Tag: Racial Justice

Defending Diverse Voices: Four Best-Selling Authors Talk Banned Books

The issue of book banning has resurfaced with renewed vigor. We must resist attempts to suppress books written by Black authors and diverse voices. Ms. spoke with Tiffany D. Jackson, Kimberly L. Jones, Jason Mott and Nicola Yoon—national award-winning authors—about the impact of book banning on both authors and society.

“Banning books will not make racial complexities and the world’s complexities disappear; instead, it erodes compassion and understanding.”

“Books nurture empathy in kids who are reading about people who don’t look like them. They build understanding.”

The First Tool to Name Obstetric Racism Might Finally Push Policymakers Into Action

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Awareness of the U.S. maternal health crisis has increased—but a parallel crisis of human rights violations against pregnant and postpartum people remains invisible or misunderstood. By convening two People’s Tribunals to End Obstetric Violence and Obstetric Racism before the end of the year, we aim to change that. The first will happen on Oct. 6 in New York City at the NYU Law School, and the second on Dec. 1 in Memphis, at BRIDGES USA. 

We cannot fix the maternal mortality problem without fixing the human rights problem at its core.

October 2023 Reads for the Rest of Us

Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

Many of this month’s list of recommended new books seem to align with the theme of liberation. I hope you’ll find something here that gets you thinking about liberation and, more importantly, inspires you to work towards liberation for all.  

New College of Florida Eliminates Gender Studies Program, Leaving Students in the Crossfire

Professor Viki Peer was hired in the fall of 2022 to teach a course for the New College of Florida’s gender studies program. Instead, what unfolded before her and the student body was a complete conservative takedown of the institution by the Board of Trustees.

“The spirit of critical thinking, compassion and creative resistance is still alive at New College among the faculty, students and staff who remain.”

‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom’: The Path to an Elite Education, in the Absence of Affirmative Action

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With a recent Supreme Court ruling gutting affirmative action, parents and students find themselves navigating a landscape where the rules have shifted with little notice.

A high-schooler about to apply for college, and his mom, join their voices: “Both of us feel whiplashed by the constant yo-yo between our identities and contributions. It is in these sudden changes that we stand together, searching for understanding. In our shared experiences of marginalization, two generations can transcend difference, because we both know what it means to be made invisible, and we each feel the well-intentioned pressure to get it right the first time because of insider information and academic achievements.”

Texas’ Voter Suppression Law Is on Trial

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Civil rights groups and voting organizations are in federal court challenging a Texas law that makes it harder to vote, especially for people of color and those with disabilities. Over the course of the trial, which goes until late October, counsel will show how Senate Bill 1 violates the Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

While SB 1 is one of many anti-democracy laws enacted by 19 states in the year after the 2020 election, it stands out for its sheer number of restrictive and discriminatory provisions, which largely target Latino and Black voters. This is likely the only challenge to such an extensive restrictive voting law that will go to trial between now and the 2024 election. 

New Hampshire Law Banning ‘Divisive Concepts’ in the Classroom Leaves Teachers Vulnerable and Students Unprepared

The new school year brings a fresh onslaught of conservative attacks on public education. As I prepare the syllabus for my “Teaching English for Middle and High School Teachers” course at the University of New Hampshire, a new court challenge to the HB 544 “Divisive Concepts” bill is underway. Passed in 2021, HB 544 prohibits the teaching of racism, sexism and any materials that claim “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

Intentionally vague rhetoric like “divisive concepts” masks the bill’s white supremacist logic. Students recognize how the bill co-opts language commonly used in calls for social justice to argue against diversity. It is the legislators that pass and the administrators that enforce these abhorrent bills that are most to blame.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Election Season Kicks Off in Earnest. Here’s to Building a Pipeline of Women Candidates!

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: an update on RepresentWomen’s work as we celebrate our fifth anniversary as an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization; spotlighting impactful female leadership and systems strategies like ranked-choice voting that elect more women to office; and more.

In the Summer of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Renaissance,’ Will All Women Finally Get the Recognition They Deserve?

Currently, three women—Barbie, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift—seem to be running the world, or at least the economy judging by record-shattering tour and box office revenues. But, as in the case of Beyoncé and other female artists of color, this success does not translate to deserved recognition from prestigious institutions.  

“The message young women absorb is that unless you are a one-in-a-generation talent like Lauryn Hill or Whitney Houston, female artists of color can kiss goodbye any hope of wide-scale recognition by the Recording Academy.”