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Equality Not A Reality? These National Winners Point The Way
On Human Rights Day, Unique National Award Names Books
that Boldly Battle Injustice
BOSTON (December 10, 2002) - In the only award of its kind, a tiny
but far-reaching national center for the study of bigotry and human
rights today (Dec. 10) named 10 new books as outstanding in helping
shed light on bigotry in America and helping carve paths towards social
justice.
The books, featuring a range of styles, stories, and topics, were named
winners of the 2002 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. The award
was made on Human Rights Day by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study
of Bigotry and Human Rights, a national organization which works to
promote ways for people to become more active in creating an equitable
world for all. The center, housed at Simmons College in Boston, was
founded in 1984.
The awards were made by an eclectic review panel from across America
representing a wide variety of ages, occupations, cultures and ethnic
groups. What the books have in common, says Myers Center Director Loretta
Williams, is that they all offer the readers a chance to step beyond
common assumptions and hesitancies and "connect in different ways
to dismantling bigotry."
"These aren't just any books," says Williams. "They
bring often-taboo topics to print. They provide a kaleidoscopic view
of what we humans have built in the past. They get people to thinking,
again and anew, that maybe some folk have good ideas about changing
intractable problems."
"Our winning authors write of resiliency in response to oppression,"
said panelist Anupama Taranath of Seattle, WA. "They are saying
things that were not said so boldly in the past. At the core, they all
have insights for those working for social change."
The books include three novels, two memoirs, and five different sociopolitical
analyses. Topics offer readers the chance to step beyond stereotypes
about homogeneity within racial or ethnic groups, reservations about
connecting religious beliefs to social policy, common assumptions about
"criminals" and welfare recipients, young readers' abilities
to handle the history and realities of bigotry, "whitewashed"
media coverage, and white affirmative action.
(For additional information on the authors and contents of the books,
or for contact information for the authors, contact the Myers
Center at 617-521-2171.)
The winners of the18th annual award are:
- Fire in Beulah, by Rilla Askew, (Viking 2001), which tells historically
accurate events in the form of fiction. Askew's riveting novel is
set within the context of the 1920s Oklahoma oil rush and the Tulsa
"race riots," showing the social and racial ramifications
of towns infused with newly rich money in an era of greed and staggering
racism.
- A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet, by Jimmy Santiago Baca,
(Grove Atlantic Press 2001). Disadvantages faced by poor persons of
color grow exponentially when they are incarcerated due to both the
nature of prison system and life, and an apathetic public that has
no desire to address issues of "bad" folk. Baca's book is
a page-turner of a memoir about growing up in New Mexico disenfranchised
due to a combination of factors, and about his learning to read and
write while incarcerated. Now a noted poet, Baca's story is one of
resiliency.
- Cultural Dilemmas in Progressive Politics: Styles of Engagement
Among Grassroots Activists, by Stephen Hart, (University of Chicago
Press 2001), examines how citizens might best engage persuasively
with social and political activism and change. Hart looks at the way
community and advocacy groups frame their messages, and sometimes
diminish their effectiveness by not being culturally robust.
- Witness, by Karen Hesse, (Scholastic Press 2001), is a young adult
novel centering on bigotry and mounting tensions in a small Vermont
town in the 1920s, conveying what drew some people to the Ku Klux
Klan in the turbulent years following World War I, and how others
with small but significant acts of courage broke the power of the
Klan.
- Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios, by Latina Feminist
Group (Duke University Press, 2001), deliberately weaves practice
and theory to make compelling narratives of 18 women forging their
lives' journeys, and their academic and political stances.
- Erased Faces, by Graciela Limón, (Arte Publico Press 2001).
The three main characters come together in the liberation struggles
of the Chiapas people from the abusive Mexican government. The author
weaves the portrayal of "big" societal issues of oppression
and resistance into the stories of her characters, yielding a compelling
portrait of a society in transition.
- Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, by Rubén
Martinez, (Metropolitan Books 2001). Martinez, associate editor at
Pacific News Service, spent four years living among one extended indigenous
family. The book follows a southwestern Mexican family, and the amalgam
of cultures, as various family members deal with conditions on a tomato
farm in Missouri, strawberry farms in California, and slaughterhouses
in Wisconsin.
- Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America's Poor, by
Kenneth J. Neubeck and Noel Cazenave, (Routledge 2001). This is a
powerful expose of a deeply-rooted form of racism that hits poor people
in general, not just those of color. The authors examine the federal
and state welfare reform in the 1990s that made finding the way out
of poverty the "personal responsibility" of mothers. They
show how racist stereotypes about welfare recipients resulted in escalating
antipathy toward public assistance. Practical recommendations for
action are offered.
- A History of Affirmative Action 1619-2000, by Philip F. Rubio, (University
of Mississippi Press 2001), paints a comprehensive historical backdrop
for looking at how white privilege dominates the casting of the U.S.
as a nation and society. The impetus for this historical review is
Rubio's curiosity about the emotional intensity generated--particularly
by white workers, but also some of color--by the modest 20th century
policy of affirmative action as a compensatory measure to help correct
racial inequities.
- Policing the Poor: From Slave Plantation to Public Housing, by
Neil Websdale, (Northeastern University Press 2001), Community policing
is touted as one step forward in making urban communities more habitable,
but Websdale vehemently disagrees. He provides data and analysis from
his ethnographic study of a Nashville, TN, public housing development.
He talked with both the police and the "policed," to conclude
that community policing is a contemporary parallel to slave patrols
before the Civil War, and the segregated patterns of punitive control
under Jim Crow.
The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights was
founded in honor of Gustavus Myers, the pioneering historian who authored
"History of Bigotry in the United States." It encourages a range
of scholarly and advocacy publications, and offers anti-oppression training
and consultation services. The center has outposts in Washington state,
California, Arizona, Missouri, Massachusetts, and other states.
Co-sponsors of the book awards are B'Nai Brith International, American
Friends Service Committee, Center for Democratic Renewal, Fellowship
of reconciliation, National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, National Conference for Community and Justice; National Urban
League, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays),
Political Research Associates, Poverty & Race Research Action Council,
Unitarian Universalist Association, United Church of Christ, and individual
and institutional donors.
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