

"This current and important book discusses the need for investment that directly addresses social, economic, and racial inequities. Written by practice leaders, this guide provides an understanding of the latest U.S. private and public investment strategies and offers legal tools and checklists created by lawyers and practitioners serving both investors and investees." --

"An intimate account of Bernie Sanders as we have never seen him before, finally revealing the man behind the enigmatic progressive icon. Bernie Sanders is one of the most influential figures of our time, a politician who inspires fervent love and, even among his enemies, a measure of grudging respect-yet we know comparatively little about this famously private left-wing firebrand. Now, Ari Rabin-Havt, a trusted Sanders aide, is able to take us where no press features or televised interviews have been able to go. The Fighting Soul is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of Sanders's meteoric 2020 campaign for president-from the first campaign meeting in Rabin-Havt's living room to Sanders's heart attack and the end of the campaign as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world-that deepens into an unforgettable portrait of Sanders: the history that drives his deep ideological commitments to the working class, his views of his young supporters, his sense of humor, which few outside his immediate circle ever witness, and the role his wife, Jane, plays in his success. In the tradition of What It Takes and other exuberant works of American political writing, The Fighting Soul shows the making of the rare politician motivated by principle, not power"--

From the denial of abortion rights in Ireland to sexual violence against British South Asian women in England, the state and its institutions continue to fail women. This book offers a counter-narrative to contemporary injustices and a persistent culture of victim-blaming. The academic and activist contributions to this collection explore contemporary research areas and pursue new discursive directions in order to present a feminist criminology, built on feminist praxis, for the 21st century. Providing a direct challenge to regressive and ineffective theory, policy and practice, this book resists the politics of gendered victimization through extending feminist analyses of the state and documenting interventions into contemporary injustices.

Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women’s rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger’s racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.

A collection of her speeches and writings which address the political and social changes of the past decade as they are concerned with the struggle for racial, sexual, and economic equality.

The text of a sermon given by Dr. William J. Barber II, on June 3, 2018, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., asking people to come together to renounce the politics of rejection, division, and greed.;It's time. In a single rousing sermon, Reverend William J. Barber II of the Poor People's Campaign makes an impassioned argument whose message could not be any clearer. It's time for change, and the time needs you. -- adapted from back cover

"From preeminent LGBTQ scholar, social critic, and journalist Steven W. Thrasher comes a powerful and crucial exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our times: how viruses expose the fault lines of society. Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone. Told through the heart-rending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings. In the tradition of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, The Viral Underclass helps us understand the world more deeply by showing the fraught relationship between privilege and survival"--

"Unapologetic is a 21st century guide to building a Black liberation movement through a Black queer feminist lens"--;"This twenty-first century activists' guide to upending mainstream ideas about race, class, and gender carves out a path to collective liberation through the Black radical tradition. Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing -- including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ rights and feminist movements -- Unapologetic calls on all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement more Black, more radical, more queer, and more feminist"--;Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Carruthers challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. She offers a flexible model of what deeply effective organizing can be, anchored in the Chicago model of activism, which features long-term commitment, cultural sensitivity, creative strategizing, and multiple cross-group alliances. -- adapted from jacket.

Too Heavy a Load celebrates this century's rich history of black women defending themselves, from Ida B. Wells to Anita Hill. Although most prominently a history of the century-long struggle against racism and male chauvinism, Deborah Gray White also movingly illuminates black women's painful struggle to hold their racial and gender identities intact while feeling the inexorable pull of the agendas of white women and black men. Finally, it tells the larger and lamentable story of how Americans began this century measuring racial progress by the status of black women but gradually came to focus on the status of black men-the masculinization of America's racial consciousness. Writing with the same magisterial eye for historical detail as in her best-selling Ar'n't I a Woman, Deborah Gray White has given us a moving and definitive history of struggle and freedom. "Splendid . . . a broad and sweeping history that becomes an intensely personal experience for the reader. . . . An inspiring showcase of scholarship and sistership."

A modern-day civil rights champion tells the stirring story of how he helped start a movement to bridge America's racial divide. Over the summer of 2013, the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II led more than a hundred thousand people at rallies across North Carolina to protest restrictions to voting access and an extreme makeover of state government. These protests-the largest state government-focused civil disobedience campaign in American history-came to be known as Moral Mondays and have since blossomed in states as diverse as Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New York. At a time when divide-and-conquer politics are exacerbating racial strife and economic inequality, Rev. Barber offers an impassioned, historically grounded argument that Moral Mondays are hard evidence of an embryonic Third Reconstruction in America. The first Reconstruction briefly flourished after Emancipation, and the second Reconstruction ushered in meaningful progress in the civil rights era. But both we re met by ferocious reactionary measures that severely curtailed, and in many cases rolled back, racial and economic progress. This Third Reconstruction is a profoundly moral awakening of justice-loving people united in a fusion coalition powerful enough to reclaim the possibility of democracy-even in the face of corporate-financed extremism. In this memoir of how Rev. Barber and allies as diverse as progressive Christians, union members, and immigration-rights activists came together to build a coalition, he offers a trenchant analysis of race-based inequality and a hopeful message for a nation grappling with persistent racial and economic injustice. Rev. Barber writes movingly-and pragmatically-about how he laid the groundwork for a state-by-state movement that unites black, white, and brown, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, gay and straight, documented and undocumented, religious and secular. Only such a diverse fusion movement, Rev. Barber argues, can heal our nation's wound s and produce public policy that is morally defensible, constitutionally consistent, and economically sane. The Third Reconstruction is both a blueprint for movement building and an inspiring call to action from the twenty-first century's most effective grassroots organizer.

"A prophetic memoir by the activist who "articulated the intellectual foundations" (The New Yorker) of the civil rights and women's rights movements. Poet, memoirist, labor organizer, and Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray helped transform the law of the land. Arrested in 1940 for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, Murray propelled that life-defining event into a Howard law degree and a fight against "Jane Crow" sexism. Her legal brilliance was pivotal to the overturning of Plessy v. Ferguson, the success of Brown v. Board of Education, and the Supreme Court's recognition that the equal protection clause applies to women; it also connected her with such progressive leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Betty Friedan, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Now Murray is finally getting long-deserved recognition: the first African American woman to receive a doctorate of law at Yale, her name graces one of the university's new colleges. Handsomely republished with a new introduction, Murray's remarkable memoir takes its rightful place among the great civil rights autobiographies of the twentieth century."--Provided by publisher.