Hello Campus Community -
Due to the campus closure and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on the members of our community, Community Reads will be offering our spring programming online, with options for asynchronous discussion and a synchronous event.
We are thrilled to announce that we were able to host an online student panel as a synchronous event this quarter. Several students involved in activism on campus joined us for a virtual panel event on Thursday, May 28 to discuss their inspiration and their work. Though the event is over, a recording will still be available for a limited time. Please see our "Online Event" section for details.
We are also continuing our work with Angela Davis's book Freedom is a Constant Struggle (available as an e-book through the library catalog). This quarter, we invite you to read Chapter 3, "We Have To Talk About Systemic Change." Book discussion and reflection will be held in an online, asynchronous format through Canvas. We have organized content, resources, and discussion questions from this quarter's chapter focus into a course that faculty, staff, and students can use as needed. Online discussions will be open to all with a UW NetID (for Cascadia community members who do not have a NetID, please visit the CC Computing Services NetID website to get started). Please visit the Canvas page for more information if you are interested in participating in discussions, watching some video clips, or submitting to our Community Reads zine.
Chapter 3 summary: In this chapter, Angela Davis and Frank Barat discuss systemic racism, the idea that racism is built into the systems and institutions of today’s society. Davis argues that though we often attempt to portray acts of racism and injustice as individual acts with a single perpetrator, the entire apparatus is built on an unjust system – and racism cannot be eradicated until we change that system. She provides some examples of concrete changes that could be made to that system – and examples of mass movements that have made noticeable changes. Finally, she moves into discussing the future of activism and organizing, arguing that intersectionality and community are some of the key factors that will determine the way activist movements function going forward.
We have chosen to highlight the ideas of systemic injustice and structural change, with a particular focus on activism and especially student activism. We invite you to view the UW Bothell Student Diversity Center Digital Archives for examples of work done by activists on our campus - and please watch the panel event to learn about some of the work being done right in our community now.
We look forward to your participation this quarter in whatever capacity you can, whether that's engaging in discussion with us on Canvas or attending our panel event. In the meantime, we're thinking about you all and hoping you're staying healthy and safe.
- The Community Reads Team
Thank you to the UW Race and Equity Initiative & UWB VCAA for providing funding for previous books.
View the e-book. Or, order online when you can!
Active Hope by
The challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, the depletion of oil, economic upheaval, and mass extinction together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face this crisis so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power. Drawing on decades of teaching an empowerment approach known as the Work That Reconnects, the authors guide us through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we're in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
Hands up, Don't Shoot by
Understanding the explosive protests over police killings and the legacy of racism Following the high-profile deaths of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, both cities erupted in protest over the unjustified homicides of unarmed black males at the hands of police officers. These local tragedies--and the protests surrounding them--assumed national significance, igniting fierce debate about the fairness and efficacy of the American criminal justice system. Yet, outside the gaze of mainstream attention, how do local residents and protestors in Ferguson and Baltimore understand their own experiences with race, place, and policing? In Hands Up, Don't Shoot, Jennifer Cobbina draws on in-depth interviews with nearly two hundred residents of Ferguson and Baltimore, conducted within two months of the deaths of Brown and Gray. She examines how protestors in both cities understood their experiences with the police, how those experiences influenced their perceptions of policing, what galvanized Black Lives Matter as a social movement, and how policing tactics during demonstrations influenced subsequent mobilization decisions among protesters. Ultimately, she humanizes people's deep and abiding anger, underscoring how a movement emerged to denounce both racial biases by police and the broader economic and social system that has stacked the deck against young black civilians. Hands Up, Don't Shoot is a remarkably current, on-the-ground assessment of the powerful, protestor-driven movement around race, justice, and policing in America.
The New Jim Crow (e-copy) by
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." Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the Daily Kos, "explosive" by Kirkus, and "profoundly necessary" by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.
Concrete Mama by
Journalists John McCoy and Ethan Hoffman spent four months inside the walls of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla in 1978, just as Washington, once a leader in prison reform, abandoned its focus on reform and rehabilitation and returned to cell time and punishment. It was a brutal transition. McCoy and Hoffman roamed the maximum-security compound almost at will, observing and befriending prisoners and guards. The result is a striking depiction of a community in which there was little to do, much to fear, and a culture that both mimicked and scorned the outside world. McCoy's unadorned prose and Hoffman's stunning black-and-white photographs offer as authentic a portrayal of life in the Big House as ?outsiders? are ever likely to experience. Originally published in 1981, Concrete Mama revealed a previously unseen stark and complex world of life on the inside, for which it won the Washington State Book Award. Long unavailable yet still relevant, it is revitalized in a second edition with an introduction by scholar Dan Berger that provides historical context for the book's ongoing resonance, along with several previously unpublished photographs.
Contact members of the team via email with questions, comments, or concerns:
Community Reads was proud to present an online student panel for our spring event! In honor of the quarter's theme of activism and change-making, we assembled a panel of students engaged in activist work on campus to talk about their experiences.
Visit our Student Activism Event module of our Canvas course to learn more including info about our collaborators and a space for reflection and discussion of the event.
Event Details:
Time: Thursday, May 28 from 2:00-3:00 PM
Event Access: Zoom Link
NOTE: This event will be restricted only to those with a UW NetID. If you are from Cascadia and do not yet have your NetID, please visit the CC Computing Services NetID website to get started.
If you are from Cascadia and asked to login with an email address, use the following format: netid@uw.edu
We understand that the current public health crisis has inspired a great deal of fear, uncertainty, and instability - in all of us, but especially in the most vulnerable populations among us. To that end, we are compiling a list of current resources highlighting the systemic inequalities that COVID-19 is revealing or worsening, to increase our awareness of what members of our community may be going through. In the spirit of this quarter's focus on activism, we will also add a list of organizations working to support these vulnerable communities, or actions that we can take to aid them. This list will be a living document, expanding as we find new information or new movements begin to surface. If you have suggestions for articles or resources we should add, please email any or all of us.
COVID-19: impacts on marginalized communities
We have also created a module in our Canvas course highlighting this resource list and discussion questions surrounding impacts of and community responses to COVID-19. If you are able, we welcome you to engage in discussion with us there.
Thank you for your patience as we work to adapt our program to this changing situation, and stay safe.
Freedom is a Constant Struggle, by Angela Davis
Chapter 3: We Have to Talk About Systemic Change (Davis interview 2014)
eBook: Chapter 3 can be accessed through the library's eBook copy. Unlimited user access.
e-Audio: Click "Play Now" and then create an account with RB Digital to access.
Canvas: Visit our Spring 2020 Course to participate in discussions.
Quarter focus: student activism, neoactivists, black feminism, intersectionality, movements
Related Materials
UW Bothell Student Diversity Center Archive
Listen to a sample from the archive! - Interview with former UWB black student union president, Dominick Juarez, who helped advocate for the opening of the Diversity Center
Further resources:
This quarter's discussions and reflection activities will take place online, in a Canvas course designed to facilitate engagement with one another and the material of chapter 3. We are hoping that instructors and supervisors can incorporate this course, or portions of this course, into their classes and programs. The course includes:
For Faculty and Staff
There are a variety of ways you may be able to integrate these Canvas materials into your own work. Ideas include:
Visit our For Faculty page for more ideas and information.
If you have another idea for how to use this material, or have questions on how to implement any of the ideas above, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Our goals for the Community Reads program are to:
The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made 10 business days prior to the event to the Community Reads Team. Or, email contact of all members are on the left hand menu of this website.
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