The shocking and affecting memoir from a gold-star widow searching for the truth behind her Green Beret husband's death, this book bears witness to the true sacrifices made by military families. When Green Beret Bryan Black was killed in an ambush in Niger in 2017, his wife Michelle saw her worst nightmare become a reality. She was left alone with her grief and with two young sons to raise. But what followed Bryan's death was an even more difficult journey for the young widow. After receiving very few details about the attack that took her husband's life, it was up to Michelle to find answers. It became her mission to learn the truth about that day in Niger--and Sacrifice is the result of that mission. In this heartbreaking and revelatory memoir, Michelle uses exclusive interviews with the survivors of her husband's unit, research into the military leadership and accountability, and her own unique vantage point as a gold-star widow to tell a previously unknown story. Sacrifice is both an honest, emotional look inside a military marriage and a searing investigation of the people and decisions at the heart of the US military.
The shocking and affecting memoir from a gold-star widow searching for the truth behind her Green Beret husband's death, this book bears witness to the true sacrifices made by military families. When Green Beret Bryan Black was killed in an ambush in Niger in 2017, his wife Michelle saw her worst nightmare become a reality. She was left alone with her grief and with two young sons to raise. But what followed Bryan's death was an even more difficult journey for the young widow. After receiving very few details about the attack that took her husband's life, it was up to Michelle to find answers. It became her mission to learn the truth about that day in Niger--and Sacrifice is the result of that mission. In this heartbreaking and revelatory memoir, Michelle uses exclusive interviews with the survivors of her husband's unit, research into the military leadership and accountability, and her own unique vantage point as a gold-star widow to tell a previously unknown story. Sacrifice is both an honest, emotional look inside a military marriage and a searing investigation of the people and decisions at the heart of the US military.
Black People Wake Up is the 14th book in the Michelle Book Blog Series. This book is not as hard hitting as the rest due to the mellowed out stance. The format of this book has not really changed hence I hope you enjoy it like you did the others.
Ellie and the Sunflowers is for children to ignite imagination, build confidence, and facilitate positive experiences when situations or environments may prompt anxiety or fear, experienced as fight, freeze, or flight. Imagination is enlivened through the story of Ellie and the metaphor of the sunflowers to help her experience a new setting. Underpinning the story is the science—neurology, biology, and psychology of emotions. It is science that informs the actions to counter unpleasant feelings of anxiety and fear, activating a calm state and confidence to initiate and to self-manage situations or environments that children may find challenging. My vision for children all over the world is for them to engage in the story and apply what they learn to foster confidence and new experiences to enjoy. Parents, teachers, family members, care givers, counsellors, cousins, and friends can leverage the story to engage children and help them to build confidence to stand up tall, to imagine, thrive and independently self-manage anxiety or fear in a simple and effective way.
What was it like to grow up black and female in the segregated South? To answer this question, LaKisha Simmons blends social history and cultural studies, recreating children's streets and neighborhoods within Jim Crow New Orleans and offering a rare look into black girls' personal lives. Simmons argues that these children faced the difficult task of adhering to middle-class expectations of purity and respectability even as they encountered the daily realities of Jim Crow violence, which included interracial sexual aggression, street harassment, and presumptions of black girls' impurity. Simmons makes use of oral histories, the black and white press, social workers' reports, police reports, girls' fiction writing, and photography to tell the stories of individual girls: some from poor, working-class families; some from middle-class, "respectable" families; and some caught in the Jim Crow judicial system. These voices come together to create a group biography of ordinary girls living in an extraordinary time, girls who did not intend to make history but whose stories transform our understanding of both segregation and childhood.
In 1878 Kansas, Eden Murdoch's long-lost son has been found alive. But when Eden's long-estranged first husband reappears and launches a vicious custody battle for the boy, he's soon shot to death. Now, Eden must find the killer.
Gabrielle is a little Black girl with her mother’s features and her father’s brown sugar complexion. She loves these aspects of herself and the resemblance to her parents. She is aware of the power of her heritage and the undeniable strength her Blackness represents. Gabby is also aware of the sometimes-stark differences between her and her friends. Some resemble her, while others are completely opposite, and this is when she first experiences racism. She faces prejudice and adversity from classmates and strangers who attempt to dim her light. With Gabby experiencing racism at an early age, her parents decide it is time to Start the Conversation. They tell her, “Gabby, meet racism, because racism will meet you.” They educate her by defining what racism means and how racism can show up in insidious ways and have a huge impact. Starting the Conversation might be uncomfortable, but it’s the most important talk Black parents can have with their children.
“An interactive and empowering book” to help African American men and women create a new vision of better health and navigate the health care system (BET.com). According to the federal Office of Minority Health, African Americans “are affected by serious diseases and health conditions at far greater rates than other Americans.” In fact, African Americans suffer an estimated 85,000 excess deaths every year from diseases we know how to prevent: heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes. In this important and accessible book, Dr. Michelle Gourdine provides African Americans with the knowledge and guidance they need to take charge of their wellbeing. Reclaiming Our Health begins with an overview of the primary health concerns facing African Americans and explains who is at greatest risk of illness. Expanding on her career and life experiences as an African American physician, Dr. Gourdine presents key insights into the ways African American culture shapes health choices—how beliefs, traditions, and values can influence eating choices, exercise habits, and even the decision to seek medical attention. She translates extensive research into practical information and presents readers with concrete steps for achieving a healthier lifestyle, as well as strategies for navigating the health-care system. This interactive guide with illustrations is a vital resource for every African American on how to live a healthier and more empowered life, and an indispensable handbook for health-care providers, policy makers, and others working to close the health gap among people of color. Says Gourdine, “I wrote this book to empower our community to solve our own health problems and save our own lives.”
In the American West of 1880, Leadville, Colorado, is the wealthiest mining district on earth and by far its richest mine is the Eye Dazzler. When Lucinda Ridenour, the notorious widow-heiress to the Dazzler, chooses young Kit Randall to be her lover, Kit thinks he has the world at his feet. But when their affair sinks into depravity, he must rediscover himself and find out if he has the character to survive in a society that has more money than morals. After waking up from an absinthe-created hallucination in which unspeakable acts seem to have taken place, Kit angrily leaves the house of Lucinda and her twenty-year-old son, Christopher, feeling betrayed and exploited. Then, Lucinda is found stabbed to death. In the midst of this turmoil and of Leadville's anxiety over its labor unrest and the impending arrival of the railroad, Kit's uncle, Brad Randall, and his fiancé, Eden Murdoch, arrive in the boomtown planning to celebrate their wedding, but are instead shocked to learn Kit is the primary suspect in the sensational murder. Eden resolves to learn the truth and clear Kit Randall's name. To do so, she forms an uneasy alliance with Bella Valentine, Kit's former girlfriend and a dabbler in the occult. With this unlikely ally Eden uncovers shocking secrets of the Ridenour family just as Leadville's first labor strike brings the town to an armed and dangerous standstill. The Second Glass of Absinthe is a dazzling glimpse of the Victorian West and a riveting murder mystery set in the dizzying world of a boomtown where lusts-for gold, for power, for flesh-intoxicate all who come in contact with it. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Becoming Black is a powerful theorization of Black subjectivity throughout the African diaspora. In this unique comparative study, Michelle M. Wright discusses the commonalties and differences in how Black writers and thinkers from the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, France, Great Britain, and Germany have responded to white European and American claims about Black consciousness. As Wright traces more than a century of debate on Black subjectivity between intellectuals of African descent and white philosophers, she also highlights how feminist writers have challenged patriarchal theories of Black identity. Wright argues that three nineteenth-century American and European works addressing race—Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, G. W. F. Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and Count Arthur de Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races—were particularly influential in shaping twentieth-century ideas about Black subjectivity. She considers these treatises in depth and describes how the revolutionary Black thinkers W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Frantz Fanon countered the theories they promulgated. She explains that while Du Bois, Césaire, Senghor, and Fanon rejected the racist ideologies of Jefferson, Hegel, and Gobineau, for the most part they did so within what remained a nationalist, patriarchal framework. Such persistent nationalist and sexist ideologies were later subverted, Wright shows, in the work of Black women writers including Carolyn Rodgers and Audre Lorde and, more recently, the British novelists Joan Riley, Naomi King, Jo Hodges, and Andrea Levy. By considering diasporic writing ranging from Du Bois to Lorde to the contemporary African novelists Simon Njami and Daniel Biyaoula, Wright reveals Black subjectivity as rich, varied, and always evolving.
Historical Suspense: "There are no rules above 10,000 feet" This cryptic slogan puzzles Darcy Close when she arrives in Colorado's Tenmile Canyon. She has come to the high country to investigate the strange legacy left to her by her great aunt: A remote mountain ghost town called Leap Year and a terrible family secret.
In Afro-Atlantic Flight Michelle D. Commander traces how post-civil rights Black American artists, intellectuals, and travelers envision literal and figurative flight back to Africa as a means by which to heal the dispossession caused by the slave trade. Through ethnographic, historical, literary, and filmic analyses, Commander shows the ways that cultural producers such as Octavia Butler, Thomas Allen Harris, and Saidiya Hartman engage with speculative thought about slavery, the spiritual realm, and Africa, thereby structuring the imaginary that propels future return flights. She goes on to examine Black Americans’ cultural heritage tourism in and migration to Ghana; Bahia, Brazil; and various sites of slavery in the US South to interrogate the ways that a cadre of actors produces “Africa” and contests master narratives. Compellingly, these material flights do not always satisfy Black Americans’ individualistic desires for homecoming and liberation, leading Commander to focus on the revolutionary possibilities inherent in psychic speculative returns and to argue for the development of a Pan-Africanist stance that works to more effectively address the contemporary resonances of slavery that exist across the Afro-Atlantic.
You’ve read White Fragility and How to Be an Antiracist, but what comes next? The answer lies in this clear, actionable guide providing a vital 4-week program for becoming an ally who makes a real difference in the racial justice fight. Get the tools you need to get off the sidelines and onto the frontlines of allyship, combat racism while supporting Black women, and avoid common pitfalls white people fall into when they think about and discuss racism. “[T]his timely, no-nonsense handbook offers an important blueprint for White allies to carry out the often uncomfortable but necessary work of promoting racial equality among all marginalized people. Welcome straight talk for a new age in race relations.” —Kirkus Black women have always been the driving force behind real change in this country—especially when it comes to racial justice work. But they shouldn’t have to do it alone. If you’re ready to stop standing on the sidelines and become anti-racist instead of passively “not racist,” then this book is what you need. You’ll discover: · How to have difficult conversations about white supremacy, racism, and white privilege · How to listen to criticism without defensiveness · Why it’s harmful to ignore race or claim to be colorblind · How to expand your racial justice circle by joining groups led by Black women and cultivating a group of like-minded allies Racism can only be defeated if white people educate themselves and actively engage in antiracism work, especially in their inner circles. With this book, you’ll learn how to change from someone who defends and protects racism to someone who fights against it. And you’ll become an example to others that true allies are made, not born. “Recommended for reading groups looking for active discussions of racism. This book will help readers learn more about racism and its lasting effects on society.” —Library Journal
Flynn Kiernan buys an unusual old picture an antiques dealer calls a "spirit photograph," claimed to be taken of the departed during a saeance. Determined to discover the story behind it, she learns the images are of a young architect plus his wife and best friend whom he was accused of killing in the sensational 1875 Chicago "Free Love Murders." Flynn also finds notes from a jailhouse interview with the husband conducted by feminist firebrand and spiritualist Victoria Wood Woodhull.
Provides a black employee's guide to success when working in a white workplace, and focuses on getting hired, pursuing legal support, and using one's own style, history, and goals.
FINALIST FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • A collection of essays and stories documenting the lived theology and spirituality we need to hear in order to lean into a more freeing, loving, and liberating faith—from the hosts of the beloved Truth’s Table podcast “The liberating work of Truth’s Table creates breathing room to finally have those conversations we’ve been needing to have.”—Morgan Harper Nichols, artist and poet Once upon a time, an activist, a theologian, and a psychologist walked into a group chat. Everything was laid out on the table: Dating. Politics. The Black church. Pop culture. Soon, other Black women began pulling up chairs to gather round. And so, the Truth’s Table podcast was born. In their literary debut, co-hosts Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins, and Ekemini Uwan offer stories by Black women and for Black women examining theology, politics, race, culture, and gender matters through a Christian lens. For anyone seeking to explore the spiritual dimensions of hot-button issues within the church, or anyone thirsty to deepen their faith, Truth’s Table provides exactly the survival guide we need, including: • Michelle Higgins’s unforgettable treatise revealing the way “racial reconciliation” is a spiritually bankrupt, empty promise that can often drain us of the ability to do real justice work • Ekemini Uwan’s exploration of Blackness as the image of God in the past, present, and future • Christina Edmondson’s reimagination of what a more just and liberating form of church discipline might look like—one that acknowledges and speaks to the trauma in the room These essays deliver a compelling theological re-education and pair the spiritual formation and political education necessary for Black women of faith.
In Black Empire, Michelle Ann Stephens examines the ideal of “transnational blackness” that emerged in the work of radical black intellectuals from the British West Indies in the early twentieth century. Focusing on the writings of Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, and C. L. R. James, Stephens shows how these thinkers developed ideas of a worldwide racial movement and federated global black political community that transcended the boundaries of nation-states. Stephens highlights key geopolitical and historical events that gave rise to these writers’ intellectual investment in new modes of black political self-determination. She describes their engagement with the fate of African Americans within the burgeoning U.S. empire, their disillusionment with the potential of post–World War I international organizations such as the League of Nations to acknowledge, let alone improve, the material conditions of people of color around the world, and the inspiration they took from the Bolshevik Revolution, which offered models of revolution and community not based on nationality. Stephens argues that the global black political consciousness she identifies was constituted by both radical and reactionary impulses. On the one hand, Garvey, McKay, and James saw freedom of movement as the basis of black transnationalism. The Caribbean archipelago—a geographic space ideally suited to the free movement of black subjects across national boundaries—became the metaphoric heart of their vision. On the other hand, these three writers were deeply influenced by the ideas of militarism, empire, and male sovereignty that shaped global political discourse in the early twentieth century. As such, their vision of transnational blackness excluded women’s political subjectivities. Drawing together insights from American, African American, Caribbean, and gender studies, Black Empire is a major contribution to ongoing conversations about nation and diaspora.
We all have someone who crossed our path and fundamentally changed us. That one person who blew through our lives, their presence forever stamped on our psyche. They linger in our thoughts, in our hearts, and in the decisions we make. A soul crusher or a dream maker, depending on the perspective.My person is MISTER BLACK.I didn't know him by that name when I first met him.I didn't know him at all, but the impression he left behind was just as powerful as the name I call him today.He is Black: a deadly enforcer and masterful seducer.I am Red: a justice bleeder and willing participant.Together we are passion. Colors colliding through each other's lives.When our secrets converge in a passionate encounter,stepping out of the shadows just might be worth the risk.Note:This is a NEW ADULT contemporary mystery/thriller romance meant for readers 18+
Despite Black Americans being at high risk for negative mental health symptoms due to racism and other chronic stresses, disparities persist in the provision of mental health services to this population. This book addresses that gap in clinical practice by explicitly calling attention to the experience of race-based stress in the Black community. Johnson and Melton urge mental health practitioners to action in promoting societal understanding, affirmation, and appreciation of multiculturalism against the damaging effects of individual, institutional, and societal racism, prejudice, and all forms of oppression based on stereotyping and discrimination. Chapters include worksheets, vignettes, and case studies to provide a practical framework for implementing an effective, nonpathological approach to ameliorating the damaging effects of race-based trauma and stress. This book will give tools and strategies for mental health professionals to responsibly use scientific and professional knowledge to improve the condition of individuals, communities, and, by extension, society.
When traditionally white public schools in the South became sites of massive resistance in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, numerous white students exited the public system altogether, with parents choosing homeschooling or private segregationist academies. But some historically white elite private schools opted to desegregate. The black students that attended these schools courageously navigated institutional and interpersonal racism but ultimately emerged as upwardly mobile leaders. Transforming the Elite tells this story. Focusing on the experiences of the first black students to desegregate Atlanta's well-known The Westminster Schools and national efforts to diversify private schools, Michelle A. Purdy combines social history with policy analysis in a dynamic narrative that expertly re-creates this overlooked history. Through gripping oral histories and rich archival research, this book showcases educational changes for black southerners during the civil rights movement including the political tensions confronted, struggles faced, and school cultures transformed during private school desegregation. This history foreshadows contemporary complexities at the heart of the black community's mixed feelings about charter schools, school choice, and education reform.
“A helpful introduction to facilitating affinity spaces in an inclusive, emergent, and trauma-informed way to foster the communal healing spaces that in turn ignite community action and liberation.”—Resmaa Menakem, best-selling author of My Grandmother’s Hands and Monsters in Love The first comprehensive guide for leading BIPOC affinity groups for challenging white supremacy, healing racial trauma, and taking collective action Meeting in racial affinity groups is a common practice in anti-racist, social justice, diversity, and similar forms of educational endeavors. These groups provide a structured space in which participants can explore how racism personally impacts them, process specific experiences of racism, receive validation and support from their peers, heal, and strategize next steps for challenging racism, white supremacy, and internalized racial oppression. In A Space for Us, Michelle Cassandra Johnson brings her over 20 years of experience leading dismantling racism work to provide the first affinity groups guide made for BIPOC communities. This essential guide will: Provide an understanding of the racial hierarchy and how it has impacted Black, Indigenous, and People of Color differently. Define and share common manifestations of internalized racial oppression. Define anti-Blackness and provide skills to interrupt and address it. Share rituals, practices, and sample agendas for affinity groups. Explain when it is useful to meet as one BIPOC group and when it is useful to meet based on one’s specific racial identity. Provide rituals and tools for healing in BIPOC affinity groups. Provide information about how to come back together as BIPOC and white people to strategize and take collective action. Comprehensive and accessible, A Space for Us offers practical guidance for facilitating effective BIPOC racial affinity groups and will be an important resource for BIPOC communities.
Videos capturing everyday indignities and injury toward Black or Brown consumers have become media staples, showing the complexity, risk, and traumas many shoppers encounter in retail, restaurants, and other marketplaces. But each one quickly fades in the media spotlight. In Retail Racism, Michelle Dunlap helps readers understand the ongoing experiences of Black and Brown people as they navigate this reality. Based on 19 in-depth interviews with consumers across the country, Dunlap aims to create a larger discussion that engages readers and empowers them to interrupt, disrupt, and ameliorate the inappropriate and racialized handling of consumers in America today. In doing so, Retail Racism is about not only shopping, but also humane living in America, including surviving and making sense of inequitable experiences, what to do about them, and the larger issues and contexts that surround the marketplace for Black and Brown people. A portion of the author proceeds from book sales are automatically donated to The Florida Education Fund (FEF), a non-profit organization established in 1984 to help provide opportunities for educational advancement.
DEA agent Necie Bramhall thinks she knows a thing or two about revenge. She is devoted her life to bringing down the drug lord father who abandoned her. When she finally captures him, she thinks she will be able to put her painful past behind her. What she doesn't realise is that she's created a brand new enemy. A deadly enemy.
On the day after Thanksgiving in 1868, George Custer's 7th Cavalry attacks a Cheyenne village. Amidst the slaughter, the soldiers discover a white woman, Eden Murdoch, presumed dead but apparently living with the tribe. She refuses to acknowledge her "rescue" from a "savage" society. Eden and Custer's aide-de-camp, Captain Brad Randall, unexpectedly set in motion events that echo all the way to Little Big Horn.
Infantus urbanus (defn.): Young mammal raised in city environment. Infantus urbanus love nights at the opera, modern architecture, and fine cuisine. Difficult to spot at night due to their penchant for black clothing. See also URBAN BABIES.
Tito, a spirited and inquisitive young turtle, is drawn to the legend of the Black Fin, a pirate ship lost to time and the sea. Tito sets out to discover the ship's hidden secrets. What he finds is a world far richer than gold—a sunken vessel reborn as a vibrant sanctuary for the ocean's creatures, each artifact a whisper from the past. Through his journey, Tito uncovers not just the treasures of the Black Fin but also the true meaning of adventure and the intricate tapestry of life that thrives beneath the waves. His journey reveals that every treasure has a tale, teaching him the importance of preserving the past for the generations to come.
As one of the first African American vocalists to be recorded, Bessie Smith is a prominent figure in American popular culture and African American history. Michelle R. Scott uses Smith's life as a lens to investigate broad issues in history, including industrialization, Southern rural to urban migration, black community development in the post-emancipation era, and black working-class gender conventions. Arguing that the rise of blues culture and the success of female blues artists like Bessie Smith are connected to the rapid migration and industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scott focuses her analysis on Chattanooga, Tennessee, the large industrial and transportation center where Smith was born. This study explores how the expansion of the Southern railroads and the development of iron foundries, steel mills, and sawmills created vast employment opportunities in the postbellum era. Chronicling the growth and development of the African American Chattanooga community, Scott examines the Smith family's migration to Chattanooga and the popular music of black Chattanooga during the first decade of the twentieth century, and culminates by delving into Smith's early years on the vaudeville circuit.
Imagine that you are a young adult, minding your own business, happily engaged in your activities and relationships, and enjoying all the milestones that come with such an exciting time of life. Perhaps you are in college, anticipating graduation, dreaming about your future, hoping to one day marry and have children, applying for jobs or making plans to start your own business. And then one night, you begin to hear voices in your head. You dismiss it, telling yourself it is nothing. And then it happens again. Unable to sleep for nights on end, you toss and turn, slowly losing your ability to control your thoughts as your mind travels at breakneck speed through a kaleidoscope of frightening images and sounds. Your mind is racing and yet, at the same time, all the strange things you are experiencing with such intensity have a slow-motion quality to them. You feel paralyzed. Who can you trust? Who can you turn to? How do you sort through all your thoughts and experiences to determine which are real and which are unreal? And where do you go when no place feels safe? My Black Box: Flights of Bipolar offers readers a rare, courageous, and candid look inside a bipolar mind as it takes flight from reality and enters the world of full-blown psychosis. Given the paranoia that often accompanies severe mental illness, it is not unusual for a psychotic individual to hide from strangers and outsiders the frightening and disturbing things going on in their mind and their life. In opening her black box and revealing its contents, Michelle Murphy gives us a tremendous gift—a context within which to understand our loved ones who suffer from bipolar, schizophrenic, and schizoaffective disorders. This book will also serve as a compass for those who may be hearing voices, experiencing paranoia, hallucinating, or suffering with other symptoms of psychosis, and attempting to navigate those frightening waters. Anyone who is living with a serious mental illness will identify with Michelle’s psychotic episodes, and in so doing, feel less alone. And everyone who reads this book will feel both encouraged and inspired by the determination with which the author continues to face her challenges, move forward, and excel in her life. This successful electrical engineer, wife, and active member of her community has done a tremendous service to us all by revealing to us her innermost demons and struggles—and sharing her victories and successes. She proves that with perseverance and proper medical attention, the mentally ill need not be defined by their illness, nor destined to live anything but rich, full, and productive lives.
Students gain an appreciation for fine art by analyzing the distinct techniques used by more than 20 artists throughout history. Follow-up projects help students imitate those techniques. Included are biographies, vocabulary lists, and assessment guidelines.
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