Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment by Leticia Nieto

Imarisha currently teaches in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department and is director of the Center for Black Studies. Imarisha is also author of Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison and Redemption, which won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is co-editor of two anthologies, including Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Walidah Imarisha is an educator and a writer. The book developed through collaboration over the past decade among Garth Johnson, Liz Goodwin, Margot Boyer, and Laurel Collier Smith.10-11:30am: Walidah Imarisha on ' Using Visionary Fiction as an Emergent Strategy for Social Justice Organizing' The book reflects insights from its roots in developmental psychology, theater, and liberatory pedagogy. More down to earth than academic theory, the book includes personal stories from people of diverse backgrounds, as well as exercises, visualizations, and poetry. This flexible model admits the ambiguities and challenges of real life. It also uncovers the ways that the rank system shapes our inner lives, influencing our relationships, feelings, and perceptions.

The book provides exercises and tools to help people learn to see and name specific skills in films, fiction, and their own lives.

This framework is of special interest to educators, therapists, organizational leaders, activists, and anyone who wants to live in a more equitable society. A unique feature of Nieto's approach is the practical nature of the skills model, which allows anyone to identify what skills they are using and expand their range. This consciousness develops through a series of specific skills that can be identified and encouraged in oneself and in others. Resisting oppression requires that everyone - both those who benefit and those who are restricted by these social arrangements - become more aware in everyday interactions. It can be used to analyze hidden and unconscious influences of oppression on people's behavior. A key metaphor in Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment is the rank system. Nieto offers a powerful analysis of the psychological dynamics of oppression and privilege, and shows readers how to develop the skills that can promote social justice for themselves and those around them. Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment, by Leticia Nieto Psy.D., and co-authors, brings a long-awaited breakthrough to the fields of liberation and cultural studies.

Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment by Leticia Nieto