More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Black legal scholars developed critical race theory in the 1970s and ’80s as a framework for examining how racism has shaped the U.S.
Critical race theory is taught in some law schools and advanced undergraduate programs, but not in K-12 schools. Even still, Fox News mentioned the phrase “critical race theory” nearly 1,300 times between February and May of 2021, claiming it was being taught in grade schools across the country. Policymakers in over half of U.S. states have introduced bills or took other steps to restrict teaching critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism in the classroom.
At a moment when the rights of women, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people are under assault, activist communities are coalescing in feminist bookstores.
Feminist bookstores are, in fact, not “dying”; they are alive and well, ready and waiting to provide their communities with emotional and intellectual shelter.
Since 2008, U.S. newspapers and media companies lost 60 percent of their newsroom jobs, diminishing our fourth estate’s ability to speak truth to power—”power” being in the U.S. another word for “money.”
In the early ’80s, Martha Albertson Fineman launched the Feminism and Legal Theory Project at University of Wisconsin Law School. For decades, the project has brought together scholars and activists from the U.S. and abroad to explore the most pressing contemporary legal issues affecting women. In multiple-day sessions, organized around specific, evolving sets of issues, feminists presented working papers and debated women’s legal rights.
Fineman recorded and preserved these groundbreaking conversations, as well as the working papers and other written material prepared for these sessions. But she is now struggling to find a home for this invaluable archive of the first generation of feminist legal thinkers.
The overturning of Roe has sparked an avalanche of new state abortion restrictions, beginning the process of gutting reproductive healthcare access across the country. But the current situation is not just the result of a conservative Supreme Court. At the heart of this problem are legislative bodies at the local and state levels of government that are not representative of the American people. Harmful legislation—whether abortion restrictions, voter suppression or efforts to ban curricula that are inclusive of all people—often originates at the local level.
Our best (and only) shot at fighting for our civil liberties and protecting people is electing leaders to public office at the community, city and state levels who are reflective of the constituents they set out to represent.
Thanks to a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the government may now tax you to support private religious schools. Many of these schools oppose LGBTQ rights, are virulently anti-abortion, and assail any religion that is not their own narrow expression of Christianity.
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor lamented that this “Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build.”
What does Juneteenth mean to me, to you, to us today? Long before corporate decisions to recognize Juneteenth, Black people in this country were joyfully and jubilantly celebrating this day in our own way.
As a feminist scholar, I marvel at Black women’s pivotal role in Juneteenth celebrations. It reminds me that Black women have always been architects of freedom.
Talk (and action) around what books kids and young people should be able to read and when has been on the rise the last couple of years. Attempts at banning books in schools and libraries are occurring at a furious rate.
Here’s a list of some of the most recent challenged and banned books by women, queer and trans writers and writers of color.
The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project concludes with the Harriet Tubman Syllabus—an exhaustive list of works about and inspired by Harriet Tubman, which confirms the wide-reaching impact of her legacy more than a hundred years after her passing on March 10, 1913.
I’ve spent the last few months scouring catalogs and websites, receiving hundreds of books and even more emails from authors, publicists and publishers, reading your book Tweets and DMs, all to find out what books are coming out in 2022 that I think you, my exceptional, inquisitive and discerning Ms. readers, will want to hear about.
There are 101 incredible books on this list. I’ve been a professional book jockey for 15+ years and I am encouraged to see more books each year that reflect the lives we actually lead. There’s always more work to be done and more to be written, but I’ve reason to be hopeful. So let’s get to it!
Especially at this moment in history, it is important to recognize, acknowledge and honor both the extraordinary and the so-called ordinary people who have changed the course of Black history and are making history today. We must then use this knowledge to fight efforts to suppress that history.
