By Any Other Nerd

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Anderson skillfully deconstructs an unspoken but prevalent theme in the US history of race relations since well before the Civil War: white rage. Directly and indirectly, she shows how the often stereotypical assumption of African-Americans as being unwieldy or out of control (that is, having "black rage") is largely a matter of projection of a white rage. White rage has historically over-reacted to each attempt by African American and other marginalized peoples to establish an equal footing as put forward in the US's founding documents. Thus, she shows from the Civil War to the presidency of Barak Obama, how viciously and brutally dominant white culture has reacted. Whether it was de-facto enslavement for unemployed African Americans in the post-Civil War era, the rise of segregation, the intentional exclusion of compensation for African Americans who fought in war,

So I’m running a day-long training on Digital Service Learning through NERCOMP (the regional organization of EDUCAUSE ).  The day-long training will consist of a series of small-workshops on the intellectual and practical considerations around using digital tools in the process of service learning.   NERCOMP regularly runs these Professional Development Opportunities (PDOs) on a variety of topics.  They usually run from 9am to about 3pm and include a one hour lunch.  The trainings are broken up in a variety of ways from rapid-fire short 20 minute sessions to 3-4 longer (1-1.5 hour) sessions.  They are usually a mixture of theoretical, practical, and hands-on and participants (mostly from higher ed) walk away with a mixture of new ideas, skills, and contacts.     Care to Join Me I'm looking to find others that are working with faculty on service learning (with a digital angle) or faculty that are doing digital service learning projects to participate in the running of this

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie My rating: 5 of 5 stars Adichie's short book (what's the equivalent of a novella in nonfiction? Long-form essay?) is a collection of short essays that stem from her TED Talk exploring how and why feminism is a necessity for all societies. She connects her personal stories and experiences to the larger discourse on feminism and draws useful analogies for many to understand and appreciate about its place in the 21st century throughout the world. It's a quick read that can refuel some while also introducing complex considerations about feminism to someone just exploring it for the first time. View all my reviews Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAl

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi My rating: 5 of 5 stars If there is a single book that can structurally explain how racism permeates the history and mythology of the United States, then Kendi's book is if not the book, then certainly a contender (having not read all of them, I cannot say, but having read many books on race, this one is among the best). Kendi traces the history of the United States' approach to, discourse on, and political consequences of racism from the colonies in the 1600s until the present. He does this by exploring the lives of five pivotal figures in the history of racism who span all five centuries of US history: Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. DuBois, and Angela Davis. Kendi posits three ideologies that are found in various forms throughout the history and the works of those with whom he presents: racist, assimilationist, and anti-racist ideo

The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee My rating: 5 of 5 stars Where do I begin with this review besides just saying, "WOW!" I knew about some of the aspects of this book such as strong anti-Asian immigration laws and racial discrimination in the US toward Asian-Americans since the 1800s. But Lee provides a meticulous and nuanced exploration of the history of migration and representation within the Americas since the 1500s. She traces the history of discriminatory practices by different American countries that challenge, limit, devalue, or pit against one another the many different immigrants from the numerous Asian countries. In doing so, she helps the reader understand the denial of identity and culture that comes with the term "Asian American", and how it masks the distinct experiences, cultural dynamics, and sense of history that different immigrants from Asian bring with them. In tracing the history to the present century, Lee fur