From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race and Mediocre, an eye-opening and galvanizing look at the current state of anti-racist activism across America.
In BE A REVOLUTION: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can Too (HarperOne; 1/9/24) Ijeoma Oluo, #1 New York Times bestseller of So You Want to Talk About Race and Mediocre, offers an eye opening, accessible guide to anti-racist activism. Showcasing the leaders who work every day to create systemic change in America, Oluo gives a voice to specific community leaders, providing space for them to share their stories and offer honest wisdom.
Oluo interviewed over 30 movement workers across the US. Looking at many of our most powerful systems—education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more—she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity. She illustrates various ways in which people can find entryways into change in these same areas or can bring some of this important work being done elsewhere to where they live. This book is educational and will inspire action and change and it will take our conversations on race and racism out of a place of pure pain and trauma, and into a place of loving action.
With an emphasis on intersectionality in all forms of activism, Oluo provides a critical analysis of the systemic institutions that govern society. Oluo stresses the need for abolition, the fight for freedom. The need to look to the root cause of social issues and the belief in collective responsibility for those issues.
“Oluo offers us a reset, a starting point, a clear way forward.” —dream hampton
Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and, most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 Time 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington. For more on Ijeoma go to: https://www.ijeomaoluo.com/ (Photo credit: Jovelle Tomayo)
Michaela “Duchess” Brown is the Executive Director and one of the co-founders of Organizing Black. Michaela has 13 years of experience in grassroots direct action organizing. Duchess began as a volunteer for the Baltimore Algebra Project. She volunteered from 2007 until 2012. Then she was hired as a Co-Director (2012) and Lead Organizer (2013). Later Michaela served on the Baltimore Algebra Project Board of Directors (2014-2016). Before co-founding Organizing Black, she worked at the Baltimore Black Worker Center, where she served as their first coordinator and organizer. Michaela also was apart of Baltimore Bloc and helped lead work from 2014 until 2016, which was during the time they impacted the Baltimore Uprising, Afromation, and the City Hall sit-in. Michaela help co-found Organizing Black because she believes it is imperative to create safe spaces for Black organizers to learn and grow. She took on the challenge of being Executive Director because she understands the importance of Black women leading and what that means for young Black, women organizers coming up.
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