RESILIENT RESISTANCE: THE MYERS OUTSTANDING AWARDS 2003

Striking images of dignity and human rights by internationally acclaimed graphic artist Chaz Maviyane-Davies will provide the backdrop for the announcement of the 19th annual Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards on December 11, 2003 at Simmons College in Boston at 5pm. The theme of this annual observance of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration speaks of creative resistance to all that oppresses. A Zimbabwean national, Maviyane-Davies is a Visiting Professor at Mass College of Art and recipient of numerous international commissions and design awards.

The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights is the sponsor of the exhibit and awards. A dozen books and authors will be welcomed into the prestigious Myers Outstanding Book Awards Winners' Circle this year that speak to creative resistance and to possibilities for social change. Dr. Loretta J. Williams, director of the Myers Center, joined by Simmons College President Dan Cheever, will announce the following Awards to:

l Carol Anderson, University of Missouri - Columbia historian, for Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955, Cambridge University Press 2003

Using archival collections of correspondence, memos, editorials, documents and the like, Carol Anderson presents an insightful look at how United Nations member states, particularly the United States, approached the issue of human rights fifty years ago. Today sanitized memory holds that Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and the U.S. government championed a strong Human Rights Commission against all odds. Not so. The resistance of U.S. elites to putting teeth behind what we now know as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights stemmed from the domestic politics of white supremacy intertwined with Cold War anti-communism. Anderson details efforts of NAACP and other leftist organizational leaders to have the United Nations investigate segregation and lynchings in the U.S. More successful were the actions by white pro-segregation Southerners.

l David M. Engel, professor, State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, and Frank W. Munger, professor at SUNY Law School and New York Law School, for Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities, University of Chicago Press 2003

The authors saw the 1990 passage, and subsequent implementation, of the Americans with Disabilities Act as a serendipitous opportunity to look at how rights get extended to those who are the subject of new civil rights legislation. Their question: what is the real pay-out for beneficiaries/"protected classes"? As Engel and Munger sharpened their understandings of realities for persons with disabilities, they focused on two subgroups: persons with learning disabilities and persons using a wheelchair. They switched from looking only at employment rights to highlighting narratives of personal and daily lived experiences of sixty persons. Engel and Munger incisively show how rights and identity affect one another over time, and how that interaction ultimately determines the success of laws such as the ADA. Rights of Inclusion is a good reminder that while laws on the books do not automatically mean better qualify of life for those with "new" legal rights, the rights do become activated in many ways other than when explicitly invoked in litigation.

l Catherine Fosl, University of Louisville professor of Women's & Gender Studies, for Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South, Palgrave Macmillan 2002

This social history is more than the life thus far of a living white antiracist activist who continues to "walk the talk" of racial justice. It is the story of the particular impact of the Cold War on the U.S. South and of how anticommunist witch hunts successfully diverted attention away from entrenched white supremacy. In chronicling Anne Braden's evolution from privileged southern white youth to committed activist for racial and economic justice, Fosl tells of alliances that could, and did, chip away at segregated structures and life styles. The reader learns of progressive southern reform movements of the 30s through the early 60s, and of the anti-communist vigilante attempts to silence Anne and Carl Braden. They became pariahs to some, and heroes to others, when they purchased a home in a white neighborhood for an African American couple in the 1950s. Subversive Southerner provides a window into perseverance and integrity in the face of hostile social forces. Those today overwhelmed by the political mobilizing of resentment and the domestic surveillance apparatus can learn much about resiliency from this award-winning social history.

l Tara Herivel and Paul Wright, Editors, for Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor, Routledge 2003

This Myers Award recognizes the substantive contributions of a bevy of writers. Tara Herivel, a Washington State attorney, collaborated with Paul Wright, the editor of the independent monthly magazine Prison Legal News, in selecting articles on various aspects of the prison industry. Wright is currently incarcerated, and will be released this December after serving thirteen years in a Washington State prison. Most entries are prisoner-written; progressive analysts outside write others. Insiders to the criminal justice system such as Stephen Bright, Southern Center for Human Rights, for example, discuss how the system devalues good defense work, and how judges assign cases to attorneys who are the least competent and the most likely to quickly plead out their clients. The topics of articles range from lack of effective legal representation to the impact of prisons on communities; from poor medical care for prisoners and other abuses committed by prison staff to general societal stigmatization of the poor as "superfluous people." Prison Nation is a call to the well-intentioned citizen to become more fully aware and active in posing alternatives to the prison industrial complex.

l Guy Jones, Hunkpapa Lakota Nation, Ohio; and Sally Moomaw, professional development coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, for Lessons From Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms, Redleaf Press 2002

The authors offer multicultural and cross-cultural suggestions for early childhood educators, including parents, around five related themes: children, home, families, community and environment. The book speaks to how children learn, and how many well-meaning mainstream teachers use Native culture (if at all) in insensitive, culturally offensive and ahistorical ways that have negative consequences. The authors encourage teachers and parents to learn more about cultural traditions and artifacts before incorporating them into project activities. Jones and Moomaw, drawing upon personal experience, careful scholarship, and substantive knowledge of the classroom, advocate appropriately integrating Native and multicultural issues into all classroom activities: math, reading, writing, science, dramatic play, and art. Lessons From Turtle Island, written in nonjudgmental and accessible prose, includes activities, guidelines and resource lists for helping young children move away from stereotypical portrayals of indigenous people in mainstream culture.

l Suki Kim, novelist, New York City, for The Interpreter: A Novel, Farrar, Straus, Giroux 2003

This deftly captivating and unsettling novel centers around a twenty-nine year old Korean American translator for the New York City court system. There are no "speeches" in this novel, yet we come to know much about the immigrant experience, and about the role that the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) plays in this. Suki Kim's first novel provides mystery, intrigue, self-deprecating drama, dysfunctional family dynamics, cross-racial relations and more in her exploration of the intricacies of cultural and linguistic translation. As one reviewer noted, "Suki Kim fractures the image of the happy Asian immigrant and reassembles it shard by compelling shard." Born and raised in South Korea, Kim came herself to New York at the age of thirteen and knows well the complexities of walking the line between cultures.

l Kevin K. Kumashiro, director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education, El Cerrito, CA., for Troubling Education: Queer Activism and Anti-oppressive Pedagogy, RoutledgeFalmer 2002

Many threads run concurrently through Troubling Education: educational theories, radical pedagogy, postmodern identity, queer theory, queer activism, mentoring and more. Kumashiro is committed to empowering educators to more confidently introduce, and sustain, anti-oppressive techniques and strategies in the classroom that help students challenge multiple oppressions. This innovative analysis highlights the negotiations that must be made in resistance work geared for social change. At this time of "No Child Left Behind" hype, Kumashiro's advocacy perspectives have great value in jogging us from mental ruts into alternative possibilities. The accessible way by which the author lays out stories of activists, and raises questions for reflection, is admirable.

l Trish Marx, editor at McGraw-Hill, and Cindy Karp, photojournalist, Reaching for the Sun: Kids in Cuba, Millbrook Press 2003

Written for young readers, Reaching for the Sun tells the story of a children's theater group in Cuba inviting a children's creative arts group from Los Angeles to collaborate in writing and performing a play at the National Theater of Cuba. The youth from the United States spent one month in Cuba in 2001 living together with Cuban roommates in a dormitory. In the process of creating, rehearsing and performing, the youth talked about differences and similarities in their countries, personal and family experiences, and dreams and pathways forward. Photographs and brief narratives tell some of the history of Cuba and of the USA, and of young people learning perseverance and accomplishment through cross-national interchange.

l Barbara Ransby, professor of African American Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and director of The Public Square, Chicago, IL, for Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, University of North Carolina Press 2002

This biography of a twentieth century stalwart, an eclectic radical, speaks of a lifetime of involvement in social movements for racial and economic justice such as cooperatives, the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and more. Ransby displays the best of the academic's ability to dig out all kinds of buried information as well as perspective on the nuances of the elusive thing we tend to call "the movement." Ella Baker's faith in people, and her ability to mentor others into their own power as activists, is inspiring for all. She was a feminist-before-the-word-came-into-use, a non-sectarian internationalist, and a staunch proponent of the power and efficacy of ordinary grassroots people. Ransby's narrative demonstrates over and over again how effective Ella Baker was in working with a variety of people, and helping to diminish the divisive tendencies in various generations struggling at the grassroots level of change.

l Jim Shultz, founder and director of the Democracy Center, Bolivia, for The Democracy Owner's Manual: A Practical Guide to Changing the World, Rutgers University Press 2002

This book speaks to what is required of citizens in order to develop and maintain a true democracy. It is recommended for the bookshelf of every social change organization. The first portion focuses on the job of governments and the rules and mechanisms that can help or hinder the balancing of public policies to maximize the rights of all. The author exposes some of the contradictions within the U.S. democratic processes along the way. The second part moves from strategy to research to analysis to organizing to building coalitions to working with media, thus providing a primer on social change organizing and advocacy activities such as how to identify objectives, targets, allies, audiences and more. Real-life examples of how to influence government are woven in throughout this section as well as practical tips and resources. Shultz, a native Californian and civic activist for the past three decades, moved the Democracy Center to Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1998.

l Bernestine Singley et al, Straightalk, Dallas, Texas, lawyer and writer, for editing When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal History, Lawrence Hill 2002

Reading this collection of essays is an illuminating and painful experience. A notable cast of thirty writers, African-descent and white, were invited by Singley to "drop arm's-length objectivity" and share reflections on the nuances of race from a candidly personal point of view. Commentaries from Natalie Angier, David Bradley, Robert Coles, Julianne Malveaux, Les Payne, Kalamu ya Salaam, Singley, Patricia J. Williams, Tim Wise and other writers, newspaper columnists, and activists are honest and provocative in talking about their experiences with racism and the other side of the coin: white privilege. Wisdom, wit and pain combine as they address the daily injuries of judgments about race. Columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., describes an incident of discrimination, for example: "I had been at this crossroad so many times before. You move beyond it, you think…and then you look up and you're right there at the same ugly intersection of bigotry and fear. It wears on you. It tears you down." The racial dynamics of the twenty-first century - how racism and privilege are negotiated, challenged or ignored -- are very real in their consequences. Singley and the assembled writers provide an excellent resource for book group discussion and honest talk about race.

l Bonnie TuSmith, Northeastern University, and Maureen Reddy, Rhode Island College, et al for Race in the College Classroom: Pedagogy and Politics, Rutgers University Press 2002

The focus here is upon what happens in the college classroom as seen through the perspectives of those who are teaching. Readers listen in on candid commentaries from persons of various racial and ethnic backgrounds teaching a wide spectrum of courses in a variety of colleges and universities. Seasoned and new teachers cut through the valorized "ivy tower" mythology of academe. The refreshingly honest essays combine to portray the wider political context in today's society that is reflected in the inertia, hypocrisy and silencings in higher education that allow assumptions about "whiteness as rightness" to continue to replicate among many students, administrators and leaders. Race in the College Classroom is essential reading for all in higher education, and all who care about working to dismantle the monocultural whiteness at multiple levels that devalues those who openly embody, and/or talk about, racial justice in their classrooms.

"Our reviewers across the country value the various approaches of the authors - different formats and focus, yet multiple nuances of power arrayed against some to the benefit of others," said Dr. Williams. "We chose books that provided new information, in-depth approaches that challenge ways of thinking and acting." She thanked the review panel for approaching their task with thoroughness in their search for writers whose work might add insights into dismantling the various forms on oppression in today's society. "We thank and congratulate each and all: reviewers, authors and 'we-the-people' readers!"

The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights was established in 1984. Its hub office has been housed at Simmons College since 2002. For additional information, call 617/521-2171 or go to http://www.myerscenter.org.