For more than a decade, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice has been the trusted, leading anthology to cover the full range of social oppressions from a social justice standpoint. With full sections dedicated to racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, and ableism, as well as transgender oppression, religious oppression, and adult and ageism, this bestselling text goes far beyond the range of traditional readers. New essay selections in each section of this third edition have been carefully chosen to keep topic coverage timely and readings accessible and engaging for students. The interactions among these topics are highlighted throughout to stress the interconnections among oppressions in everyday life.

Adams, Paul and Novak, Michael. Social Justice Isn't What You Think It Is (Encounter Books, November 2015).

What is social justice? For Friedrich Hayek, it was a mirage—a meaningless, ideological, incoherent, vacuous cliché. He believed the term should be avoided, abandoned, and allowed to die a natural death. For its proponents, social justice is a catchall term that can be used to justify any progressive-sounding government program. It endures because it venerates its champions and brands its opponents as supporters of social injustice, and thus as enemies of humankind. As an ideological marker, social justice always works best when it is not too sharply defined.
Michael Novak and Paul Adams seek to clarify the true meaning of social justice and to rescue it from its ideological captors. In examining figures ranging from Antonio Rosmini, Abraham Lincoln, and Hayek, to Popes Leo XIII, John Paul II, and Francis, the authors reveal that social justice is not a synonym for “progressive” government as we have come to believe. Rather, it is a virtue rooted in Catholic social teaching and developed as an alternative to the unchecked power of the state. Almost all social workers see themselves as progressives, not conservatives. Yet many of their “best practices” aim to empower families and local communities. They stress not individual or state, but the vast social space between them. Left and right surprisingly meet.
In this surprising reintroduction of its original intention, social justice represents an immensely powerful virtue for nurturing personal responsibility and building the human communities that can counter the widespread surrender to an ever-growing state.

Annan, Kent. Slow Kingdom Coming: Practices for Doing Justice, Loving Mercy and Walking Humbly in the World (InterVarsity Press 2016).

No one said pursuing justice would be easy. The road can be so challenging and the destination so distant that you may be discouraged by a lack of progress, compassion or commitment in your quest for justice. How do you stay committed to the journey when God's kingdom can seem so slow in coming? Kent Annan understands the struggle of working for justice over the long haul. He confesses, "Over the past twenty years, I've succumbed to various failed shortcuts instead of living the freedom of faithful practices." In this book, he shares practices he has learned that will encourage and help you to keep making a difference in the face of the world's challenging issues. All Christians are called to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly in the world. Slow Kingdom Coming will guide and strengthen you on this journey to persevere until God's kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.

Barry, Brian. Why Social Justice Matters (Polity, 2005).

In the past twenty years, social injustice has increased enormously in Britain and the United States, regardless of the party in power. At the same time, the idea of social justice itself has been subverted, as the mantras of personal responsibility and equal opportunity have been employed as an excuse for doing nothing about the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many and for making ever harsher demands on the poor and vulnerable.
With grace and wit, Brian Barry exposes the shoddy logic and distortion of reality that underpins this ideology. Once we understand the role of the social structure in limiting options, we have to recognize that really putting into practice ideas such as equal opportunity and personal responsibility would require a fundamental transformation of almost all existing institutions.

Bates Clark, John. Social Justice Without Socialism (Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, November 2009).

It is currently reported that the late King Edward once said, "We are all Socialists, now": and if the term "Socialism" meant to-day what His Majesty probably meant by it, many of us could truthfully make a similar statement. Without any doubt, we could do so if we attached to the term the meaning which it had when it was first invented. It came into use in the thirties of the last century, and expressed a certain disappointment over the result of political reform.

Bush, Gail and Meyer, Randy. Indivisible: Poems for Social Justice (Norwood House Press, 2013).

Anthology including over 50 works of poetry by 20th century writers on issues related to social justice in American society.

Capeheart, Professor Loretta and Milovanovic, Professor Dragan. Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements (Rutgers University Press 2007).

An eye for an eye, the balance of scales--for centuries, these and other traditional concepts exemplified the public's perception of justice. Today, popular culture, including television shows like Law and Order, informs the public's vision. But do age-old symbols, portrayals in the media, and existing systems truly represent justice in all of its nuanced forms, or do we need to think beyond these notions?
In Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements, Loretta Capeheart and Dragan Milovanovic respond to the need for a comprehensive introduction to this topic. The authors argue that common conceptions of criminal justice--which accept, for the most part, a politically established definition of crime--are too limited. Instead, they show the relevancy of history, political economy, culture, critique, and cross-cultural engagement to the advancement of justice.
Drawing on contemporary issues ranging from globalization to the environment, this essential textbook--ideal for course use--encourages practitioners, reformists, activists, and scholars to question the limits of the law in its present state in order to develop a fairer system at the local, national, and global levels.

Christensen, Linda and Watson, Dyan. Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice (Rethinking Schools, April 2015).

Rhythm and Resistance offers practical lessons about how to teach poetry to build community, understand literature and history, talk back to injustice, and construct stronger literacy skills across content areas and grade levels from elementary school to graduate school. Rhythm and Resistance reclaims poetry as a necessary part of a larger vision of what it means to teach for justice.

Clayton, Matthew and Williams, Andrew. Social Justice (Wiley-Blackwell, February 13, 2004).

This reader brings together classic and contemporary contributions to debates about social justice.
-A collection of classic and contemporary contributions to debates about social justice.
-Includes classic discussions of justice by Locke and Hume.
-Provides broad coverage of contemporary discussions, including theoretical pieces by John Rawls, Robert Nozick and Ronald Dworkin.
-Contains papers that apply theories of justice to concrete issues, such as gender and the family, the market, world poverty, cultural rights, and future generations.
-Philosophically challenging yet accessible to students.

Crow, Dale. The Bully Within (Traitmarker Books, 2016).

My name is Dale Crowe, and I want to introduce you to the bully within me: Dale Crowe the Boxer. A little more than sixteen years ago, I was an up-and-coming, cruiser-weight boxer with a record of 15 and 0. I wasn't Mike Tyson - not even close - but many people around me believed that with a serious commitment on my part I could have been a genuine contender. Well, I failed. I didn't fail because I wasn't good enough, but because I believed I wasn't good enough. Dale the Boxer told me that I wasn't good enough. And I believed him. Today, in addition to being called Dale Crowe, I'm also known as inmate #519-303. But Dale Crowe doesn't have much to do with the terrible things I did or the fame I won. Nevertheless, this is my story.

Crow, Dale. Grab the Bully by the Horns (Traitmarker Books, 2016).

Grab the Bully by the Horns is a series of my personal meditations from prison. While some of the meditations might seem simplistic to some and complex to others, I wanted to share with you a few of the beliefs and practices that have changed my life. When I finished writing this book, I experienced some inner struggles. Originally, I thought that the struggles were gone. While I have experienced some higher realizations, I do experience hard times. The difference now is that I can face those hard times and dissolve them much more quickly by aligning myself with higher principles. Now that I have this knowledge of Self, I will not stop until I reach the highest state of enlightenment. This is my birthright. That is your birthright.

Curl, John. For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America (PM Press, 2009).

Seeking to reclaim a history that has remained largely ignored by most historians, this dramatic and stirring account examines each of the definitive American cooperative movements for social change—farmer, union, consumer, and communalist—that have been all but erased from collective memory. Focusing far beyond one particular era, organization, leader, or form of cooperation, the expansive analysis documents the multigenerational struggle of the American working people for social justice. With an expansive sweep and breathtaking detail, the chronicle considers Native American times and follows the American worker from the colonial workshop to the modern mass-assembly line, ultimately painting a vivid panorama of those who built the United States and those who will shape its future.

Dewhurst, Marit. Social Justice Art: A Framework for Activist Art Pedagogy (Harvard Education Press, 2014).

In this lively and groundbreaking book, arts educator Marit Dewhurst examines why art is an effective way to engage students in thinking about the role they might play in addressing social injustice.
Based on interviews and observations of sixteen high schoolers participating in an activist arts class at a New York City museum, Dewhurst identifies three learning processes common to the act of creating art that have an impact on social justice: connecting, questioning, and translating. Noting that “one of the challenges of social justice art education has been the difficulty of naming effective strategies that can be used across multiple contexts,” Dewhurst outlines core strategies for an “activist arts pedagogy” and offers concrete suggestions for educators seeking to incorporate activist art projects inside or outside formal school settings.

Eubanks, Virginia. Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age (MIT Press, 2011).

The idea that technology will pave the road to prosperity has been promoted through both boom and bust. Today we are told that universal broadband access, high-tech jobs, and cutting-edge science will pull us out of our current economic downturn and move us toward social and economic equality. In Digital Dead End, Virginia Eubanks argues that to believe this is to engage in a kind of magical thinking: a technological utopia will come about simply because we want it to. This vision of the miraculous power of high-tech development is driven by flawed assumptions about race, class, and gender. The realities of the information age are more complicated, particularly for poor and working-class women and families. For them, information technology can be both a tool of liberation and a means of oppression.
But despite the inequities of the high-tech global economy, optimism and innovation flourished when Eubanks worked with a community of resourceful women living at her local YWCA. Eubanks describes a new approach to creating a broadly inclusive and empowering “technology for people,” popular technology, which entails shifting the focus from teaching technical skill to nurturing critical technological citizenship, building resources for learning, and fostering social movement.

Hanson Weller, Stephanie. Mountains of the Moon: Stories About Social Justice (Saint Mary's Press, September 1999).

The ten short stories in this collection for young adults put flesh and blood on issues of justice at personal and societal levels and offer in-depth material for reflecting on the meaning and practice of Christian justice.

Hoefer, Richard. Advocacy Practice for Social Justice (Lyceum Books, July 2015).

Current economic and social forces are creating a society with less equality, justice and opportunity for all but the privileged few. Social workers are called upon by their code of ethics to counteract these trends of social inequality and actively work to achieve social justice. Hoefer s empirically-based, step-by-step approach demonstrates how to integrate advocacy for social justice into everyday social work practice. The book shows through anecdotes, case studies, examples, and the author's own personal experiences, exactly how advocacy can be conducted with successful outcomes. Each chapter builds upon the previous to provide a concise yet detailed blueprint for conducting successful advocacy.

Jaffe, David. Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change (Shambhala Publications, 2016).

An inspiring and accessible guide, drawn from Jewish wisdom, for building the inner qualities necessary to work effectively for social justice.

Leacock, Stephen. The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice (Echo Library, June 25, 2008).

These are troubled times. As the echoes of the war die away the sound of a new conflict rises on our ears. All the world is filled with industrial unrest. Strike follows upon strike. A world that has known five years of fighting has lost its taste for the honest drudgery of work. Cincinnatus will not back to his plow, or, at the best, stands sullenly between his plow-handles arguing for a higher wage.

Linker, Maureen. Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice (University of Michigan Press, 2014).

Intellectual Empathy provides a step-by-step method for facilitating discussions of socially divisive issues. Maureen Linker, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan–Dearborn, developed Intellectual Empathy after more than a decade of teaching critical thinking in metropolitan Detroit, one of the most racially and economically divided urban areas, at the crossroads of one of the Midwest’s largest Muslim communities. The skills acquired through Intellectual Empathy have proven to be significant for students who pursue careers in education, social work, law, business, and medicine.

Miller, David. Principles of Social Justice (Harvard University Press, 2001).

Social justice has been the animating ideal of democratic governments throughout the twentieth century. Even those who oppose it recognize its potency. Yet the meaning of social justice remains obscure, and existing theories put forward by political philosophers to explain it have failed to capture the way people in general think about issues of social justice. This book develops a new theory. David Miller argues that principles of justice must be understood contextually, with each principle finding its natural home in a different form of human association. Because modern societies are complex, the theory of justice must be complex, too. The three primary components in Miller's scheme are the principles of desert, need, and equality.
The book uses empirical research to demonstrate the central role played by these principles in popular conceptions of justice. It then offers a close analysis of each concept, defending principles of desert and need against a range of critical attacks, and exploring instances when justice requires equal distribution and when it does not. Finally, it argues that social justice understood in this way remains a viable political ideal even in a world characterized by economic globalization and political multiculturalism. Accessibly written, and drawing upon the resources of both political philosophy and the social sciences, this book will appeal to readers with interest in public policy as well as to students of politics, philosophy, and sociology.

Nagara, Innosanto. A is for Activist (Triangle Square, 2013).

A is for Activist is an ABC board book written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives: families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that activists believe in and fight for.
The alliteration, rhyming, and vibrant illustrations make the book exciting for children, while the issues it brings up resonate with their parents' values of community, equality, and justice. This engaging little book carries huge messages as it inspires hope for the future, and calls children to action while teaching them a love for books.

Raboteau, Albert J. American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and Their Struggle for Social and Political Justice (Princeton University Press, 2016).

American Prophets sheds critical new light on the lives and thought of seven major prophetic figures in twentieth-century America whose social activism was motivated by a deeply felt compassion for those suffering injustice.

Sensoy, Ozlem and DiAngelo, Robin. Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education) (Teachers College Press 2011).

This practical handbook will introduce readers to social justice education, providing tools for developing ''critical social justice literacy'' and for taking action towards a more just society. Accessible to students from high school through graduate school, this book offers a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, including critical thinking, socialization, group identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy. Based on extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the authors address the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. They provide recognizable examples, scenarios, and vignettes illustrating these concepts. This unique resource has many user-friendly features, including ''definition boxes'' for key terms, ''stop boxes'' to remind readers of previously explained ideas, ''perspective check boxes'' to draw attention to alternative standpoints, a glossary, and a chapter responding to the most common rebuttals encountered when leading discussions on concepts in critical social justice. There are discussion questions and extension activities at the end of each chapter, and an appendix designed to lend pedagogical support to those newer to teaching social justice education.

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel & Grau, August 2015).

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

Tornielli, Andrea and Galeazzi, Giacomo. This Economy Kills: Pope Francis on Capitalism and Social Justice (Liturgical Press, 2015).

When Pope Francis wrote in his apostolic letter The Joy of the Gospel that the economy of the West is one that "kills," he was immediately labeled by some as a Marxist. Criticisms came fast and furious, not only from financial columnists and conservative cable personalities, but also from some Catholic commentators, especially in the United States.
In This Economy Kills, two of the most respected journalists covering the Vatican today explore the pope's teaching and witness on the topic: the ways it relates to other topics like war, the environment, and family life; its connections to the teaching of his predecessors; and the criticism it has generated, especially from the direction of the United States. This fascinating book includes the full text of an extended interview the authors conducted with Francis on the topic of capitalism and social justice, appearing here in English for the first time.
This Economy Kills is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Pope Francis's convictions about the world we live in and the way he believes Christians are called to shape it.

Vogt, Brandon. Saints and Social Justice: A Guide to Changing the World (Our Sunday Visitor, 2014).

The value of human life. The call to family and community. Serving the poor. The rights of workers. Care for creation.
The church has always taught certain undeniable truths that can and should affect our society. But over the years, these teachings have been distorted, misunderstood, and forgotten.
With the help of fourteen saints, it's time we reclaim Catholic social teaching and rediscover it through the lives of those who best lived it out. Follow in the saints' footsteps, learn from their example, and become the spark of authentic social justice that sets the world on fire.

Armstrong, Franny. Age of Stupid (Spanner Films, 2009).

The Age of Stupid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off) as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Burns, Ken, Burns, Sarah, and McMahon, David. The Central Park Five (Sundance Selects, 2012).

The Central Park Five tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of these five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice. 

Caro, Niki. North Country (Industry Entertainment, 2005).

Single mother Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) is part of a group of the first women to work at a local iron mine in Minnesota. Offended that they have to work with women, male workers at Eveleth Mines lash out at them and subject them to sexual harassment. Appalled by the constant stream of insults, sexually explicit language and physical abuse, Josey -- despite being cautioned against it by family and friends -- files a historic sexual harassment lawsuit.

Coogler, Ryan. Fruitvale Station (Significant Productions, 2013).

Though he once spent time in San Quentin, 22-year-old black man Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) is now trying hard to live a clean life and support his girlfriend (Melonie Diaz) and young daughter (Ariana Neal). Flashbacks reveal the last day in Oscar's life, in which he accompanied his family and friends to San Francisco to watch fireworks on New Year's Eve, and, on the way back home, became swept up in an altercation with police that ended in tragedy. Based on a true story. 

DuVernay, Ava. 13th (Kandoo Films, 2016).

Centered on race in the United States criminal justice system, 13th is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). DuVernay's documentary argues that slavery is being effectively perpetuated through mass incarceration. 13th has garnered acclaim from film critics. 

Eslam, Farid. Yallah: Underground (Mind Riot Media, 2015).

In a region full of tension, young artists in the Middle East have struggled for years to express themselves freely and to promote more liberal attitudes within their societies. During the Arab spring, like many others of this new Arab generation, local artists had high hopes for the future and took part in the protests. However, after years of turmoil and instability, young Arabs now have to challenge both old and new problems, being torn between feelings of disillusion and a vague hope for a better future. Yallah! Underground follows some of today's most important and progressive underground artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Israel through years of rapid change from 2009 to 2013.

Fukunaga, Cary. Beasts of No Nation (Princess Grace Foundation, 2015).

Beasts of No Nation is a 2015 American war drama film written, shot, and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, about a young boy who becomes a child soldier as his country goes through a horrific war. Shot in Ghana and starring Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, the film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala[3] ― the book itself being named after a Fela Kuti album. 

George, Terri. Hotel Rwanda (2004).

Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a Hutu, manages the Hôtel des Mille Collines and lives a happy life with his Tutsi wife (Sophie Okonedo) and their three children. But when Hutu military forces initiate a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Tutsi minority, Paul is compelled to allow refugees to take shelter in his hotel. As the U.N. pulls out, Paul must struggle alone to protect the Tutsi refugees in the face of the escalating violence later known as the Rwandan genocide. 

González Iñárritu, Alejandro. Babel (Anonymous Content, 2006).

An accident connects four groups of people on three different continents: two young Moroccan goatherds, a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a deaf Japanese teen and her father, and a Mexican nanny who takes her young charges across a border without parental permission.

Ingrasci, Zach. Temple, Chris, Leonard, Sean, and Christofferson, Ryan. Living on One Dollar (2013).

An award-winning film that has been called "A Must Watch" by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Director of The Hunger Games, Gary Ross. Living on One Dollar follows the journey of four friends as they set out to live on just $1 a day for two months in rural Guatemala. They battle hunger, parasites, and extreme financial stress as they attempt to survive life on the edge. 

Loach, Ken. I, Daniel Blake (Sixteen Films, 2016).

A 59 year old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they navigate their way through the impersonal, Kafkaesque benefits system. With equal amounts of humor, warmth and despair, the journey is heartfelt and emotional until the end.

Moore, Michael. Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore, 2015).

Presents the theory that the American dream, all but abandoned in the United States, has been adopted successfully in other countries, including Italy, France, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Tunisia, and Iceland, looking at such areas as worker benefits, public expenditure for the common good, and state-funded higher education.

Murphy, Ryan. The Normal Heart (HBO Films, 2014).

The Normal Heart is a 2014 American drama television film directed by Ryan Murphy and written by Larry Kramer, based on his own 1985 play of same name. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons, Alfred Molina, Joe Mantello, Jonathan Groff, and Julia Roberts. The film depicts the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. Weeks prefers public confrontations to the calmer, more private strategies favored by his associates, friends, and closeted lover Felix Turner (Bomer). Their differences of opinion lead to arguments that threaten to undermine their shared goals.

Nava, Gregory. El Norte (American Playhouse, 1983).

Mayan Indian peasants, tired of being thought of as nothing more than "brazos fuertes" ("strong arms", i.e., manual laborers) and organizing in an effort to improve their lot in life, are discovered by the Guatemalan army. After the army destroys their village and family, a brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decide they must flee to "El Norte" ("the North", i.e., the USA). After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, and undocumented immigrants.

Nelson, Stanley. Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Firelight Studio, 2017).

A PBS documentary and multimedia project that explores the pivotal role Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played in American history, culture, and national identity.

Nichols, Jeff. Loving (Big Beach, 2016)

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.

Peirce, Kimberly. Boys Don't Cry (Hart-Sharp Entertainment, 1999).

Young female-to-male transgender Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) leaves his hometown under threat when his ex-girlfriend's brother discovers that he's biologically female. Resettling in the small town of Falls City, Nebraska, Brandon falls for Lana (Chloë Sevigny), an aspiring singer, and begins to plan for their future together. But when her ex-convict friends, John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom (Brendan Sexton III), learn Brandon's secret, things change very quickly.

Phillips, Jenny; Kukura, Andrew; Stein, Anne Marie. The Dhamma Brothers (2007).

In 2002, psychotherapist Jenny Phillips begins intensive meditation retreats for inmates at a maximum-security prison in rural Alabama. Based on the principles of Vipassana meditation, the 10-day retreats are conducted in total silence. This documentary explores the lives of four convicted murderers before, during and after the arduous retreats, as well as reactions from residents of the nearby town of Bessemer, many of whom object to the program on religious or social grounds.

Rees, Dee. Pariah (2011).

Teenage Alike (Adepero Oduye) lives in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood with her parents (Charles Parnell, Kim Wayans) and younger sister (Sahra Mellesse). A lesbian, Alike quietly embraces her identity and is looking for her first lover, but she wonders how much she can truly confide in her family, especially with her parents' marriage already strained. When Alike's mother presses her to befriend a colleague's daughter (Aasha Davis), Alike finds the gal to be a pleasant companion.

Tanović, Tanis. No Man's Land (Fabrica, Man's Films, Studio Maj, 2001).

Ciki (Branko Djuric) and Nino (Rene Bitorajac), a Bosnian and a Serb, are soldiers stranded in No Man's Land -- a trench between enemy lines during the Bosnian war. They have no one to trust, no way to escape without getting shot, and a fellow soldier is lying on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves. The absurdity of their situation would be comical if it didn't have such dire consequences.

Van Sant, Gus. Milk (Axon Films, 2008).

In 1972, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and his then-lover Scott Smith leave New York for San Francisco, with Milk determined to accomplish something meaningful in his life. Settling in the Castro District, he opens a camera shop and helps transform the area into a mecca for gays and lesbians. In 1977 he becomes the nation's first openly gay man elected to a notable public office when he wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors. The following year, Dan White (Josh Brolin) kills Milk in cold blood.

Phillips, Jenny. Letters from the Dhamma Brothers (Pariyatti Publishing, 2008).

Through intimate letters, interviews, and stories, this narrative reveals the impact that a life-changing retreat had on a group of inmates at the highest level maximum-security state prison in Alabama. The 38 participants in the first-ever intensive, silent 10-day program inside the walls of a corrections facility—many serving life sentences without parole—detail the range of their experiences, the depth of their understanding of the Buddha’s teachings gained by direct experience, and their setbacks and successes. During the Vipassana meditation program, they face the past and their miseries and emerge with a sense of peace and purpose. This compelling story shows the capacity for commitment, self-examination, renewal, and hope within a dismal penal system and a wider culture that demonizes prisoners.

Nelson, Maggie. The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2016).

Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, offers a firsthand account of the complexities and joys of (queer) family-making. Writing in the spirit of public intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, Nelson binds her personal experience to a rigorous exploration of what iconic theorists have said about sexuality, gender, and the vexed institutions of marriage and child-rearing. Nelson's insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry of this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

~Nelson Mandela, South African civil rights activist

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.

~Bob Marley, Jamaican singer

A political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all.

~Arundhati Roy, Indian author

Peace does not just mean putting an end to violence or war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as inequality, poverty.

~Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician and activist and Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience

It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. Never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant.

~Desmond Tutu, South African civil rights activist

Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.

~Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani education activist

Bonds, Eric. Social Problems: A Human Rights Perspective (Framing 21st Century Social Issues) (Routledge, 2014).

This short book lays out a new definition for what constitutes a social problem: the violation of a group’s human rights, which are understood as commonly upheld standards about what people deserve and should be protected from in life. Evaluating U.S. society from an international human rights perspective, Bonds also stresses that human rights are necessarily political and can therefore never be part of a purely objective exercise to assess wellbeing in a particular society. His approach recognizes that there is no one single interpretation of what rights mean, and that different groups with differing interests are going to promote divergent views, some better than others. This book is ideal for undergraduate sociology courses on social problems, as well as courses on social justice and human rights.

Bullard, Robert D. and Waters, Maxine. The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution (Counterpoint, 2005).

This much anticipated follow-up to Dr. Robert D. Bullard’s highly acclaimed Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color captures the voices of frontline warriors who are battling environmental injustice and human rights abuses at the grassroots level around the world, and challenging government and industry. policies and globalization trends that place people of color and the poor at special risk.Part I presents an overview of the early environmental justice movement and highlights key leadership roles assumed by women activists. Part II examines the lives of people living in “sacrifice zones”—toxic corridors (such as Louisiana’s infamous “Cancer Alley”) where high concentrations of polluting industries are found. Part III explores land use, land rights, resource extraction, and sustainable development conflicts, including Chicano struggles in America’s Southwest. Part IV examines human rights and global justice issues, including an analysis of South Africa’s legacy of environmental racism and the corruption and continuing violence plaguing the oil-rich Niger Delta. Together, the diverse contributors to this much-anticipated follow-up anthology present an inspiring and illuminating picture of the environmental justice movement in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

De Feyter, Koen. Human Rights: Social Justice in the Age of the Market (Global Issues) (Zed Books 2013).

Koen De Feyter, who has chaired Amnesty International's Working Group on economic, social and cultural rights, shows the many ways in which rampant market economics in today's world leads to violations of human rights. He questions how far the present-day international human rights system really provides effective protection against the adverse effects of globalization. This accessible and thought-provoking book shows both human rights activists and participants in the anti-globalization movement that there is a large, but hitherto untapped, overlap in their agendas, and real potential for a strategic alliance between them in joint campaigns around issues they share.

Dittmer, John. The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care (Bloomsbury Press, 2010).

The Medical Committee for Human Rights was organized in 1964 to support civil rights activists during Mississippi's Freedom Summer. MCHR volunteers exposed racism within the American Medical Association, desegregated southern hospitals, set up free clinics in inner cities, and created the model for the community health center. They were early advocates of single-payer universal health insurance. In The Good Doctors, celebrated historian John Dittmer gives an insightful account of a group of idealists whose message and example are an inspiration to all who believe that "Health Care is a Human Right."

Echo-Hawk, Walter and James, Anaya S. In the Light of Justice: The Rise of Human Rights in Native America and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Fulcrum Publishing, 2016).

In 2007 the United Nations approved the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. United States endorsement in 2010 ushered in a new era of Indian law and policy. This book highlights steps that the United States, as well as other nations, must take to provide a more just society and heal past injustices committed against indigenous peoples.

Evans, John H. What Is a Human?: What the Answers Mean for Human Rights (Oxford University Press, 2016).

What is a human? Are humans those with human DNA, those in possession of traits like rationality, or those made in the image of God? The debate over what makes human beings unique has raged for centuries. Many think that if society accepts the wrong definition of what it is to be human, people will look at their neighbor as more of an animal, object, or machine-making maltreatment more likely. In the longest running claim, for over 150 years critics have claimed that taking a Darwinist definition results in people treating each other more like animals.

Despite their seriousness, these claims have never been empirically investigated. In this groundbreaking book John H. Evans shows that the definitions promoted by biologists and philosophers actually are associated with less support for human rights. Members of the public who agree with these definitions are less willing to sacrifice to stop genocides and are more supportive of buying organs from poor people, of experimenting on prisoners against their will, and of torturing people to potentially save lives. It appears that the critics are right.

However, Evans finds that few Americans agree with these academic definitions. Looking at how most of the public defines humanity, we see a much more nuanced picture. In a fascinating account, he shows that the dominant definitions are unlikely to lead to human rights abuses. He concludes that the critics are right about the definitions of a human promoted by academic biologists and philosophers, and are therefore justified in their vigilance. However, because at present few Americans agree with these definitions, the academic definitions would have to spread much more extensively before impacting how the general public acts. Evans' book is a major corrective to the more than century-long debate about the impact of definitions of a human.

Gill, Aisha and Anitha, Sundari. Forced Marriage: Introducing a Social Justice and Human Rights Perspective (Zed Books, 2012).

Forced Marriage: Introducing a social justice and human rights perspective brings together leading practitioners and researchers from the disciplines of criminology, sociology and law. Together the contributors provide an international, multi-disciplinary perspective that offers a compelling alternative to prevailing conceptualisations of the problem of forced marriage. This unique book, which is informed by practitioner insights and academic research, is essential reading for practitioners and students of sociology, criminology, gender studies and law.

Goodheart, Michael. Human Rights: Politics and Practice, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Featuring twenty-two chapters written by a multidisciplinary group of international experts, Human Rights: Politics and Practice, Second Edition, is designed for politics students. Offering unparalleled breadth and depth of coverage, it takes students beyond a purely legal perspective with discussions of core theoretical approaches and detailed studies of major issues. The first seven chapters introduce the main theoretical issues and challenges in the study of human rights as a political phenomenon. The following fifteen thematic chapters offer detailed analysis and case studies of such key issues as economic globalization, genocide, the environment, and humanitarian intervention. The book is enhanced by pedagogical features and in-depth, concrete examples. A Companion Website provides web links and a flashcard glossary for students and a test bank and PowerPoint-based lecture slides for instructors.

Ife, Jim. Human Rights and Social Work (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Human rights ideals are at the pinnacle of contemporary social work practice and international political discourse. Yet in recent years, with the heightened threat of terrorism, we have begun to witness an erosion of many traditional civil liberties. Set against this backdrop, the revised edition of Human Rights and Social Work moves beyond the limitations of conventional legal frameworks. With customary clarity and ease of style, Jim Ife challenges the notion of the 'three generations of human rights', teasing out the conceptual problems of this approach and demonstrating how the three generations actually overlap at an intrinsic level. Essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners alike, this book shows how an implicit understanding of human rights principles can provide a foundation for practice that is central to social work, community development and the broader human services.

Jackson, Thomas F. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice (Politics and Culture in Modern America) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).

Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely celebrated as an American civil rights hero. Yet King's nonviolent opposition to racism, militarism, and economic injustice had deeper roots and more radical implications than is commonly appreciated, Thomas F. Jackson argues in this searching reinterpretation of King's public ministry. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, King was influenced by and in turn reshaped the political cultures of the black freedom movement and democratic left. His vision of unfettered human rights drew on the diverse tenets of the African American social gospel, socialism, left-New Deal liberalism, Gandhian philosophy, and Popular Front internationalism.

King's early leadership reached beyond southern desegregation and voting rights. As the freedom movement of the 1950s and early 1960s confronted poverty and economic reprisals, King championed trade union rights, equal job opportunities, metropolitan integration, and full employment. When the civil rights and antipoverty policies of the Johnson administration failed to deliver on the movement's goals of economic freedom for all, King demanded that the federal government guarantee jobs, income, and local power for poor people. When the Vietnam war stalled domestic liberalism, King called on the nation to abandon imperialism and become a global force for multiracial democracy and economic justice.

Drawing widely on published and unpublished archival sources, Jackson explains the contexts and meanings of King's increasingly open call for "a radical redistribution of political and economic power" in American cities, the nation, and the world. The mid-1960s ghetto uprisings were in fact revolts against unemployment, powerlessness, police violence, and institutionalized racism, King argued. His final dream, a Poor People's March on Washington, aimed to mobilize Americans across racial and class lines to reverse a national cycle of urban conflict, political backlash, and policy retrenchment. King's vision of economic democracy and international human rights remains a powerful inspiration for those committed to ending racism and poverty in our time.

Kesselring, Rita. Bodies of Truth: Law, Memory, and Emancipation in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Stanford Studies in Human Rights) (Stanford University Press, 2016).

Bodies of Truth offers an intimate account of how apartheid victims deal with the long-term effects of violence, focusing on the intertwined themes of embodiment, injury, victimhood, and memory. In 2002, victims of apartheid-era violence filed suit against multinational corporations, accusing them of aiding and abetting the security forces of the apartheid regime. While the litigation made its way through the U.S. courts, thousands of victims of gross human rights violations have had to cope with painful memories of violence. They have also confronted an official discourse claiming that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the 1990s sufficiently addressed past injuries. This book shows victims' attempts to emancipate from their experiences by participating in legal actions, but also by creating new forms of sociality among themselves and in relation to broader South African society.

Lundy, Colleen. Social Work, Social Justice, and Human Rights: A Structural Approach to Practice, Second Edition (University of Toronto Press, 2011).

Social workers take pride in their commitment to social and economic justice, peace, and human rights, and in their responses to related inequalities and social problems. At a time when economic globalization, armed conflict, and ecological devastation continue to undermine human rights and the possibilities for social justice, the need for linking a structural analysis to social work practice is greater than ever. The second edition of this popular social work practice text more fully addresses the connection between social justice and human rights. It includes a discussion of social work's role in promoting peace and responding to environmental problems. It also places a greater attention on the links between social work theories/concepts and practice skill/responses. The text has been updated and revised throughout with four new chapters: social work and human rights, cultural competence and practice with immigrant communities, social work and mental health communities, and practice with couples and families. Detailed case studies demonstrate the integration of theory, policy, and practice.

Mapp, Susan C. Human Rights and Social Justice in a Global Perspective: An Introduction to International Social Work (Oxford University Press, 2007).

An eye-opening overview of international human rights and social justice, this exemplary introductory text focuses on current global problems of pressing concern for social workers. Susan Mapp addresses difficult topics such as healthcare, violence against women, war and conflict, forced labor, and child soldiers in an accessible manner that encourages students to think critically about such problems, research the issues, and get involved with organizations that are working on them. The content comes alive with brief but vivid narratives of individuals suffering from these social problems, and with suggestions for what students can do to create change: both now and what they will be able to do as professionals. Mapp analyzes problems in their cultural contexts to help the reader understand how they developed, why they persist, and what the local and international responses, both governmental and nongovernmental, have been. As the world becomes ever more interconnected and problems in the Global South affect those in the North, this volume will educate and empower the next generation of social workers to effect real change in the world.

Morrison, Toni. Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality. (Pantheon, 1992).

It was perhaps the most wretchedly aspersive race and gender scandal of recent times: the dramatic testimony of Anita Hill at the Senate hearings on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. Yet even as the televised proceedings shocked and galvanized viewers not only in this country but the world over, they cast a long shadow on essential issues that define America. In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, Toni Morrison contributes an introduction and brings together eighteen provocative essays, all but one written especially for this book, by prominent and distinguished academicians—black and white, male and female. These writings powerfully elucidate not only the racial and sexual but also the historical, political, cultural, legal, psychological, and linguistic aspects of a signal and revelatory moment in American history.

NA NA and Power, Samantha. Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

At the dawn of a new era, this book brings together leading activists, policy-makers and critics to reflect upon fifty years of attempts to improve respect for human rights. Authors include President Jimmy Carter, who helped inject human rights concerns into US policy; Wei Jingsheng, who struggled to do so in China; Louis Henkin, the modern "father" of international law, and Richard Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav and Rwandan war crimes tribunals. A half-century since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the time is right to assess how policies and actions effect the realization of human rights and to point to new directions and challenges that lie ahead. A must have for everyone in the human rights community and the broader foreign policy community as well as the reader who is increasingly aware of the visibility of human rights concerns on the public stage.

Rothberg, Shaiya. Human Rights as Mashiach - A Jewish Theology of Human Rights (City of Justice Press – Jerusalem, 2013).

While religion is sometimes the enemy of human dignity, it can also be a powerful force for its protection. When John Woolman, an American Quaker born in 1720, began preaching that faithfulness to God requires abolishing slavery, he ignited a religious passion that helped facilitate the global paradigm shift that outlawed human bondage across the planet. That religious passion united humanity's moral intuition with her awe in the face of God's creation; it wove the mysterious and enthralling presence of the divine into the love that humans can know for the other. The time has come to preach global moral responsibility: God commands that we enact a "human covenant" to protect and nurture all human beings. While all doctrines may be criticized and all laws revised, the confidence that humanity has placed in human rights establishes them as the foundation of that sacred effort.

Schaffer, Kay and Smith, Sidonie. Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (Palgrave Macmillan , 2004).

Personal narratives have become one of the most potent vehicles for advancing human rights claims across the world. These two contemporary domains, personal narrative and human rights, literature and international politics, are commonly understood to operate on separate planes. This study however, examines the ways these intersecting realms unfold and are enfolded in one another in ways both productive of and problematic for the achievement of social justice. Human Rights and Narrated Lives explores what happens when autobiographical narratives are produced, received, and circulated in the field of human rights. It asks how personal narratives emerge in local settings; how international rights discourse enables and constrains individual and collective subjectivities in narration; how personal narratives circulate and take on new meanings in new contexts; and how and under what conditions they feed into, affect, and are affected by the reorganizations of politics in the post cold war, postcolonial, globalizing human rights contexts. To explore these intersections, the authors attend the production, circulation, reception, and affective currents of stories in action across local, national, transnational, and global arenas. They do so by looking at five case studies: in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation processes in South Africa; the National Inquiry into the Forced Removal of Indigenous Children from their Families in Australia; activism on behalf of former 'comfort women' from South/East Asia; U.S. prison activism; and democratic reforms in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China.

Schweiger, Gottfried and Graf, Gunter. A Philosophical Examination of Social Justice and Child Poverty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

This book investigates child poverty from a philosophical perspective. It identifies the injustices of child poverty, relates them to the well-being of children, and discusses who has a moral responsibility to secure social justice for children.

Wronka, Joseph M. Human Rights and Social Justice: Social Action and Service for the Helping and Health Professions (SAGE Publication, 2016).

Offering a unique perspective that views human rights as the foundation of social justice, Joseph Wronka’s groundbreaking Human Rights and Social Justice outlines human rights and social justice concerns as a powerful conceptual framework for policy and practice interventions for the helping and health professions. This highly accessible, interdisciplinary text urges the creation of a human rights culture as a “lived awareness” of human rights principles, including human dignity, nondiscrimination, civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, and solidarity rights. The Second Edition includes numerous social action activities and questions for discussion to help scholars, activists, and practitioners promote a human rights culture and the overall well-being of populations across the globe.