Black Fatigue

Black Fatigue

Author: Mary-Frances Winters

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1523091320

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This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people—and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects. Black people, young and old, are fatigued, says award-winning diversity and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even—and especially—well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled. This book, designed to illuminate the myriad dire consequences of “living while Black,” came at the urging of Winters's Black friends and colleagues. Winters describes how in every aspect of life—from economics to education, work, criminal justice, and, very importantly, health outcomes—for the most part, the trajectory for Black people is not improving. It is paradoxical that, with all the attention focused over the last fifty years on social justice and diversity and inclusion, little progress has been made in actualizing the vision of an equitable society. Black people are quite literally sickand tired of being sick and tired. Winters writes that “my hope for this book is that it will provide a comprehensive summary of the consequences of Black fatigue, and awaken activism in those who care about equity and justice—those who care that intergenerational fatigue is tearing at the very core of a whole race of people who are simply asking for what they deserve.”


Expectations of Equality

Expectations of Equality

Author: Albert S. Broussard

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 2012-02-21

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 9780882952840

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In this concise and engaging new volume, the latest in our growing Western History Series, Professor Broussard examines how African Americans over the course of nearly five centuries attempted to find their place in the states and territories west of the ninety-eighth meridian. Although black westerners, like white immigrants or native-born whites, defy easy characterization because they came to the West for a variety of reasons, blacks have shared certain commonalities with these groups. The majority of African Americans who settled in the West saw the region as a place where they could fashion a better life for themselves or their families. Some naively viewed the West as an oasis, a place free of racial or class restrictions. While many white immigrants, native-born whites, Hispanics, and Asians also saw the West as a place of opportunity, the experiences of African Americans differed profoundly from whites, people who never faced such a pervasive pattern of discrimination based solely on their race. In addition to covering central themes and important figures, Expectations of Equality tells the stories of every-day African American men and women, persons who lived in the West from the early 1500s until the turn of the twenty-first century. Many of them led ordinary lives that are difficult to reconstruct in detail–working, raising families, attending church, and educating their children. Yet some of them forged colorful careers as scouts and mountain men, Buffalo Soldiers, businesswomen, athletes, activists, and politicians, their stories helping to make Expectations of Equality the perfect choice as supplementary reading—not only for courses in the history of the U.S. West, but also for survey courses in United States and African American history.


Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Publisher: One World

Published: 2015-07-14

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0679645985

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.


How to Survive the Stress of Still Being Black in America: Recognizing Race-Based and Racism-Related Stress in 21st Century America and Strategies for

How to Survive the Stress of Still Being Black in America: Recognizing Race-Based and Racism-Related Stress in 21st Century America and Strategies for

Author: Joseph R. Gibson

Publisher: Kitabu Publishing

Published: 2021-03-20

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9780998064550

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Please go to KitabuPublishing.com for information on more of our exciting titles!Racism is not over. "This system of Whites as dominant and people of color as subordinated" that we all, as Americans, live in "has become so ingrained in our society that it is virtually invisible," explained Sheri Schmidt," but it certainly exists. Racism creates events and experiences that are uniquely negative, ambiguous, unpredictable, and uncontrollable for its victims. Hence, "racism is stressful." Moreover, to quote Nia Heard-Garris, "racism is a pervasive stressor." Racism is a normative experience for people in color in this country and, therefore, a pervasive stressor. Contemporary racism can be experienced as systemic, individual, institutional, cultural, unconscious, aversive, everyday, anticipated, perceived, internalized, or microevents, which radically increases the probability and regularity of experiencing it in some form as a stressor (i.e., causes racism-related stress). "Being Black in a racist society is stressful," noted Danielle Williams. Existing in a "social environment in which Black Americans bear the stigma burden of their racial group while White Americans are allowed to view themselves as individuals" is stressful, explained Margaret Hicken et al. Having to deal with, possibly to some degree on a daily basis, the negative assumptions and expectations now associated with being Black in America is stressful. Enduring "unequal life experiences and chances based on the socially constructed racial group membership categories" being "woven into our social structure and institutions" is stressful. Being Black in America makes us uniquely, highly, and constantly vulnerable to experiencing race-based stress. Race-based stress describes a particular response to personally relevant encounters, events, evaluations, expectations, and experiences most likely to be negative and/or negating (i.e., dangerous, difficult, dehumanizing, or disappointing) primarily, but oftentimes ambiguously, because we are Black in America. Our response typically lacks the resources and capacity to effectively deal with (i.e., reduce, minimize, stop, or tolerate) the negativity and/or negation caused by these race-based encounters, events, evaluations, or experiences, which makes it stressful.Conversely, racism-related stress is stress specifically triggered by experiencing some form of racism or racist behavior, inclusive of any act of racial discrimination, hostility, violence, exclusion, inequality, or injustice perceived or experienced as somehow threatening. "Racism embedded in American society and enacted by individuals, institutions, and systems can act as a chronic or life event stressor for Blacks," concluded Deidre Franklin-Jackson and Robert Carter.Chronic stress "over time, can cause damage that leads to premature death," noted Patricia Celan. Any type of stress causes the release of cortisol, a hormone designed to enable the brain to elevate blood sugar and pressure levels in order to enhance our ability to respond to danger. However, with chronic stress there is so much cortisol constantly being produced that it becomes toxic and creates a significantly higher risk of serious health issues including stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and cancer." Apparently, Steven Kniffley was terribly accurate in concluding that the "stress of being Black is literally killing us." However, it doesn't have to continue killing us. We could live healthier, longer if we had less of this stress in our lives. That's why practicing proactive stress-reducing interventions and evidence-informed coping strategies is so important, as opposed to simply maintaining a victim mentality in which we choose tolerating over preventing our own demise.


Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

Author: Touré

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1439177554

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How do we make sense of what it means to be Black in a world with room for both Michelle Obama and Precious? Tour , an iconic commentator and journalist, defines and demystifies modern Blackness with wit, authority, and irreverent humor. In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced than ever before. Americans are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness, partly inspired by a President who is unlike any Black man ever seen on our national stage. This book aims to destroy the notion that there is a correct or even definable way of being Black. It’s a discussion mixing the personal and the intellectual. It gives us intimate and painful stories of how race and racial expectations have shaped Tour ’s life as well as a look at how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, psychology, the Black visual arts world, Chappelle’s Show, and more. For research Tour has turned to some of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Malcolm Gladwell, Harold Ford, Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Chuck D, and many others. Their comments and disagreements with one another may come as a surprise to many readers. Of special interest is a personal racial memoir by the author in which he depicts defining moments in his life when he confronts the question of race head-on. In another chapter—sure to be controversial—he explains why he no longer uses the word “nigga.” Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? is a complex conversation on modern America that aims to change how we perceive race in ways that are as nuanced and spirited as the nation itself.


I'm Still Here

I'm Still Here

Author: Austin Channing Brown

Publisher: Convergent Books

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1524760854

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female that exposes how white America’s love affair with “diversity” so often falls short of its ideals. “Austin Channing Brown introduces herself as a master memoirist. This book will break open hearts and minds.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools and churches, Austin writes, “I had to learn what it means to love blackness,” a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America’s racial divide as a writer, speaker, and expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. In a time when nearly every institution (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claims to value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice. Her stories bear witness to the complexity of America’s social fabric—from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations. For readers who have engaged with America’s legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness—if we let it—can save us all.


Lean In

Lean In

Author: Sheryl Sandberg

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2013-03-11

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0385349955

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#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A landmark manifesto" (The New York Times) that's a revelatory, inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth that will empower women around the world to achieve their full potential. In her famed TED talk, Sheryl Sandberg described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which has been viewed more than eleven million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto. Lean In continues that conversation, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can. Sandberg, COO of Meta (previously called Facebook) from 2008-2022, provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career. She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment, and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women both in the workplace and at home.