We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks My rating: 5 of 5 stars Hooks explains why she felt the need to write this book, rather than leaving it to Black men to speak for themselves on the topic: Many of the individual black men working in the field of ending male violence… Continue reading bell hooks on black men and masculinity
Quicksand by Nella Larsen My rating: 5 of 5 stars Helga Crane seems awkward and capricious, as introverts (like me) often do, at odds with a world better shaped to the needs of extroverts. But Helga’s struggle to find a place for herself, she feels, is caused by her heritage, visible and invisible. Biracial, black,… Continue reading Sinking Feelings
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur My rating: 5 of 5 stars Assata Shakur’s conviction in a joke of a trial for a murder she clearly did not commit has not been reversed. She escaped from prison and she lives in Cuba, still a fugitive. The story of how the hell this outrage came about… Continue reading She Who Struggles
No Place to Call Home: Gypsies, Travellers, and the Road Beyond Dale Farm by Katharine Quarmby My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quarmby discusses the history of GRT* persecution drawing heavily on the work of Romani academic Ian Hancock and other historians. British legal history includes waves of hostility towards ‘vagrants’ and ‘itinerants’ and Gypsies… Continue reading A really important book
The Granta Book of the African Short Story by Helon Habila My rating: 4 of 5 stars Helon Habila has done a damn fine job of selecting a diverse and striking stories for this in my opinion, but he has made one editorial decision that didn’t suit me: putting the pieces in reverse chronological order.… Continue reading Short Strong Stalks
Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin My rating: 5 of 5 stars These days everyone’s worried about the economy! The economy is the biggest issue for voters! Won’t somebody puh-leeeeeese think of the economy? I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember anyone… Continue reading Here’s something you didn’t learn in school…
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai My rating: 5 of 5 stars To all the girls who have faced injustice and been silenced. Together we will be heard. Some months ago Media Diversified’s editors described Malala Yousafzai as the bravest girl in… Continue reading Madrigal
Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diaspora by Deborah Gabriel My rating: 5 of 5 stars To trace the history of anti-blackness, Gabriel looks at some Biblical roots, the so-called curse of Ham. Chattel slavery in Africa predated the arrival of Europeans, with Arabs keeping African slaves (meanwhile Europeans such as the Greeks had… Continue reading in the shade
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte My rating: 5 of 5 stars When I started secondary school I was mildly apprehensive about ‘physics’, an unfamiliar word that elicited an actual shudder from my mother. Fortunately, my elderly teacher had an infectious affection for his subject. I remember that he noticed me… Continue reading SHOW ME THE DATA
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire My rating: 4 of 5 stars Perhaps I have been reading in the wrong order. I’m very familiar with the idea of dialogic pedagogy, mainly from my PGCE and reading Radical Education and the Common School, which is about liberatory education for children and young people as well… Continue reading Unlearning diagonal violence & other thoughts
(I am because you are) 