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WAKE UP AMERICA by Keisha N. Blain

WAKE UP AMERICA

Black Women on the Future of Democracy

edited by Keisha N. Blain

Pub Date: Feb. 13th, 2024
ISBN: 9781324065609
Publisher: Norton

Black women leaders demonstrate how we can create “an inclusive and multiracial democracy.”

Echoing Fannie Lou Hamer’s call to “wake up” to the urgency of addressing the unfinished business of “building democracy,” Blain, author of Until I Am Free and Set the World on Fire, brings together an impressive roster of Black women to discuss some of the most divisive issues facing us today. Among other topics, the contributors address reproductive and voting rights, racial equity in health care, equal pay, economic justice, and disability and LGBTQ+ rights. In the introduction, Blain astutely notes that Black women, having historically endured the most brutal deprivation of citizenship and human rights, “are uniquely positioned to combat injustices in our society.” They’re also the most dedicated voting bloc in America today. In the first part of the book, Laphonza Butler, former president of EMILYs List, recently appointed as California senator after the death of Dianne Feinstein, writes about how the devastating rollback of Roe v. Wade in 2022 should only reenergize the movement to elect pro-choice women to public office. Raquel Willis movingly argues that despite increased visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, the voices of trans people continue to be sidelined. In the second part, “Building Power,” Dr. Rhea Boyd weighs in on racial inequity in the broken American health care system, and Donna Brazile discusses what she is known for as a Democratic strategist: breaking through sexist barriers to initiate “coalition building.” In the final section, “Combating Hate,” contributors take on the systematic and often violent indignities that still confront Black Americans. Dr. Jacqui Lewis writes eloquently about the Zulu concept of ubuntu, or the fierce sense of humanity that binds us all. Most contributors offer a historical context and specific strategies for moving forward.

A dynamic chorus of voices leading the way in bolstering a true democracy.