ulian Steward Award 2006 Runner-Up In this highly readable account . . . Checker has written a fine book. Assigned to students interested in urbanism, science and technology studies, race relations in the United States, environment, or social movements, the book is sure to spark thoughtful conversation. -American Anthropologist Melissa Checker's absorbing story is a portrait of America. Polluted Promises showcases the complex links between toxic waste and race, and the hope-filled journeys of environmental activists who are wise, strong, and spiritual in their fight against toxic waste--and for their lives. Checker is doing public anthropology for social justice. -Carol Stack, author of All Our Kin I hope that (this book) doesn't get pidgeonholed as a dry, academic treatise, because it is anything but that. It is a wonderfully written account of the struggles by the residents of Hyde Park, a neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia, to undo decades of...environmental racism. -In Brief A very rich, organized, and theoretically interesting ethnographic case study of environmental activism. Checker beautifully recounts how the issues of race emerged and were manipulated in social organizing against environmental poisoning. -George E. Marcus, author of Ethnography through Thick and Thin Polluted Promises is a substantial accomplishment. It grounds the notion of environmental justice wonderfully in practical terms, in the theoretically sophisticated and empathetic examination of Hyde Park. -Adolph Reed, Jr., author of Class Notes: Posing As Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene A sweeping and brilliant account of a struggle for environmental justice. With clarity and honesty, Checker adroitly exploits the interconnection of race, environment, and civil rights. This is an authoritative and courageous book that should be essential reading for everyone interested in environmental justice. -Bunyan Bryant, editor of Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies, and Solutions Over the past two decades, environmental racism has become the rallying cry for many communities as they discover the contaminations of toxic chemicals and industrial waste in their own backyards. Living next door to factories and industrial sites for years, the people in these communities often have record health problems and debilitating medical conditions. Melissa Checker tells the story of one such neighborhood, Hyde Park, in Augusta, Georgia, and the tenacious activism of its two hundred African American families. This community, at one time surrounded by nine polluting industries, is struggling to make their voices heard and their community safe again. Polluted Promises shows that even in the post-civil rights era, race and class are still key factors in determining the politics of pollution. Melissa Checker teaches in the Department of Urban Studies, Queens College/CUNY. She is co-editor of Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power, and Public Life. She is donating all of her proceeds from this book to the Hyde and Aragon Park Improvement Committee.

African American writers have created a rich literature that reflects their experiences and achievements. In many instances, whites figure prominently in these works, frequently portrayed as oppressors. Through a careful examination of works by black writers, Davis constructs a typology of white images in the African American imagination. The book argues that these images repeatedly occur in works by black writers. Some of these stereotypes include the overt bigot, the hypocrite, the liberal, and the good-hearted weakling.

While black writers are often explicit in representing the racism of the overt bigot, Davis notes that African American literary works are much more complex in their exposition of the hidden forms of bigotry manifested by covert white racists. The volume suggests that black authors believe that racism is not merely a form of thought or behavior, but a manifestation of identity. While Davis gives detailed attention to the works of Charles Chesnutt, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright, she also looks at several other black writers and examines discussions of whites in contemporary critiques of race by such authors as Derrick Bell and Ellis Cose.

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This title uses oral history methodology to record stories of people who experienced the brunt of racist forced removals in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. Through life stories and community case studies, it traces the human impact of this disruptive, often violent feature of apartheid's social engineering.

Former slaves, with no prior experience in electoral politics and with few economic resources or little significant social standing, created a sweeping political movement that transformed the South after the Civil War. Within a few short years after emancipation, not only were black men voting but they had elected thousands of ex-slaves to political offices. Historians have long noted the role of African American slaves in the fight for their emancipation and their many efforts to secure their freedom and citizenship, yet they have given surprisingly little attention to the system of governance that freedpeople helped to fashion. Justin Behrend argues that freed-people created a new democracy in the Reconstruction era, replacing the oligarchic rule of slaveholders and Confederates with a grassroots democracy.
"Reconstructing Democracy" tells this story through the experiences of ordinary people who lived in the Natchez District, a region of the Deep South where black political mobilization was very successful. Behrend shows how freedpeople set up a political system rooted in egalitarian values wherein local communities rather than powerful individuals held power and ordinary people exercised unprecedented influence in governance. In so doing, he invites us to reconsider not only our understanding of Reconstruction but also the nature and origins of democracy more broadly.

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"This collection of essays could not be timelier...scholars pondering the implications of recent immigration for ethnic and racial politics would do well to look at this collection of essays."--"American Political Science Review"

America is currently in the midst of a major racial and ethnic demographic shift. By the twenty-first century, the population of Hispanics and Asians will increase significantly, while the black population is expected to remain relatively stable. Non-Hispanic Whites will decrease to just over half of the nation's population. How will the changing ethnic and racial composition of American society affect the long struggle for black political power and inclusion? To what extent will these racial and ethnic shifts affect the already tenuous nature of racial politics in American society?

Using the literature on black politics as an analytical springboard, Black and Multiracial Politics in America brings together a broad demography of scholars from various racial and ethnic groups to assess how urban political institutions, political coalitions, group identity, media portrayal of minorities, racial consciousness, support for affirmative action policy, political behavior, partisanship, and other crucial issues are impacted by America's multiracial landscape.

Contributors include Dianne Pinderhughes, M. Margaret Conway, Pei-te Lein, Susan Howell, Mack Jones, Brigitte L. Nacos, Natasha Hritzuk, Marion Orr, Michael Jones-Correa, A.B. Assensoh, Joseph McCormick, Sekou Franklin, Jose Cruz, Erroll Henderson, Mamie Locke, Reuel Rogers, James Endersby, Charles Menifield and Lawrence J. Hanks.

Christopher Freeburg's Black Aesthetics and the Interior Life offers a crucial new reading of a neglected aspect of African American literature and art across the long twentieth century. Rejecting the idea that the most dehumanizing of black experiences, such as lynching or other racial violence, have completely robbed victims of their personhood, Freeburg rethinks what it means to be a person in the works of black artists. This book advances the idea that individual persons always retain the ability to withhold, express, or change their ideas, and this concept has profound implications for long-held assumptions about the relationship between black interior life and black collective political interests. Examining an array of seminal black texts-from Ida B. Wells's antilynching pamphlets to works by Richard Wright, Nina Simone, and Toni Morrison-Freeburg demonstrates that the personhood represented by these writers unsettles rather than automatically strengthens black subjects' relationships to political movements such as racial uplift, civil rights, and black nationalism. He shows how black artists illuminate the challenges of racial collectivity while stressing the vital stakes of individual personhood. In his challenge to current African Americanist criticism, Freeburg makes a striking contribution to our understanding of African American literature and culture.

Join Alphonso Brown, owner and operator of Gullah Tours, Inc., on three accessible walking tours and a bonus driving tour through the places, history and lore relevant to the rich and varied contributions of black Charlestonians.

Visit Denmark Vesey's home, Catfish Row, the Old Slave Mart and the Market; learn about the sweetgrass basket makers, the Aiken-Rhett House slave quarters, black slave owners and blacksmith Philip Simmons. Brown's distinctive narration, combined with detailed maps and vibrant descriptions in native Gullah, make this a unique and enjoyable way to experience the Holy City.

The Martiniquean-born, French-educated, Algerian revolutionary Frantz Fanon has influenced generations of activists and scholars. Nearly fifty years after his untimely death (in 1961), Fanon's life's work continues to be debated and discussed around the world. Over the past five years, for example, new translations and editions of his writings have appeared in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This book is an event: an international, interdisciplinary collection of debates and interventions by leading scholars and intellectuals from Africa, Europe, and the United States. The perspectives are theoretical and practical, philosophical and historical, engaging psychoanalytic theories and practices, issues of identity and sexuality to contemporary postcolonial politics and from cultural criticism to urban planning and conceptions of space.

This work lucidates bell hooks' social and educational theory, with emphasis on her 1994 book, "Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom." Florence deals with the issues of marginality and cultural alienation that are so prevalent among certain groups within the American society and presents strategies to help develop critical consciousness and affirmation of formerly subordinated cultural traits and characteristics. Her study resonates with current themes raised by critical, feminist and multicultural scholars showing how marginalized groups may be guilty of reinforcing their own status through complicity with the dominant culture's world view, and how education can empower them to demand a more egalitarian society and one that recognizes cultural plurality.

The growing number of elder men providing hands-on care to loved ones, particularly spouses, undeniably represents a hidden segment of the home care population. With that in consideration, caregiving in communities of color, in particular, is increasing while numbers of informal (unpaid) caregivers are projected to triple by 2030. Despite statistics, studies on African-American men who care for other elders (such as spouses and parents) - indeed, "the hidden among the hidden" - are negligible. This text follows a study conducted by Helen Black, a research scientist focusing on aging, alongside John Groce and Charles Harmon, founders of Mature Africans Learning from Each Other (M.A.L.E.), in which they interviewed elderly African-American men in caregiver roles. As a whole, The Hidden Among the Hidden is unique in its study of caregiving in the areas of subject matter, methodology, and presentation of findings. The men whose attitudes and behaviors toward caregiving are recorded in this book share a wealth of knowledge for other caregivers, gerontologists, healthcare professionals, students, and the community in general.

"Toni Morrison's Beloved as African-American Scripture & Other Articles on History and Canon" is a very important academic book exploring the question of historicity and canonicity -- the relationship (in causality and relational terms) between the experience of human community and the creation (or the interpretation) of a religious text (and the canonization of a religious "text"). This book contains a collection of academic articles ranging from African-American history, Jewish history, early Christian history, the New Testament, Patristic history, medieval history, and the history of the Reformation. This academic work is a bold quest to capture the essence of history and canon as phenomenalized in the human experience. Scholars and students of history, religion, literary criticism, sociology, anthropology, humanities, and theology will surely benefit from reading this book. Although this book is highly academic, it is written in a very readable style so that educated individuals who may not be specialists will benefit from the articles in the book.

This book analyzes the cosmopolitan lives of British Asian Muslim women. Drawing on interview and online data, the book debunks stereotypical assumptions and explores the multiple and meaningful links that British Asian Muslim women establish within and outside their communities.

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"An important collection of the leading scholars in Womanist religion, ethics and theology. A must read!"
--James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary

"A stunningly original work that carries 'womanist' and 'womanism' to a new level of thinking. . . . It not only provides multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the womanist idea but charts path-breaking directions for religious thought, ethics, and cultural analysis." --Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, author of "If It Wasn't for the Women: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community"

Womanist approaches to the study of religion and society have contributed much to our understanding of Black religious life, activism, and women's liberation. Deeper Shades of Purple explores the achievements of this movement over the past two decades and evaluates some of the leading voices and different perspectives within this burgeoning field.

Deeper Shades of Purple brings together a who's who of scholars in the study of Black women and religion who view their scholarship through a womanist critical lens. The contributors revisit Alice Walker's definition of womanism for its viability for the approaches to discourses in religion of Black women scholars. Whereas Walker has defined what it means to be womanist, these contributors define what it means to practice womanism, and illuminate how womanism has been used as a vantage point for the theoretical orientations and methodological approaches of Black women scholar-activists.

Contributors: Karen Baker-Fletcher, Katie G. Cannon, M. Shawn Copeland, Kelly Brown Douglas, Carol B. Duncan, Stacey M.Floyd-Thomas, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, Melanie L. Harris, Diana L. Hayes, Dwight N. Hopkins, Ada MarA-a Isasi-DA-az, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Kwok Pui-Lan, Daisy L. Machado, Debra Majeed, Anthony B. Pinn, Rosetta Ross, Letty M. Russell, Shani Settles, Dianne M. Stewart, Raedorah Stewart-Dodd, Emilie M. Townes, Traci C. West, and Nancy Lynne Westfield.

Suicide among African Americans occurs at about half the rate with which it occurs among white Americans. Why is the black rate of suicide so much lower, particularly when one considers the effects of racism and other socio-economic factors on African Americans? One answer that has been offered is that churches within the African-American community have a greater influence than among white Americans and that they provide amelioration of social forces that would otherwise lead to suicide. To date no other book has provided an in-depth ethnographic study of the buffering effect of the black church against suicide. Findings from Early's study indicate that there is a consensus within the black community in terms of its attitudes and beliefs toward suicide. Early concludes that suicide is alien to underlying African-American belief systems and a complete denial of what it means to be black. This important study will be invaluable to sociologists and others studying contemporary race relations and social problems.