The Equity Project offers faculty and staff ongoing opportunities to engage in social justice education and work towards advancing equity at Whatcom Community College. Each year a topic is selected and TEP offers programming centered on a theme. Activities include keynote speakers, workshops, campus discussions, films, and more. Below are book selections from recent TEP events; the library maintains several copies for each title for use in book discussions, classes, and more.
Javier Zamora, 2022
“When Javier Zamora was nine, he traveled unaccompanied by bus, boat, and foot from El Salvador to the United States to reunite with his parents. This is his memoir of that dangerous journey, a nine-week odyssey that nearly ended in calamity on multiple occasions.” From dust jacket.
Ijeoma Oluo, 2024
“Oluo shows how people across America are working to create real positive change in our structures. Looking at many of our most powerful systems–like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more– she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity.” From dust jacket.
Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom
bell hooks, 1994
In Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks – writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual – writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to “transgress” against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher’s most important goal.” From dust jacket.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, 2020.
In her book, Undocumented America, Cornejo Villavicencio powerfully reveals the hidden corners of our nation of immigrants. She brings to light remarkable stories of hope and resilience, and through them we come to understand what it truly means to be American.” Provided by publisher.
So you want to talk about race
Ijeoma Oluo, 2018
“An actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.” From dust jacket.
Minor feelings : an Asian American reckoning
Cathy Park Hong, 2021
“As the daughter of Korean immigrants, poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these ‘minor feelings’ occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality — when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity.” From dust jacket.
How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America
Clint Smith, 2021
“‘How the Word is Passed’ is Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation.” From dust jacket.
Caste : the origins of our discontents
Isabel Wilkerson, Isabel, 2020
” Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more.” Provided by publisher.