The black agenda Bold solutions for a broken system

Book - 2022

"From ongoing reports of police brutality to the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Black Americans, 2020 brought a renewed awareness to the deep-rootedness of racism and white supremacy in every facet of American life. Edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, The Black Agenda is the first book of its kind-a bold and urgent move towards social justice through a profound collection of essays featuring Black scholars and experts across economics, education, health, climate, and technology. It speaks to the question "What's next for America?" on the subjects of policy-making, mental health, artificial intelligence, climate movement, the future of work, the LGBTQ community, the criminal legal system, and much more. Essay...ists including Dr. Sandy Darity, Dr. Hedwig Lee, Mary Heglar, and Janelle Jones present groundbreaking ideas ranging from Black maternal and infant health to reparations to AI bias to inclusive economic policy, with the potential to uplift and heal not only Black America, but the entire country"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2022.
Language
English
Other Authors
Tressie McMillan Cottom (writer of foreword)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiii, 258 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781250276872
  • Foreword
  • Editor's Introduction
  • Part I. Climate
  • The Weather-Climate Gap and the Black Community
  • Intersectional Environmentalism Must Shape Climate Action
  • Stop #AllLivesMattering the Climate Crisis
  • Centering Black Queer Creatives in Sustainability
  • Part II. Health Care
  • Reenvisioning Public Health for Black America
  • A Bolder Approach to Diversify the Health Care Workforce
  • Race, Gender, and Rethinking Care Work
  • Part III. Wellness
  • Why Colorism Matters for Black Maternal and Infant Health
  • The Diary of a Black Disabled Woman
  • Mental Health for Black America
  • Technology Is Not the Panacea for Black Women's Health
  • Part IV. Education
  • How to Center Black Children During a Global Pandemic
  • On the Brilliance of Black Girls: Teaching and Nurturing in Schools Across America
  • The Immeasurable Value of Black Children's Books
  • The Future of Work Begins with Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  • The Case for (Black) Student Debt Forgiveness
  • Part V. Technology
  • Facing the Tech Giants
  • Algorithmic Assault
  • We're Talking About AI Wrong
  • Part VI. Criminal Justice
  • Nothin' New: Racial Disparities in Police Contact
  • The Carceral System Has No Future
  • The Invisibility of Black Women and the Consequences of Mass Incarceration
  • Queer as in Abolishing the Police: Criminal Justice and Black LGBTQ People
  • Part VII. Economy
  • How the Federal Reserve Can Help Black Workers
  • The Case for Stratification Economics
  • America's Best Depends on Black Women Best
  • Part VIII. Public Policy
  • Black Voters (Always) Matter: Voting Rights in the Twenty-First Century
  • The Next Civil Rights Movement Requires Policy Wonks
  • The Black Belt: America's Black Rural South
  • African American Reparations and an Economic Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Contributors
  • Recommended Reading
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Public policy researcher Opoku-Agyeman gathers in this invigorating essay collection a wide array of Black experts to discuss climate change, wealth inequality, voter suppression, and other issues that "inevitably and disproportionately impac Black life." Contributors include Marshall Shepherd, former president of the American Meteorological Society, who notes that Black communities in the U.S. are "disproportionately affected by climate-related hazards... while accounting for a relatively small percentage of total carbon emissions" and encourages African Americans to "vote with the climate crisis in mind"; disability activist Tinu Abayomi-Paul, who calls for the government to "incentive businesses to remove the obstacles that prevent disabled people from being able to work"; and educational psychologist Lauren Mims, who discusses the "damaging beliefs" Black girls absorb about themselves in school and recommends the elimination of suspensions, expulsions, and other "destructive disciplinary policies." Elsewhere, Black Voters Matter cofounder Cliff Albright calls on congressional Democrats to end the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation, and sociologist Hedwig Lee spotlights the burdens Black women bare as a result of criminal justice policies that unfairly target Black men. Though most of the contributors' proposed solutions lack specifics, they're effective as launching pads for further discussion. Policymakers will want to take note. (Feb.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

As the coronavirus pandemic began to decimate Black communities across the United States in 2020, economist/activist Opoku-Agyeman interrogated why the media largely ignored Black policy experts. Redressing the imbalance, her new edited volume features essays by 34 of these experts--professors; scientists; researchers; entrepreneurs; nonprofit and think tank leaders--on policy solutions for ending systemic racism in the U.S. The book is divided into eight topic areas: climate, health care, wellness, education, criminal justice, economy, and public policy. The short essays are packed with statistics, acronyms, and some policy jargon; while they can at times make for dry reading, they offer fresh ideas and perspectives on many of the most pressing problems of this era. Standout essays include Brandeis Marshall on algorithmic assault, Cliff Albright on voting rights, Fenaba R. Addo on student loans and the Black wealth gap, and Kyle K. Moore on stratification economics. A powerful foreword by Tressie McMillan Cottom offers a starting point for critical self-reflection. VERDICT An important volume for anyone involved in dismantling systemic racism through advocacy and public policy.--Kate Stewart

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

An expansive set of essays highlighting the range and force of Black leadership. Opoku-Agyeman puts the point bluntly in her introduction: "Black experts matter now more than ever because they are not just critical to providing us with the tools and language to decipher a world bent on undermining Black life--they are also equipped to provide the backdrop of lived experience that further contextualizes their expertise. Experience is the difference between studying racial inequality and living through it." Each contributor demonstrates the value of such perspectives on an impressively broad set of subjects: climate, health care, wellness, education, technology, criminal justice, the economy, and public policy. Such breadth exposes racist ideologies and practices in diverse areas of contemporary life while also drawing attention to their complex interrelations. As the essays make clear, understanding Black experiences and furthering anti-racist activism means accounting for the sequelae of any "isolated" phenomenon: Fair and effective responses to climate change, for instance, must involve consideration of systemic biases in such areas as housing, policing, and commerce. The contributors repeatedly underscore the urgency of such intersectional approaches during the pandemic, given its disproportionate impact on Black communities. Among the most instructive and stimulating essays in this collection are those that target rapidly evolving forms of racial discrimination, as in Deborah Raji's examination of the embedded biases and blind spots of Amazon's facial recognition technology. A particular strength of many of the essays, moreover, is their precision in identifying forms of resistance that have proven successful in the past and in speculating on those that hold special promise for the future. Cliff Albright's exploration of voter suppression stands out in this regard. "Sustained direct action, including civil disobedience" will be necessary, he affirms, for the protection of voting rights. Tressie McMillan Cottom provides the foreword, and the recommended reading lists a trove of worthy books to further education. An inclusive, edifying, often fiery assembly of voices articulating the way forward for Black America--and America in general. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.