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Top 10: Social Justice Booklist
In advance of World Day of Social Justice on February 20, we’re fully embracing the SJW* moniker and recognizing books that further conversations around social justice. Check out our top 10* picks!*as if this is a pejorative term*the order of this list is not a reflection on our SJ priorities
*as if this is a pejorative term
*the order of this list is not a reflection on our SJ priorities
* * *10. On Women and Government Women in office, represent! Pascale Navarro’s Women and Power: The Case for Parity, translated by David Homel (Linda Leith Publishing) asks the hard-hitting questions: how does Canada ensure women are running for office; how do we make parity a goal? And lastly, what are we waiting for? 9. On Reconciliation How can we better strive towards reconciliation in Canada? We could start by being more informed: In This Together (Brindle & Glass) gives us some tools and calls to action so we can be more effective allies.8. On Disability Justice This book is everything: Bodymap from award-winning Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (Mawenzi House) speaks to the experience of being a queer disabled femme-of-colour, and her book includes sections on queer transformative love, disability, politics and Sri Lankan identity, femininity, and so much more.7. On Water Maude Barlow’s Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse, and Canada’s Water Crisis (ECW) turns up the heat on Canada’s complacency with water laws, agricultural pollution, climate change, and lots more. (Bonus: check out publisher ECW’s 30-day water challenge.) 6. On LGBTQ Social Movements and Identity Politics Poetry as resistance! Jane Byers’ Acquired Community (Caitlin Press) is a brightly lit example of the political being personal. A poetic history of lesbian and gay movements in North America and first-person poems about coming out, this collection has the strength to disrupt the most corrosive systems of power. 5. On Civil Rights Burnley “Rocky” Jones Revolutionary (Roseway Publishing), an autobiography co-written with James Walker, tells of the life and work of cool dude and fierce activist Rocky Jones who was fundamental to the civil rights movement in Canada.4. On Young People We can’t help but think of “We Are the World” by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie with this pick: Darren O’Donnell’s Haircuts by Children and Other Evidence for A New Social Contract (Coach House Books). As children we were told to put down the scissors, but what would happen if adults cut that out? O’Donnell suggests that if we change how we view children, we might go so far as to change the world, socially, culturally, and economically. 3. On Racial Profiling and Police Brutality This is a tough, but necessary read. Marie Beath Badian’s The Making of St. Jerome (Playwrights Canada Press) fictionalizes the 2004 story of Jeffrey Reodica, a seventeen-year-old Filipino Canadian who was fatally shot by a plainclothes police officer in Toronto.2. On Reproductive RightsThis is still a divisive issue in 2017? Unfortunately. We’ve picked John Bart’s Middenrammers (Freehand Books) because it features super rad doctors who fight against hospital administrators and put their jobs at risk in the name of social justice.1. On Feminism Erin Wunker gives us more reasons to be feminist killjoys with Notes from a Feminist Killjoy (BookThug). Part memoir, part theory, Wunker brings us a collection of essays that make a solid case for killing any and all joy that stems from inequality, and we’re feeling all of it. ***Need more lists and gifs in your life? Check out more Top 10 here.
