The Inclusive Corporation By Griff Hogan (2003)

This book I picked up to expand my knowledge on what companies can do to make their companies more ADA/accessible. I was looking into this subject because of how my research into the VA failing its employees made me want to learn more about even simple things places like the VA could do if they not only cared enough for their employees, but also just wanted to meet the legal requirements under ADA. (For more on the VA and employee abuse check out our sister blog Health's Battle Field). This book I found at the Auraria campus library, so it was there to serve as a learning tool for college students, more then likely in either health programs or business programs.

Notes:
-nearly 50% of people over age 65 have some type of disability (P14). This is a key point that people forget about and that how people like to pretend that younger people also are not disabled. Another thing this book does not go into is also people being overweight. Many Americans are overweight yet people keep making chairs that are not meant to fit people of all sizes (like chairs with arms on them).
-Curb-Cut Effect is where making changes to the environment to help the disabled also ends up helping the general population as well (P14). Like elevators helping people carrying things not have to worry about balancing as they try to climb the stairs.

-(P23) I liked how this book pointed out benches "for the fatigued" as an ADA accommodation that some places are offering. This showed a deeper understanding of how doing things to be ADA friendly can also help out the larger population.

-(P34) Businesses thought that following ADA would cost them huge sums of money, but most have had little to no direct expense for following the Act.

-One place where people can file complaints is with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I think that this book would be a good introduction for leaders in companies to read. I feel from personal experience and my research that companies will do whatever they can from not following ADA. This is made easy for them since in our country it is so hard to hold companies responsible for violations and no one in the higher levels of government seem concerned at holding them accountable. Unless CEOs, Presidents, and managers start caring and making books like this required readings in their businesses no change will happen. I would recommend this book even though it is dry reading for the most part.

Top Picture From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4825890-the-inclusive-corporation

The Diversity Delusion by Heather Mac Donald (2018)

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture. Heather Mac Donald. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2018.

Below is an example of super critical reading and analysis. I know for many it takes up a lot of time (for me it takes up a lot of time), but breaking the book down and doing additional research as you read are key in learning about any subject. For this book I not only did a review, but pulled parts of it out to show you examples of how to read a text critically. Sorry for the length of this post.

One of the things I noticed about this book is that Donald likes to call people she disagrees with anarchists. This made me question my definition of the word so I decided to look it up. So according to the dictionary on the we and anarchist is "a person who advocates or promotes anarchism or anarchy" and then anarchism is "a political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion" (AS2&3). So I wasn't wrong in my understanding of the word. In our society we usually go with the first part of the definition where it is someone that wants to reduce or have no government and not that other definition. She only seems to focus on this last definition and uses it more as a way to dehumanize those who protest against her. If we wanted a real example of the last definition

One of the things I do when I read books is I look into the author. By work she has experience in writing, journalism, and law. Basically the same fields that a lot of politicians come from. She currently holds both a BA and and MA in English (BA from Yale and MA from Cambridge) and then a JD from Stanford. So basically her education is one that shows super privilege (AS1). I feel like if maybe at least one of her degrees would have been from a state school it would have been more meaningful vs just having the who's who of schools. One thing I have learned about education after working in higher education for years is that the price tag of your degree doesn't represent its actual value. These high end schools give a very limited world view to their students and their curriculum isn't all that different for each topic then you would find at any other schools. So, while she may look impressive on paper in reality here over all scope of not just the topic for this book, but in general is very limited.

The resources she used for this book were very much cherry picked with few counter articles to her points used. She also relied on interviews with people on other communications which are opinion based and not always fact based. The people she used for these were also a limited pool of people that may have fit the story she was trying to tell instead of a diverse group of experts.

Overall the only thing this book is good for is raising a few questions that will lead me to do more research in certain areas. As someone that has worked in higher education for years her lack of knowledge on not only higher education, but on society and humanity in general glares for anyone with any basic knowledge set. Her books need detailed foot notes, better references, and less opinion if she is going for anything that could be seen as a piece of factual nonfiction. 1 star out of 5 or a F-. 

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Detailed Breakdown

"History should convey the hard work it took over centuries to carve stability and prosperity out of violence, tyranny, and corruption." (P4) So this is one of the few things that she says that I do agree with. This actually shows a deeper understanding of history that people need to have. History is not just a bunch of dates and events, but an evolving creature that can bite us if be do not pay attention to all of its small clues.

"Masked anarchists use force to block conservatives from speaking in public forums." (P4) People have the right to say who they want to speak on their campus because that is their area and not the speaker's. If a speaker is having a hard time finding a place to speak without major disruption then the speaker should think about what they are saying and the impact that it has on people. If they feel that they are non-biased on a subject, such as Donald thinks she is on say police topics, then she needs to look at how she is presenting things. Like if she is using statistics, instead of just throwing out a number, then she should provide the source right there (maybe in a PowerPoint) so that people can check the source on their phones if they have an issue with the number she has given. It seems that a lot of her issues is that she does not know how to present information. I would think that someone with her education would, but it seems that she either does not have these skills or chooses not to use them. Either way it hurts her. Also on top of this I was able to find that she doesn't always have the correct numbers or reliable sources of information. For example when fact checked about statistics she actually gave has testimony it turned out she got a random number from a random LA Police Officer with nothing to back it up, yet she tried to use it as actual proof for what she was saying (AS4). So she uses bad information and a lawyer should know better then to spread misinformation or heresay.

"Asked if the demand to efface the course raised free speech problems, the student dismissed the First Amendment as an "outdated" law "written by a bunch of white men." It is a certainty that she has read neither the amendment nor the history of the Bill of Rights." (P5) As a historian I can 100% say that Donald is wrong and that the student is much closer to understanding the Constitution/Bill of Rights then she is. These are very outdated. All we would have to look at for example is the right to bear arms that conservatives like to focus so much on. If the founding fathers knew what kind of mass killing weapons we today call "guns" I think that they would not have written the second amendment how they did. Guns back then were slow to load and could not hold the crazy amount of bullets that our modern 'guns' can. This shows how outdated it is. We try to change the laws to adapt to the current times since older things just do not apply and our constantly evolving society needs to be adaptable instead of relying on outdated information. Like when it comes to freedom of speech I have a feeling the founding fathers never even dreamed of anything like the internet and the mass bullying and misinformation that would run amuck.    

"As for "We, few"'s gross misreading of my work, it showed that reading skills are in short supply at the Claremont colleges as writing skills." (P20) Those shows how she is quick to tear down anyone who disagrees with her views and writings with a personal attack which is one of the things she seems to dislike others doing to her. This statement is not based on any type of direct fact, but is just a generalization that there is no evidence for. This is a form of hypocritical behavior.

"Colleges today are determined to preserve in many of their students the thin skin and solipsism of adolescence." (Forgot to write down the page number). I can say that I do not disagree that some colleges do baby students. It is true that many colleges do not teach students to 'adult' and help them develop bad skills through to much hand holding and bending backwards that will negatively impact them in the real world. This is one of the few things I did agree with.

"...if the so-called stereotype threat really were inhibiting minorities from showing what they know and can do, standardized tests should predict that black and Hispanic students will do worse in college than they actually do." (47).

Unreliable resources: For example in chapter 4 (P83) she mentions some specific numbers from some 2004 study that was published in Social Science Quarterly, but the name of the study was missing and this source from the notes at the back of the book. This means that she could have easily made up these numbers because no one can fact check her with so little information. Writing this way shows bad research and writing skills.

In chapter 3 she talks about the Arcidiacono paper. One of the things this paper looked at was black students that hard started out in science majors, changing their program to 'easier' programs once they realized that they couldn't keep up with the academic challenges of their initial program. This is something that I think needs to be studied more in general. From my experience in a registrar's office, there are always a lot of change of program forms to process and some students change their program more than once. I think that more research is needed on why students change their program in general and then on the specific demographics related to those changes. Peter Arcidiacono, Esteban M. Auceju, and Ken Spenner, "What Happens after Enrollment? An Analysis of the Time Path of Racial Differences in GPA and Major Choice," IZA Journal of Labor Economics 1, no. 5 (Oct. 2012). https://izajole.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-8997-1-5.

Chapter 6 is riddle with miss information about rape and rape culture. As a woman it shows no understand of rape and no care to the victims.

Chapter 7 shows her lack of understand about sexual freedom vs. unwanted touching. 

Her part 2 section that focused on gender actually focused on sexual assault mostly male on female. This section showed not only a lack of empathy for the victims, but again a lack of understanding of the victim experience.

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Important Questions 

Below are some questions that the book did raise for me to look into more.

1. What are the retention rates at schools for affirmative-action students and minority students when compared to the general school population and other populations (like first generation students)?

2. What research has been done into why students change their program of study and is the links to race and early education success?

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Additional Sources

1. "Heather Mac Donald." Manhattan Institute. Accessed February 27, 2024. https://www.citationmachine.net/bibliographies/0eb4c7ff-5d89-4084-9c9f-247b15d508e7

2. "Anarchism" https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=85af15397c77c0f6&rlz=1C1GCEW_enUS1087US1088&sxsrf=ACQVn0_plsSYlg9N0dArpIcwY0uKHHBuEA:1709068943746&q=anarchism&si=AKbGX_onJk-q0LQUYzV7-GRhpJ5D6TuRxjcESSzFd44Dt1FqHkSU5aolofXqUlmCzqZO_JXRUcZ2acEDzlf9hpDjSKDbfQrfL35uQnApwQAizkGg_vg0ojA%3D&expnd=1

3. "Anarchist" https://www.google.com/search?q=anarchist&rlz=1C1GCEW_enUS1087US1088&oq=anarchist&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDwgAEEUYORiDARixAxiABDINCAEQABiDARixAxiABDINCAIQABiDARixAxiABDIMCAMQABhDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIMBGLEDGIAEMgcIBRAAGIAEMgoIBhAAGLEDGIAEMgcIBxAAGIAEMgcICBAuGIAEMgcICRAAGIAEqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

4. Jacobson, Louis, and Miriam Valverde. “Politifact - Fact-Checking an Immigration Meme That’s Been Circulating for More than a Decade.” @politifact, July 5, 2018. https://www.politifact.com/article/2018/jul/05/fact-checking-immigration-meme-s-been-circulating-/. 

To Read: The Victim's Revolution and Tenured Radicals (two separate books), The War on Cops, When Race Trumps Merit, The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan than Today's.

Top Picture From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38492016-the-diversity-delusion

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Additional things to Research:

-Implicit Association Test and it's connection to the National Science Foundation and Institute of Mental Health.

The War in Israel and Related Book Reviews

When asked about why there was a war going on I tried to explain the ongoing fight in the Middle East and the role that religion has played in it. I have studied the Middle East both formally and also just doing my own research. At the same time I felt like even I who had an understanding of the situation needed to dig deeper. So I decided to check out some books on the topic and one of the ones I found at the Auraria Campus Library was Hamas A Beginner's Guide by Khaled Hroub.

The first thing I did with this book was read the quick little blur about the author, which clued me into that this specific book was going to be at least somewhat biased. It turned out that this book was not only super biased, but could serve as outright propaganda for Hamas. There is a lot of cherry picking, misinformation, and a misrepresentation of both history and religion in this book. As both a historian and anthropologist I think that this was actually one of the most blatant examples of bad information I have seen in all of my years doing research. I was super disappointed that a person that would try to pass off this book as factual would work at Cambridge University. It lowered this school in my opinion and I don't even know if you can take them or the people that work for them seriously now.

In the first part of the book he tries to make an argument that Hamas only has issues with the people they see as Jewish colonizers of their land and that they say that they will not carry out attacks outside of this focus. This directly goes against what we have seen in the recent attacks the Hamas have done. They attacked a concert with civilians and also took Americans hostage and killed Americans. Also while watching NHK (2:05pm on 10/12/23) they were also talking about Tai citizens being killed and injured. Tai workers are common in agriculture in Israel. This shows Hamas just openly killing everyone and don't even follow their own moral code of just focusing on the Palestine/Israel issue. They have proven themselves killers of everyone and a danger to humanity globally for they are not attacking military targets, but common people and tourists. He also kept talking of a Zionism push to control the thinking of the rest of the world. Conspiracy theories do not make for any real life facts. This could only hold ground if most of the world had converted to Judaism and that the world had no free thinkers. It shows how little he thinks about the mental capabilities of non-Muslims. Historically he glazes over the whole reason why the British took over Palestine was because Palestine had sided with the Nazis during the war. This is a major thing that he just quickly mentions then moves on instead of digging into how Palestine is responsible for what happened to itself and the rise of Israel. He tries to divert blame to the West instead of how horrible it was that Palestine took up the Nazi cause. This is a form of classic cherry picking.

Chapter 3 was a real mess since Hroub was trying to play off what anti-Semitism/anti-Jew meant to the point that he was trying to justify their discrimination of people. He said that they couldn't be anti-Semite because they were Semite. Wrong, yes some of the Jewish beliefs/practices are a part of their faith, but everything else is warped and changed to a point that it is a different religion. Also he defeats his own argument then about the Jews being colonizers if they are the same as the Muslims. Also by recognizing that Islam came from the Jewish faith it would show that the Jewish people also have older rights to the land that they are 'occupying' and that these rights are older then any Islamic right. This is a key thing that he avoids addressing since it could strip away any argument that the Hamas might have about land control. 

I would say only read this book if you want a glimpse of how distorted the perception is of those that support Hamas. It could also be good as a study on propaganda trying to pass as fact. I say it is important to read books like this just so that you can be aware of what is out there.

Notes:

-"Hamas considers itself to be an old tradition that goes back to the early twentieth century struggle against British and Zionist colonialism in Palestine." (P16) This shows how they are not willing to accept the reason why the British took over the government for awhile. After the war the allies of Germany were subjected to administration by foreign governments. They were responsible for this because they choose to side with Germany and all of the horrible things the Germans were doing including to the Jews. Hamas and Palestine is in denial of how horrible their history and that they have a history of support violence even before the birth of Israel.  

-"Hamas's social and educational activities in the Occupied Territories have become so interwoven within the Palestinian community that neither the Israelis nor their peace partners in the Palestinian Authority have been able to extricate them one from the other." (P17) This shows how Hamas has worked to infest the daily life of Palestinians, and how supporting Palestine in any way actively supports Hamas's violence, rapes, murders, and overall terrorist activities. Remember that the author of this book is a Palestinian and he is showing that there is no difference between Palestinians and Hamas and he is actively showing how all Palestinians are guilty of supporting terrorist activities.

-P70 shows how Hamas is using its charities to keep support form the general population in Palestinians. 

-P70 also shows how Hamas did a military fundraiser in the Gaza area and local people donated around $1.2 million US dollars to directly support Hamas's military/terrorist/murderous activities. This is a Palestinian showing that the general population of the Gaza was willing to financially support Hamas's terrorist activities. He is showing how the Palestinians are not victims, but even the general population is part of Hamas's terrorist activities. No one is innocent in Gaza based on what Hroub presented.

-"...feed Hamas with sustained support and popularity among the Palestinians." (P133) More that shows that you can not separate Hamas from the general Palestine population.

-On the Islamization of society, " Hamas persistently justifies this stance by arguing that these aspects reflect the true aspirations of society." (143)

Lebanon by Jan McDaniel

Another book I read Lebanon by Jan McDaniel which had been sitting in my house for awhile. I had gotten it for free from the Aurora Public Library when they cleared out some of their books. This was a much more neutral/less biased book. One of the things that this book looked at was the failure of the Reagan administration in relation to it's lack of a response to terrorism including when Americans were killed. It could be this lack of response that could have also led to the 9/11 attacks because it showed the US as being weak. It also showed how the US was willing to try and still be friends with/work with Lebanon even when the country harbors terrorists and refuses to clean up their own country in relation to those groups and violence within the country. This book made me really think about why the US would invest so much money in a country when that money by proxy helps terrorists. I think that the US should really cut back on our relations with Lebanon until they do the work internally to show that they are willing to be a part of a peaceful world. I would recommend this book for those seeking quick information, but it helps if you have at least a base understanding of the history of the region. 3 stars out of 5 or a C. At least I didn't find obvious misinformation about history or religion in it.

Jordan by Anna Carew-Miller

This book I had gotten at the same time as the above book and is from the same series. This book did focus of the stronger connection that Jordan has with the US then many other countries in the region. At the same time it also showed how Jordan has failed the global community by its inability to deal with terrorist organizations within its boarders. The common people have the ability to say no and stand join together to fight against those who think it is ok to hurt others and yet they don't. This seems to be a pattern in the Middle East where the people there just stand aside and allow the terrorist organizations do whatever they like if they do not actively join them. It seems like book after book that I read, even those written by those from the Middle East show this same failure of both the leaders of these countries and the people themselves.

*NHK is a Japanese news station, and I recommend that people watch international news stations to get a full picture of what is going on. For example Tai workers being impacted by the war is not being covered in the US news I have seen and NHK covered this topic recently. This shows how more cultural groups are impacted then just those that make the headlines.

Picture 1 From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6633954-hamas
Picture 2 From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27064159-lebanon
Picture 3 From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27064151-jordan

Confronting Race: Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815-1915 By Glenda Riley

I read this book as the last book for the last project of my Master degree in Humanities with a concentration in US History looking at JEDI topics. We were required to pick from a list of well known Western authors and do a biography of them while also doing a dive into their works. I picked Glenda Riley because we had already touched upon her in case and from that I knew that she had focused on women's topics and Native Americans, both topics that I was focusing on. It was also great when I found a hard copy of the book at the library at the college I work at.

This book looks at the interactions between white women and Native Americans on the Western frontier. The book is mostly looking at the white experience and views because Riley couldn't get much from the Native perspective. She talks about the difficulty of getting the Native experience due to no written records on their side. It would have been great if she would have interviewed living Natives to see if they had any oral stories that could have given a better perspective from the Native side. It would also have been good if she would have looked at other frontier women then just the white side, like by bring in black voices as well. She did look at some other groups like the Mormons to compare how white women treated them vs Native women. The book does a good job introducing readers to some complex topics, but the one-sidedness of the book makes it feel incomplete. Even with this I would give it 4 stars out of 5 or a B+ because if nothing else it makes you think about how different topics around race and gender can be complex or impacted by outside factors that you may never have thought of.

When it comes to the author she is well know, but when I was trying to do research on her I found a lot of conflicting information on everything from her birthdate to where she got her degrees. It actually came to the point where I felt that there had to be several different Glenda Rileys doing Western history. I was surprised by this since she is so well known.

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Key things that stood out:

"His bellicosity was absolute: "last winter we killed one tribe off and will have to kill a few more before we can make them behave. That is the way to convert them to the Mormon faith."" (189). This came from a Mormon in Utah. It shows how religion has been used historically to justify killing and hurting people.

"Many despised Catholic priests for establishing sexual liaisons with native women." (196) Pain and suffering inflected on people by the Christian church as known no limits. Has the above showed a different form of Christianity also hurting people, the Catholic church has a long history of this where sexual abuse continues into even the present day because of no one standing up to them.

"Individually and gradually, women learned to perceive the divergence between types of Indians, to realize that different groups possessed different qualities, and to reject the image of "Indian" as one amorphous collection of people." (155) Reading this at the time I did had a huge impact on me. It was during the time when the Denver Museum of Nature and history had announced that they would be closing the Native American exhibit because a few Natives took offense to what was in there. Instead of just making changes to the exhibit like updating language the museum staff chose to erase Native Americans. The museum thought that these few Native Americans spoke for all Native Americans, which even this line in this books shows that not all Natives are the same and that they are not all of the same opinion. This could even be seen where Natives were making complaints on the museum's Facebook and Instagram pages and the museum was actively choosing to not listen to the larger Native population in the Denver Metro area. Melissa (Stoltz) Bechhoefer the current Director of Integrative Collections and past Anthropology Collections Manager (NAGPRA Coordinator) is one of the museum staff behind this blatant cultural bias (also is responsible for how they are treating their Egyptian exhibit in relation since they are fine keeping a person's body on display). For a person that has a Masters in Museum and Field Studies and what looks like dual BAs in Archaeology and Geology, she should know better. At the same time after working in higher ed for nearly 20 years I know that a lot of people get degrees that don't really deserve them. Her actions in relation to this topic clearly show that she was not paying attention to some of the most basic topics that both her archaeology and museum degrees should have covered. Right now history, museums, and culture are in a sad state in Colorado due to the actions of the Denver Museum and this book would actually be a good required reading for their staff and maybe they might learn something.

Info on Melissa Bechhoefer came from her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-bechhoefer-94485a1a4/

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Top Picture From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6350025-confronting-race

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan By Sarah Kovner

 

This was one of the books I used for my thesis when I was looking at the impact that American women and American concepts of feminism had on the Japanese during the time of occupation after WWII. This book showed how a lot of the impacts that American concepts had on Japan were very negative when it came to the lives of everyday people due to nothing really being followed through. Even after occupation these negative impacts continued. This book was very insightful on how American concepts can impact others who are not culturally prepared and how detailed plans are needed to help the general populace adapt to rapid changes. It also shows how many times America thinks it's better then everyone else when they really aren't. One example of this that stood out to me was the sections on VD. The US had gotten rid of prostitution because of how evil they thought it was and its supposed links to VD. Japan had legalized and illegal prostitution and yet their percentage of VD was much lower the the US's and it was actually allied servicemen that were bringing in VD to the Japanese. In the case of prostitution it was that allied powers that were the issue. This shows how the US government was quick to point fingers at everyone except themselves and their fight for power over something did more harm then good.

Sarah Kovner is one of the major names in research on Japan. Most of her works focus on issues around womanhood and power struggles. If you are interested on learning deeper cultural competency on the Japanese, Sarah Kovner is one of the people that you need to read her works.

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-Biracial children were unwanted and dark-skinned children were the target of discrimination. (70)

- The Punishment of Prostitution and Related Activities Bill of 1948 "did not provide for rehabilitation, either through the court system or through welfare institutions." (104)

-One Japanese researcher at the time found what rehab facilities were running turned women into bond servants where they did piece work and got no money while the people running them got "exorbitant salaries". (111)

-112, religion played into these changes including Christianity. 

-116, this part of the book talked about how peer pressure and outside of the country influence played a role. Japan was wanting to become a UN member and it was thought that getting rid of prostitution would make them look better.

-The law "mandated that each prefecture set up a women's consultation office" (to provide resources and job training) but only 8 of 42 did. (137) This shows how no real support was given to women when their jobs was taken away.

-One group of boys (young kids) were arrested for gang-raping eight girls and they said they did it because the Prostitution Prevention Law  stopped them from being able to meet their sexual desires. (138) This shows how taking this outlet became a danger to women.

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Top Picture From: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21270

When Everything Changed By Gail Collins

 When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present By Gail Collins

This was one of the text books that were a required read for my graduate class on American women's history. First off let's look at Gail Collins who is a professional journalist and a woman. So being a woman or a journalist doesn't make her a subject matter expert, but both could help her get access to what she needed for the book and to add an emotional level to the book. Just because she is a woman doesn't make her an expert on women because life experiences makes each story different, but she does have a lot of references that she used and the research does look relatively extensive. Also the historian in me didn't see any red flags with what she was presenting and she put everything together in a way that is easy to read.

The book itself I felt was good. I actually found myself tearing up every now and then including when she was writing about things that have not really improved much even today. Women's rights in the US are going backwards due to a huge religious push from people that thinks it is right to force their religious beliefs on people and strip those people of the rights over their own bodies. The conservative party in the US are acting to take away the rights of people and the worst part are the women members that are joining in undoing everything that the women that came before them had fought so hard to get. This is why I was personally impacted while reading this book. It showed both how far we have came and how much we are being pushed back down. It was also great that she looked at a diverse group of women and even different sexualities. I would recommend this book to people that are both interested in women's studies and American history. I am really glad that this book was a part of my graduate program. 

Notes:

-One of the things that stood out to me was how white women trying to help the black movements/organizations were forced to stay behind in the office typing instead of going out into the community and doing what other black activists were doing by the people they were trying to support (147). It showed how there was racism coming blacks/African Americans against even the people that was trying to help them. Also in this section Josie Bass was quoted saying, "But part of my anger of racism was the anger of how black men treated black women and blamed it on racism" (147). This also showed how racism is used to then justify hurting other groups and minorities. Racism is used as a scapegoat a lot of the time to justify actions that should not happen for any reason. 

-Another thing that stood out was the fight over how feminists dressed even within the group (202). Even Betty Friedan got in on it. To me this went back to focusing too much on physical appearance. It shouldn't matter how someone looks. Women should be able to dress however they feel and still be given the same respect. There are days I live in sweats and days when I enjoy dressing up. One should not be valued over the other, but this fight that was going on back then is still around today. You can tell this by going shopping in these two different dress styles. You will get better service if you are dress like you are put together (higher cost clothing, makeup, and the like) verses wearing more comfy clothes. I have caught workers following my mother around a store based on how she was dressed until I called them out for it. This is a very classist thing that shows how much of our issues are actually focused on this and the perceptions that people build based on how others look. It is so much more then just race.

-Building off this Collins also does go into body image. One of her lines was really shocking to me. "The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons announced in 1983 that there was good reason to believe that small breasts 'are really a disease' since they create 'a total lack of well-being'" (297). This was horrible where people in such a position of perceived power (being a group of doctors) could impact the cultural concept of body image so much. We still have issues with this today where female celebrities have to face their worth being judged by what they look like (this also happens to common people as well).

Overall for me this book showed how we are still fighting many of the issues that the women that came before us have been fighting for not only hundreds, but thousands of years. Every time it looks like we are making progress, something happens and sets us back again.

Book Reviews July-September 2021

Children's Books

All of the below books I found at the public library. One day I had taken off of work I decided to go and see what books they had for kids under DEI topics and these were some of the ones I actually pulled out and sat there reading. It may have looked weird for an adult to be sitting at one of those small tables reading children's books, but for me it was good to see what trends there are. I think that I will do this parodically just to see what kinds of books can be found. These were at the main branch of the Aurora Public Library.  

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que creció en el Bronx By Jonah Winter and Edel Rodriquez

I picked this book to read because I wanted to get some quick basic info on a person that I knew nothing about except that she’s a Supreme Court judge. It was a way for me to get some of her story. My local library had this on the display for Hispanic heritage month. It quickly covers her life and the impact that her mother had on her. What was nice about this book is that it was written in both English and Spanish. This could actually be a good teaching tool to help kids learn Spanish. 3 out of 5 stars or a C.

Bilal Cooks Daal By Aisha Saeed and Anoosha Syed

This was a cute book that shows how food has the power to not only bring people together, but also to teach. The best part of this book is that there is also a recipe in the back so that readers can try and make their own. This is great because once parents read the book with their kids, that they can then try and make the dish themselves as an immersive learning experience. 4 out of 5 stars or a B.

Like the Moon Loves the Sky By Hena Khan and Saffa Khan

A note on the jacket of this book said that the illustrations and prose was inspired by the Quran. I wish there would have been a back section to this book that went into how/why that was. Since it was missing this, I could only give it 2 stars. I feel that children’s book can be teaching tools for both children and their parents. This could have been a good thing directed at the parents who may want to share the book with their children and help to build cultural understanding. This was a massive, missed opportunity on the author’s part. It is also a very simple book with few words that can be used for younger readers/new readers. 2 out of 5 stars or a D.

Hannah and the Ramadan Gift By Qasim Rashid and Aaliya Jaleel

This book beautifully humanizes Muslim culture and religion in a fictional sense vs. real life. It tries to give a perspective from a young girl, but still shows a very strong male presence and influence. It would have been more interesting if it would have been another female guiding her through the balance of life and religion. This book also showed how food can be used to help break barriers. 4 out of 5 stars or a B.

We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know By Traci Sorell and Frane Lessac

What first drew me to this book was that on the cover it showed someone in a wheelchair. Only after picking it up did I notice that it was about the Native American perspective. I liked that they showed diversity within a population because it shows how people can have different identities. Even though it had these visuals this diversity within the community was not a topic covered in the book. The book addresses many of the negative things that Native Americans have had to deal with. In the back it also includes a timeline of important events. Here is another children’s book that even adults can learn from. I did not know that the federal government regulates tribal casinos. Native land where these casinos are supposed to be treated as land in another country, but here is the U.S. once again sticking their nose into a place they should not be. The U.S. has done enough to the Natives, why can’t they just leave them alone. This is a good book for kids to read that shows that the U.S. is not as good as the image that most people like to project. Nothing in this book is hype, but just facts that many may wish to hide to keep this image. 5 out of 5 stars or an A+.

What Are Your Words?: A Book About Pronouns By Katherine Locke and Anne Passchier

I picked this one up after the librarian said that it was another book to teach kids about pronouns. Here is the thing about children’s books, many times they are underrated due to their intended audience being children. I read children’s books sometimes to see what they are teaching kids, but sometimes I learn things as well. This book did not disappoint on this.

I have been studying DEI topics for several years and this was the first time I had come across Ze/Zir and Ey/Eir. This then encouraged me to look up these terms. From what I could find on these they are both nonbinary pronouns most often used by, trans, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people. I’m not sure how often these are used, but from what I was able to find they are newer in use. I wish I could have found out more on when each is used, but that just leaves me something for future research. I think that if any book can leave you wanting to learn more then that is a book that everyone should read and not just kids. 5 stars out of 5 or an A+, if a child's book can get an adult to do additional research then it is doing something right.

Jacob's School Play: Starring He, She, and They By Ian Hoffman, Sarah Hoffman, and Chris Case

This is a good book to introduce children to the use of pronouns. It is a very simple book that will help them with the basics until they are old enough for a more detailed book. 3 stars out of 5 or a C.

Adult Books

Tales of the Samurai By Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

3 stars out of 5 or a C.

My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 By Gengoroh Tagame

This was one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I nearly read the whole thing in one sitting because of how it draws you into the story. This book is a great example of learning. Anyone who doesn’t think that real knowledge can be gained through reading fiction or manga should read this book. It not only tackles issues around sexuality, but divorce, culture, work, and many other social issues. The book uses a Canadian as the ‘other’ in this story to then look at social issues in Japan. I would recommend this book to anyone and I really need to find more in this series. I work at a community college and this was one of the books they got as they were trying to build up the graphic novel section of our library. I couldn’t be happier that students will have access to this book. 5 stars out of 5 or a A+.

The Soul of the Indian By Charles Alexander Eastman

3 stars out of 5 or a C.

Woman and the New Race By Margaret Sanger

This book focused on women’s reproduction and its relationship between men and women. This was not surprising if you have heard about Margaret Sanger from a historical perspective. So in a way I knew what I would be getting into, but at the same time I was hoping that she would expand into larger issues around women of the time period. Everything she talks about in the book we take for granted in present times. 3 stars out of 5 or a C.

Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt By Gaston Maspero

3 stars out of 5 or a C.

Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains By Charles Alexander Eastman

4 stars out of 5 or a B.

Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru By Hiram Bingham

3 stars out of 5 or a C.

All pictures of the books came from good reads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/65272140?ref=nav_mybooks

From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America By Vicki L. Ruiz

 

Picture From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7675617-from-out-of-the-shadows

Below is a detailed book review I had to do for my Latino History (HIST507) course at Adams State University. This was one of five primary text books we had for the course. As an educator I feel that it is important that I also keep up my own education and renew the experience of what it is to be a student. It also helps me review what text books are currently in use for what subjects. 4 stars out of 5 or a B.

Ruiz, icki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York, NY: xford University Press, USA, 2008.

 

                When studying history of the common people, many times women have been overlooked. This has been changing with the rise of feminist historians. These historians have been researching not only European women immigrants, but also applying this to Mexican women as they look at their stories of immigration to the U.S. The study of Mexican women is important in helping people to understand not only why people immigrant to the U.S., but also why they decide to stay. Some writers, such as George Sanchez, have looked at the lives of Mexican women through a patriarchal lens. Then Vicki L. Ruiz tries to change this approach with her book From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. This book takes a dive into the experiences of Mexican immigrate women and the generations of Mexican-American woman that came from them.

            Ruiz looks at the history of Mexican women through their experiences, trying to give them a voice as to their place in history. She does this by looking at the events that impacted specific women such as border crossings and community activism. She re-empowers these women by showing how their actions not only improved the lives of their families, but left lasting impacts on the communities that they lived in. Even though Ruiz tried to move away from the patriarchal view, she still showed how it impacted Mexican women. One example she talks about is how immigration agents would be suspicious of women trying to cross the border without a man to watch over them. [1] It was not possible for her to entirely remove how males impacted women and their actions, but she tried to negate this as much as possible by providing the information directly from their view points and direct words. This can be hard to do since Mexican culture has been impacted so much by patriarchy and it takes pilling off the layers of maleness to get to the heart of the female experience. One of the ways that patriarchy took shape in the lives of Mexican women was through chaperonage when they would be interacting with males not from their families. Instead of just focusing on how chaperonage impacted the women, Ruiz then went into detail about how women rebelled or found ways around it. Some of her interviewees would gaily recount “tales of ditching the duena or sneaking down the stairwell” so that they would not have to deal with these restrictions.[2] These interviewees would shine light on the female perspective in From Out of the Shadows.

Vicki L. Ruiz has made a name for herself in academia with her research. She has received several large grants, book awards, and even holds the distinguished title of Professor Emerita from the University of California Irvine.[3] Her research has spanned many different topics in history, but there has been emphasis on US women’s history, immigration studies, and gender issues.[4] From out of the Shadows is just one of her numerous works on similar topics. In the intro for the book she also talks about her personal experience of being a Latina and growing up hearing two versions of history, the one taught in school and the one taught to her by her family.[5] The family’s version would contain many topics just not covered by standard education and she would learn from their experiences just how much the history books were missing. This personal experience can be seen as an influence on her choice of subjects she has chosen research and write on. This also explains why she wants to give a voice to Latina women. In this work Ruiz tried to take a feminist approach to this subject while doing social history. In a way this could also be her trying to break away from patriarchy of her own culture while showing the independence of Mexican women. This book could fill her own personal needs for a voice while helping to get the story of other Latina’s lives out there for people to be able to learn about.    

Ruiz’s feminist approach can also be seen in her choice of resources. One of the ways that this can be seen is in her use of works by Cynthia Orozco who is known for her work on Chicana feminism. Ruiz used Orozco’s knowledge in several ways including her knowledge of LULAC. Orozco has been trying to get historians to see the importance of both LULAC and the Mexican American civil rights movement. Orozco’s views could be seen as being similar to Ruiz’s. Orozco has also pointed out that key features of Mexican life are missing from how history has been presented to the public. She mostly clearly states this in one of her works when she says that even “Chicano scholars had an ideological contempt for LULAC and those calling themselves Mexican American.”[6] Both of these women have been working to expand the historical understanding of the Mexican American experience. Ruiz uses her peers’ work to help her build the platform for the points she wants to get across of the experience of Mexican women.

            The rest of Ruiz’s resources are very diverse. She used not only the normal resources like government documents, books, articles, and newspapers, but other types of more personal sources. For Ruiz these took the form of correspondences and interviews. These interviews were took place from 1979 to 1995.[7] Even though the book’s focus was on women, she also interviewed a few males as well. Interviews as oral history have gained in importance to help fill in the shortfalls that other forms of research can leave. It is also important in communities and cultures that are overlooked by standard forms of documentation or where it may be hard to find personal accounts such as journals. These oral histories allow historians to capture personal stories that can help them better understand history before that information is last to time. These oral histories fit in perfectly with Ruiz’s goals of presenting the female perspective of life being both Mexican and Mexican American. She can use their voices to help expand how history views them and the times they lived in.

Ruiz’s attempt to give a voice to Mexican and Mexican American women has been noticed in historical circles and beyond. For the most part it has been positively received. Maria Raquel Casas could only find minor flaws when she reviewed it. These included not building enough of a background on the settlement of the Southwest and focusing mostly on 1910-1940 while saying the book was to cover the full twentieth-century and not just a part of it.[8] Even with these minor issues Casas even directly said that the book was “a major contribution to Chicana historiography.”[9] Camille Guerin-Gonzales in her review pointed out that this was not just on Mexican women, but also provided “a blueprint for social justice and human dignity.”[10] Since this was a social history topic I wanted to also see what another reviewer in a different field thought of the book. Victoria Carpenter, writing for The Journal of Gender Studies, actually had some issue with it having such a strong feminist approach.[11] I was actually surprised by this since the historical reviewers seemed to see that has a positive. I personally felt that the book did a great job of meeting the goals it had set out to do, primarily give a voice to an under represented group of women that were active in history in so many different ways. The only issue I had with it goes with Casas’s view of it focusing too much on a limited part of the twentieth-century. I think it would have been better if she would have broken the book into the different decades and then she could have seen on what timeframes she was short on information.

This book is not only significant to the time when it was written, but still is today. This is because even with the Black Lives Matter Movement, many other groups are being overlooked because they are not being as vocal. This really has impact because President Trump is still for building the border wall, changing what immigration looks like, and other social government policies that can impact these groups and they are happening without those people having a voice. Ruiz not only helps to get the story of Mexicans and Mexican American out there, but by her focusing on it from the women’s perspective she is expanding how different that voice can be. This is another book that should be read by politicians right to help them understand more about the experience of immigrants and their children. Also as a woman I think it has significance in that it helps me see how other women have lived and how they have worked to achieve their own type of independence within cultural constraints like patriarchy.

 

 

 

Bibliography

Carpenter, Victoria. “From Out of the Shadows.” Journal of Gender Studies 8, no. 3 (1999): 374-375. Accessed September 19, 2020.

Casas, Maria R. “From Out of the Shadows Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America.” Western Historical Quarterly 29, no. 4 (Winter, 1998): 523-524. Accessed September 19, 2020.

Guerin-Gonzales, Camille. “From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America.” The Journal of American History 85, no. 3 (Dec., 1998): 1158-1159. Accessed September 19, 2020.

Matsumoto, Valerie J. “Vicki L. Ruiz Biography.” https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-

membership/aha-history-and-archives/presidential-addresses/vicki-l-ruiz/vicki-l-ruiz-biography. Accessed: 9/19/20.

Orozco, Cynthia E. No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American

 Civil Rights Movement. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. Accessed September 18, 2020. 

Ruiz, Vicki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.

University of California. “Faculty Profile System: Vicky L. Ruiz.” https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5302. Accessed: 09/19/2020.

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[1] Vicki L. Ruiz . From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008) 12.

[2] Ruiz, 63.

[3] “Faculty Profile System: Vicki L. Ruiz,” https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5302. Accessed: 09/19/2020.

[4] Valerie J. Matsumoto. “Vicki L. Ruiz Biography,” https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/presidential-addresses/vicki-l-ruiz/vicki-l-ruiz-biography. Accessed 09/19/20.

[5] Ruiz, xi.

[6] Cynthia E. Orozco. No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (Austin: University of Texas Press, USA, 2009) 186.

[7] Ruiz, 246-247.

[8] Maria Casas. “From Out of the Shadows Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America.” Western Historical Quarterly 29, no. 4 (Winter, 1998): 524, accessed September 19, 2020.

[9] Casas, 524.

[10] Camille Guerin-Gonzales. “From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America.” The Journal of American History 85, no. 3 (Dec., 1998): 1159, accessed September 19, 2020.

[11] Victoria Carpenter. “From Out of the Shadows.” Journal of Gender Studies 8, no. 3 (1999): 375, accessed September 19, 2020.