Uprooting Racism: How
White People Can Work for Racial Justice (Second Edition, 2002)
by Paul Kivel
 Originally published in 1995, the second edition (2002) of
Paul Kivel's Uprooting Racism continues to be an accessible, must-have book
for anyone working to eradicate racial injustice. Kivel is a white man, writing
to other white men and women. He mixes easy to understand explanations with
practical suggestions and humor to successfully push his readers to look beyond
individual acts of prejudice to the wider scope of institutional racism and the
inequitable allocation of power and resources. As he writes, "White racism is
the uneven and unfair distribution of power, privilege, land and material goods
favoring white people...although we can and should all become more tolerant and
understanding of each other, only justice can put out the fire of racism."
With provocative chapter titles such as "I'm Not White" and
"I'm Not A Racist," Kivel engages his readers and acknowledges the social
context that makes people shy away from identifying as "white." He validates that for many of his readers, there
is a strong desire to individualize their identities and distance themselves
from the associations that come with that label. He goes on to illuminate how
the tendency to focus solely on personal prejudice can impede efforts to
dismantle racism in the greater context: the "institutional nature of
[centuries of white racism] is more entrenched than racial prejudice. In fact,
it is barely touched by changes in individual white consciousness."
While shifts in individual white consciousness are necessary for
racial justice, Kivel also provides strategies and suggestions to take the next
steps towards combating institutional racism. He explores initiatives such as
Affirmative Action, redistribution of economic resources, investment in communities
of color, and supporting democratic, anti-racist multiculturalism. The revised
edition includes an updated bibliography and the more current topics of
anti-Arab prejudice and how the U.S.'s health care system perpetuates racial
inequalities - an especially timely issue.
This book is an engaging guide to identifying the social,
political, and economic context in which institutional racism is grounded. If
you're interested in learning more, please visit Nanci's blog to read her reflections about this book. We hope you'll add your voice to
the discussion!
Unbearable Weight:
Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Tenth Anniversary Edition, 2003)
By Susan Bordo
 This timeless collection of essays chronicles how media
imagery fundamentally alters our perceptions, giving rise to the disordered
eating behaviors and obsessions with idealized beauty that can plague women of
all ages. Susan Bordo, professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Kentucky first published Unbearable
Weight in 1993. Recently re-released with an updated introduction, Unbearable
Weight is more salient than ever given the preponderance of computer generated
images that grace today's magazine covers and online advertisements. These
images leave viewers - especially female viewers - comparing themselves to
idealized bodies that don't (and can't) exist in reality.
Bordo's thesis that disordered eating is "culturally
normative," rather than merely rooted in individual and family pathology, is
often dismissed by practitioners and theorists who subscribe to the medical
model. These essays solidify her argument that this model doesn't account for
how "powerful, ubiquitous, and invasive the demands of culture are on our
bodies and souls." When Unbearable Weight was first published, it was generally
believed that disordered eating was restricted to the realm of white women from
economic privilege. Time, the prevalence of accessibility to images from
western culture, and the dominance of idealized standards of body shape and
size from the economic North have disproven this theory. As Bordo writes in the
revised introduction, "body insecurity can be exported, imported, and marketed
across the globe. Just like any profitable commodity."
In this new edition, Bordo invites readers to view her
essays through the lens of today's perspective. She recognizes that there is a
wide generational divide when it comes
to disordered eating and idealized images of women - a divide that is often
greater than the one between cultures. Chapters such as "Reading the Slender
Body" and "Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture"
give readers new ways to assess how culture and messages from without are
integral to shaping how we see ourselves from within.
We invite you to revisit this relevant book as a vital step
to becoming better informed.The wisdom and insights contained in these pages
will help every female and male to develop heightened awareness and the skills
to resist the barrage of advertising imagery that seeks to reproduce body
insecurity.
Join LJS in Chicago!
International
Association of Facilitators North America
2 Day
Pre-Conference Training
April
20-21, 2010
"Transformational
Alliances: Building Authentic Cross-Cultural Collaborative Relationships"
Facilitated
by Nanci Luna Jiménez, CPF©; and Shoshanna Cogan
Conference
Workshop Session
April
24, 2010
"The
Invisible Participant: Identifying the Impacts of Institutional Power and
Developing an Inclusive Practice"
Facilitated
by Nanci Luna Jiménez, CPF©
International
Association of Facilitators North American Conference
Visit http://www.iafna2010.com for more
information and registration.
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