Equality
Equality is essential in any society that wishes to demonstrate human dignity rather than just declare it. In a society that values individual freedom and dignity, diversity ought to be celebrated because differences are what make us individuals. Still today our country struggles to find the resources of love and mutual respect that will preserve freedom and dignity for each individual of our collective experiment.
The following reading list starts with a close-reading of our Declaration of Independence that attempts to restore our understanding of equality as the seed of freedom. After that we explore the hearts and minds of those who fought, and those who are still fighting, for equality and the collective respect of their human dignity.
"Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defence of Equality," Danielle S. Allen
In just 1,337 words, the Declaration of Independence changed the world, but curiously it is now rarely read from start to finish, much less understood. Unsettled by this, Danielle Allen read the text quietly with students and discovered its animating power. “Bringing the analytical skills of a philosopher, the voice of a gifted memoirist, and the spirit of a soulful humanist to the task, Allen manages to . . . find new meaning in Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of equality,” says Joseph J. Ellis about "Our Declaration." Countering much of the popular perception, she restores equality to its rightful place, detailing the Declaration’s case that freedom rests on equality.
"Love Wins: The Lover and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality," Debbie Cenziper & Jim Obergefell
The fascinating and very moving story of the lovers, lawyers, judges and activists behind the groundbreaking Supreme Court case that led to one of the most important, national civil rights victories in decades—the legalization of same-sex marriage.
"Between the World and Me," Ta-Nehisi Coates
What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
"Between the World and Me" is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences.
"Citizen: An American Lyric," Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named "post-race" society.
"What Works: Gender Equality by Design," Iris Bohnet
Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back and de-biasing minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Behavioral design offers a new solution. Iris Bohnet shows that by de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts--often at low cost and high speed.
"Alice Paul: Equality for Women," Christine A. Lunardini
An engaging, accessible introduction to Alice Paul's struggle for female equality and the dominant role she played in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote.
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