The Social Justice Book Club meets on Zoom on the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 PM to discuss social issues that affect our lives. Here are the Social Justice Book Club books and dates for the rest of the year.  

We will meet via Zoom at 6 PM on Thursday, November 20 to discuss Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey.

Dr. Jennifer Harvey explores the conundrums parents face raising white children in a society full of racial injustice.

Should we teach white kids to be “colorblind” or to notice race (and if so how)? What roles do we want them to play in addressing racism when they encounter it? How do we do that? Talking about race means naming white privilege and hierarchy. How do we do this honestly, without making children feel bad about being white?

A great deal of public discussion exists about the impact of race and racism on children of color, but meaningful dialogue about and resources for understanding the impact of race on white children are woefully lacking. Raising White Kids steps into that void. It offers accessible pathways that point us toward the collective and urgent work of nurturing anti-racism among white children and youth.

We will meet via Zoom at 6 PM on Thursday, December 17 to discuss How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik deBoer.

In How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, Fredrik deBoer explores why these passionate movements failed and how they could succeed in the future. In the digital age, social movements flare up but then lose steam through a lack of tangible goals, the inherent moderating effects of our established institutions and political parties, and the lack of any real grassroots movement in contemporary America. Hidden beneath the rhetoric of the oppressed and symbolism of the downtrodden lies and the inconvenient fact that those are doing the organizing, messaging, protesting, and campaigning are predominantly drawn from this country’s more upwardly mobile educated classes. Poses are more important than policies.

deBoer lays out an alternative vision for how society’s winners can contribute to social justice movements without taking them over, and how activists and their organizations can become more resistant to the influence of elites, nonprofits, corporations, and political parties. Only by organizing around class rather than empty gestures can we begin the hard work of changing minds and driving policy.