McGuire, Danielle L. 2010. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York: Vintage.
At the Dark End of the Street is a historical account of the civil rights movement that predominantly focuses on the people’s narrative of the movement. McGuire focuses on black women of color in their role in aiding the birth and development of the civil rights movement, which is kept out of the standard history texts. McGuire uses black women of color’s experiences with verbal, physical and sexual abuse as main motivators within the grassroots movement. McGuire writes a beautiful summary of the many women’s contributions and the rape culture that contributed to the movement. She discusses the specific rape case of Recy Taylor and presents Rosa Parks as the investigator for Recy’s case after the Alabama chapter of the NAACP took it under investigation. McGuire provides an astounding work of a history that has been overlooked within our society and a rape culture that still persists. I had the privilege of being able to take this course during my first winter term at Hamline and so it gave me an opportunity to not only explore the relationship between sexual violence and racial justice, but it also allowed me to unlearn misrepresented history, while highlighting the concept of people’s narrative.
Alexander, Michelle. 2016. New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
In this gripping text, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander discusses the reality of the mass incarceration system. Alexander takes an approach that exposes the harsh reality of the United States having some of the highest numbers of people who are incarcerated and takes a provocative approach by explaining how these rising numbers are the new Jim Crow. Alexander is using a comparison of the rates of incarceration of people of color and the 1960s Jim Crow Laws that segregated white people and people of color. She explains that the number of mass incarceration is because of the “tough on crime” policies that have been used to predominantly incarcerate people of color. I think this is a continuation of the history of the United States and that our system needs to look more at the surrounding environments instead of just the individuals for changing this issue. This text I read during the Fall of my second year at Hamline and exemplified to me how a system of power can contribute to the marginalization of a population. It gave me a deeper understanding that I could apply beyond race and helped me recognize the role that an institution can play in perpetuating the marginalization of a group of people.
Feagin, Joe R. 2013. The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
The White Racial Frame discusses how systemic racism has progressed through the lens of the promotion of the white population. Joe Feagin beautifully paints how this framework is incorporated in stereotyping, institutions, media and even in the colonization of America and the interlinking interpretations that aid in the discriminatory practice that are central to the white racial frame’s everyday operations. This discussion of how this framework is imbedded in the American mind and institutions helps to have a deeper understanding of how systems of oppression can progress and how to develop systems of resistance against implicit frameworks. This text specifically gave me terminology that I had never encountered prior to reading this. This terminology helped me to articulate different patterns of observation that I saw through the White Racial Frame and other patterns that I was able to apply to my interest in gender inequality.
Fletcher, Pamela R., Emilie Buchwald, and Martha Roth. 2005. Transforming A Rape Culture. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.
Transforming A Rape Culture is a set of essays that explore the multitudes of the rape culture that has persisted throughout history. This text investigates sexual violence in many different aspects including art, specifically in the form of theatre, different racial and ethnic cultures and crisis work. These texts also explain the role of masculinity within sexual violence and prevention work that has been put in place to combat sexual violence. This text gives a thorough overview of the many different aspects of sexual violence and who is affected. This text I read the Fall of my third year at Hamline. It helped me to understand the magnitude of sexual violence and was one of the first texts that discussed the role of masculinity and rape culture.
Adams, R., And David Savran. 2002. The Masculinity Studies Reader. Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing.
The Masculinity Studies Reader is an intro level book on masculinity studies. It gives a detailed history of how masculinity has formed globally and within Western culture. It also highlights how masculinity contributes to societal problems such as the patriarchal system, heteronormativity and rape culture. This text has many different sections to it. It starts by explaining how masculinity contributes to rape culture on the societal level because our capitalistic structure perpetuates hypermasculinity, while explaining on the individual and group level the role masculinity takes within rape culture. I read this text as part of an independent study I did on masculinity and it helped me understand the role it plays within different social problems like our patriarchal, white supremacist system.
B., Morgan, Elena Anderson and Kristin Maple Bloomberg. 2016. The Campus Climate Survey: Investigating Sexual Violence and Creating Change Through Climate Surveys. St. Paul, MN: WordPress.
The Campus Climate Survey is a study that was conducted at Hamline University. This gives deeper insight into the number of people who have been affected by sexual and dating violence within Hamline’s community. This was one of the first things I learned when I went to Hamline and it shaped what I invested my time into at Hamline. Both the students who conducted the survey have not graduated and the Title IX office has now implemented a new Campus Climate Survey.