Hello All:
Please look for a table in the cafeteria at Central for sign ups for several options for book clubs across the District on social justice related topics (see attached). In addition, I understand there are many of you interested in equity work in your buildings, but may feel like you are isolated and without resources or support.
Also, a series of QR Codes will be put up around Central also for you to access a google form to let me know if you are interested in meeting other district staff interested in Equity work, supporting each other, sharing resources and learning together.
I look forward to meeting many of you at WWEC.
Melissa Murray, Principal
Lincoln Middle/SOTA II/Coulee Montessori
Supervisor, Culture & Family Connections
School District of LaCrosse
* BOOK CLUB * AFRICAN AMERICAN
The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions) by W. E. B. Du Bois This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy advanced by Booker T. Washington, then the most influential black leader in America, would only serve to perpetuate black oppression. Publication of The Souls of Black Folk was a dramatic event that helped to polarize black leaders into two groups: the more conservative followers of Washington and the more radical supporters of aggressive protest. Its influence cannot be overstated. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy DeGruy, PhD From the beginning of American chattel slavery in 1619, until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psycho- logical and spiritual abuse. Given such history, Dr. Joy DeGruy asks, “Isn’t it likely that many slaves were severely traumatized? Furthermore, did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery?” The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action." Race Matters By Cornel West In this essay collection, many of which have previously appeared in journals, West, the director of AfroAmerican studies at Princeton & author of several books, addresses a number of issues of concern to black Americans: the LA riots after the Rodney King verdict; Malcolm X; Clarence Thomas & Anita Hill; & black street life. These topics are all timely yet timeless in that they represent the continuing struggle to include African Americans in mainstream American political, economic & social life without destroying their unique culture. The essays have the feel of a fine sermon, with thought-provoking ideas & new ways of looking at the same old problems. They can be quickly read yet take a long time to digest because of West's unique slant on life. Already well known in scholarly circles, he's increasingly becoming more visible to the general public. This book should make his essays more accessible to a greater number of people.
* BOOK CLUB * HMONG-ASIAN
Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos by Jane Hamiliton-Merritt Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Nobel-nominated scholar and photojournalist, has followed the plight of the Hmong and the war in Indochina since the 1960s. The staunchest of allies, the Hmong sided with the Americans against the North Vietnamese and were foot soldiers in the brutal secret war for Laos. Since the war, abandoned by their American allies, the Hmong have been subjected to a campaign of genocide by the North Vietnamese, including the use of chemical weapons. Tragic Mountains moves from the big picture of international diplomacy and power politics to the small villages and heroic engagements in the Lao jungle. It is a story of courage, brutality, heroism, betrayal, resilience, and hope. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest. The current edition, published for the book's fifteenth anniversary, includes a new afterword by the author that provides updates on the major characters along with reflections on how they have changed Fadiman's life and attitudes. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family’s captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. A People’s History of the Hmong by Paul Hillmer Over the centuries, the Hmong have called many places home, including China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and most recently France, Australia, and the United States. Their new neighbors, though welcoming, may know little about how they have come to these places or their views on relationships, religion, or art. Now, in A People's History of the Hmong, representative voices offer their community's story, spanning four thousand years to the present day. "This was the life of our Hmong people," remembers Pa Seng Thao, one of many who describe farming villages in the mountains of Laos. Others help us understand the Hmong experience during the Vietnam War, particularly when the U.S. military pulled out of Laos, abandoning thousands of Hmong allies. Readers learn firsthand of the hardships of refugee camps and the challenges of making a home in a foreign country, with a new language and customs. Drawing on more than two hundred interviews, historian Paul Hillmer assembles a compelling history in the words of the people who lived it.
* BOOK CLUB * NATIVE AMERICAN
All The Real Indians Died Off by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths. Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudice of European settlers and in the larger political agendas of a settler state aimed at acquiring Indigenous land and tied to narratives of erasure and disappearance. Accessibly written and revelatory, “All the Real Indians Died Off” challenges readers to rethink what they have been taught about Native Americans and history. Rez Life by David Treuer With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues like sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the convoluted waves of public policy that have deracinated, disenfranchised, and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension and conflict that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life. An Indigenous Peoples History of the U.S. by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar -Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Mountain Wolf Woman: A Ho-Chunk Girlhood by Diane Holliday With the seasons of the year as a backdrop, author Diane Holliday describes what life was like for a HoChunk girl who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Central to the story is the movement of Mountain Wolf Woman and her family in and around Wisconsin. Like many Ho-Chunk people in the mid-1800s, Mountain Wolf Woman's family was displaced to Nebraska by the U.S. government. They later returned to Wisconsin but continued to relocate throughout the state as the seasons changed to gather and hunt food. Based on her own autobiography as told to anthropologist Nancy Lurie, Mountain Wolf Woman's words are used throughout the book to capture her feelings and memories during childhood. Author Holliday draws young readers into this Badger Biographies series book by asking them to think about how the lives of their ancestors and how their lives today compare to the way Mountain Wolf Woman lived over a hundred years ago.
* BOOK CLUB * GENERAL
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald “Blindspot” is the authors’ metaphor for the portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. Writing with simplicity and verve, Banaji and Greenwald question the extent to which our perceptions of social groups—without our awareness or conscious control—shape our likes and dislikes and our judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential. In Blindspot, the authors reveal hidden biases based on their experience with the Implicit Association Test, a method that has revolutionized the way scientists learn about the human mind and that gives us a glimpse into what lies within the metaphoric blindspot. The title’s “good people” are those of us who strive to align our behavior with our intentions. The aim of Blindspot is to explain the science in plain enough language to help well-intentioned people achieve that alignment. By gaining awareness, we can adapt beliefs and behavior and “outsmart the machine” in our heads so we can be fairer to those around us. Venturing into this book is an invitation to understand our own minds. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in Classroom by Lisa Delpit In a radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award–winning author Lisa Delpit develops ideas about ways teachers can be better “cultural transmitters” in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers and “other people’s children” struggle with the imbalance of power and the dynamics plaguing our system. * BOOK CLUB RECOMMENDED READING AFRICAN AMERICAN The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions) by W. E. B. Du Bois Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy DeGruy, PhD The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Race Matters BY Cornel West HMONG-ASIAN Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos by Jane Hamiliton-Merritt The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang A People’s History of the Hmong by Paul Hillmer NATIVE AMERICAN All The Real Indians Died Off by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker Rez Life by David Treuer An Indigenous Peoples History of the U.S. by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Mountain Wolf Woman: A Ho-Chnk Girlhood by Diane Holliday GENERAL Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in Classroom by Lisa Delpit
