BOTW 4/22

By Paige Waskow

The Water Will Come:

Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

by Jeff Goodall

What is it about?

As climate change and sea level rise become more and more relevant to our lives, what happens to the cities and people on the coast lines? Jeff Goodall dives in the history of water, our present struggle with fighting flooding, and what to expect as we welcome our underwater future.

He gives many examples of cities that have watery histories and presents such as Venice, Miami, and New York City. From reporting on good solutions or band-aid over bullet hole type plans that cities have, much like the title, Goodall explains what is happening with rising sea-levels and how we will have to face them no matter what.

                                                

       via GIPHY

Why did I choose it?

I read this book during July 2018 while camping in Colorado. Although the book was mainly about water systems, it also talked about other climate change affects taking place in our world right now. As I sat and read under the pine trees being killed by thriving beetles, Goodman described the phenomenon and how it connected to climate change. I literally was able to look up and see the dying trees. I was able to see the effects of climate change in action, and it was mind blowing.

Goodall does a great job of making climate change real and relevant. Often, we see climate problems as something far away or as a future problem. Although it will be a future problem, it is also a now problem. In his reporting, he describes many cities and how we are already struggling to manage changing water systems. I found the writing to be a fantastic mix of scientific data, dialogue, and storytelling. This book is so interesting and gave real insight to what we are facing as a world. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to learn more about climate change or simply wants a good book to read.

Where can you get it?

This book is available at the Cedar Rapids Public Library. You can get a library card for free anytime the library is open. The closest location is downtown on 4th street. You can visit their website here!

Happy Reading!

BOTW 4/15

By Paige Waskow

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

By Peggy McIntosh

The book of the week is not exactly a book. Instead, I thought I would post this resource about white privilege.

What is it about?

This resource, which comes from a larger publication by McIntosh, helps identify what white privilege looks like in everyday society. This list of statements allow the reader to look at their own lives and see how they are able to interact with the world in comparison to others. White privilege does not always mean active violence, it is ingrained in every part of society.

Here are the first seven (out of 50) examples from McIntosh's list of what white privilege looks like:

"1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is" (McIntosh 1988, 2).

                                   

via GIPHY

Why did I choose it?

I think this resource is a great way to target what privilege looks like for white people. What I mean is that as a white person, I am able to ignore or more seamlessly move through society in a way that people of color cannot. I get to choose whether or not I want to think about how society is privileged to white people. I do not have to experience it.

All of the statements that McIntosh mentions are crucial to understanding what white privilege looks like, and they should make you uncomfortable- especially if you are not a person of color. I think this source challenges my normal and helps me remember to be aware of what I can do without feeling awkward, fearful, isolated, or ignored because of the color of my skin. It is so so so important that those who have privilege in society challenge themselves to see bias and then change how they act or don't act. One thing that I have learned is that listening and learning go a long way. Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack is a way to actively listen and challenge the status quo.

Where can you view it?

Right here! This is a PDF document of the list (but not the whole publication).

Is there anything else you should know?

If you would like to view another post I wrote about white privilege, you can click here. I added some resources that I have found useful to that post. Additionally, if you have any resources, comments, or questions, please leave them below. Happy reading!

References

McIntosh, Peggy. 1988. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." (part of "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies") https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf. April 17, 2019.

BOTW: April 10th

By: Paige Waskow

The Sun Does Shine:

How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

By Anthony Ray Hinton

What's it about?

What is it like to be on death row? What is it like to be innocent on death row? What is it like to be a black man, innocent of a crime but convicted for it, and on death row?

Anthony Ray Hinton tells his true story of growing up as a black man in Alabama, being accused of murder, and being sentenced to death. Not only is he completely innocent, but he spends thirty years of his life on death row before getting out. His story recounts the trial, the injustice and inequality of the system, and how he grows in spite of his circumstances. Hinton fully describes the hardship of being on death row and losing so much of his life to it. He speaks of his troubles with belief in God, fear of never seeing his mother again, frequently hearing and smelling men being killed near his cell, and struggling with how to get out. He also describes his incredibly journey in being able to make friends and share his knowledge with fellow men near his cell. He even starts a book club. Although he is in the worst of situations, he is able to serve the people who are on death row through kindness and compassion.

Why did I choose it?

This book affected me so deeply and profoundly. As mentioned above, it is not simply a story of injustice, but also one of strength and growth. Hinton has to face what I can only imagine as one of the most entirely life shattering and deeply horrifying experiences a person can live through. And yet, even after losing it all, he is still able to help other people. It is hard to describe the book without giving too much away, but I promise it is worth the read. I love books that challenge the status quo, and Hinton absolutely does this. But, he does it through love and compassion, which are seemingly impossible from being in the circumstances that he was put through. I highly recommend this book as it will challenge you, probably make you cry (or at least feel some serious emotions), and shares a powerful example about how love wins over racism, privilege, pain, sorrow, and inequality.

Where can you get it?

The Sun Does Shine is available at the Cedar Rapids Public Library (CRPL). You can get a CRPL card anytime for free.

Is there anything else you should know?

A part of the book recounts Hinton's journey to get off death row with help from lawyer Bryan Stevenson. I have written a few posts before mentioning Stevenson, specifically the BOTW post on Just Mercy which he wrote. If you are interested, you can view that post here. Additionally, I highly recommend checking out Stevenson's firm the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). You can view their website here.

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References

Equal Justice Initiative. EJI. 2019. https://eji.org/

Hinton, Anthony Ray. Hardin, Lara Love. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. St. Martin's Press, 2018.

BOTW March 11

By Paige Waskow

The Book of the Week is:

Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution

by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow

"If you can change the street, you can change the world."

                                 

via GIPHY

What's it about?

How do you manage making sure millions of people from one place to another on a daily basis let alone try to change how they get around? Whether we think about it or not, streets are incredibly important. As former transportation commissioner of New York City, Janette Sadik-Khan did just that. This book is her journey, achievements, and failures.

Sadik-Khan introduces the reader to streets in the eyes of an urban planner. Questions such as: how do you maintain what exists so that people can drive or walk while also making the street safer for everyone? and how do neighborhoods vary in transportation opportunity? are frequent topics of consideration. She covers how to read the street and how to make it better for people, communities, and local business rather than strictly cars. Her work challenges the status quo and makes bikes, pedestrians, and those who take public transport just as important as those who drive. It also addresses how to change a busy place, such as Times Square, and make it into a place where people can stop and just be.

Why did I choose it?

Streetfight is an excellent introduction to the work of an urban planner. I knew nothing about how transportation planning really worked until I read this book. I went in with an expectation of it being good, but was surprised by how fascinated I was within the first few chapters- I couldn't put it down.

I am a huge biking and walking advocate, and it was really amazing to see how a more sustainable and safe city could be made. By challenging the status quo, Sadik-Khan brings real hope and action to how we view the street. It inspired me to challenge my own views of cars, not that the book says that they are bad, but how we can make the street a more equitable and community-based place.

Growing up in St. Louis, I have seen a lot of the impacts of how transportation opportunity affects so much of what a person can do. Not having a car here in Cedar Rapids has taught me the value and privilege of being to drive and the need for universal bike lanes and reliable public transportation. This book was an answer to a lot of the burning questions I had about how to solve these problems. Of course, I still have a lot to learn, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to change the city they live in.

Where can you get Streetfight?

Sadly, this book is not available at Coe's library or the Cedar Rapids Public Library. If you are really interested in reading it, it is available for purchase on Amazon or other online book-selling services.

If you have a book you love and want to see as a BOTW, leave a comment below!

Happy reading!

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References:

Sadik-Khan, Janette, Solomonow, Seth. Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution. Penguin Random House LLC, 2017.

Advocating Info Graphic

By Paige Waskow

As a follow up to the previous post on advocating for yourself, this info graphic is a quick guide that sums up what you need to know!

View here!

If you have any questions or other tips for advocating for yourself, please leave them in the comment section below.

Resources:

Choi, Lily. “How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace.” How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace, The Everygirl, 20 June 2018, theeverygirl.com/being-a-woc-in-the-workplace/.

Patel, Deep. “10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation.” 10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation, SUCCESS, 4 April 2017, www.success.com/10-powerful-ways-to-stand-up-for-yourself-in-any-situation/.

Galinsky, Adam . “How to Speak up for Yourself.” How to Speak up for Yourself, Ideas.ted.com, 17 Feb. 2017, ideas.ted.com/how-to-speak-up-for-yourself/.

McLeod, Lea, Feeling Frustrated? How to Advocate for Yourself at Work. The Muse, 5 July 2013, www.themuse.com/advice/feeling-frustrated-how-to-advocate-for-yourself-at-work.

Nunez, Vivian. “Self-Advocacy Is A Learned Skill.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 June 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/viviannunez/2016/06/17/self-advocating-is-a-learned-skill/#13e24f787f14.

More Advocating Tips!

By Paige Waskow

There are many parts to advocating for yourself, and as the last post mentioned, being uncomfortable, actually doing something, and learning to stand up for yourself, are all key aspects. But what else can you do? Check out more advocating tips below to strengthen your methodology and confidence! In addition, look out for a summarized info graphic (of both advocating posts) coming soon.

1. Practice beforehand

Going into a conversation, you want to know what you are going to say and how you are going to present a concern. A great way to do that is to talk to a friend, classmate, or even yourself to make sure that you are ready to talk, especially if you are nervous. Just like studying helps you remember things, talking and having a plan is a great way to have confidence.

2. Know what you want before you talk

Expanding on the point above, it is beneficial to know exactly what you want before you have a conversation. This clarity will help you avoid stumbling around and missing the actual point you originally wanted to make. As an article from The Muse states:

"She and I then framed those points in a way that would show how these issues, when resolved, would help her team, her manager, and the entire organization. By leveraging your talking points this way, you can effectively turn what may sound like complaints into something much more positive for everyone on your team," (McLeod 2018).

Although this is specific to a workplace environment and employee, it is applicable to most situations. Preparation, understanding what you really want in the conversation, and practice allow for a better outcome. It can be helpful to think about how someone might respond. For example, you may ask your professor for more time on assignments. Of course, this could be answered in a multitude of ways, but you may expect that you professor would be hesitant to do so without legitimate reasoning. In this case, preparing why you feel that there should be more time for assignments helps make your request stronger and more likely to be considered.

3. Have someone accountable for your actions

It is always good to have support! Having someone keep you accountable for standing up for yourself is incredibly important. It will help you actually do the thing you set out to do and remember your goals. This could be anything from asking them to ask you how a conversation went or reminding you over text as a way to motivate yourself to do it. Often, when we are confronted with something uncomfortable, we immediately believe ourselves to be entirely alone. But this is not true and having someone on your side supporting you makes you more confident and eager to do so.

4. Keep a list of ways that you stood up for yourself

Okay, this may seem weird, but keep a list! It can help you remember what you have accomplished and why it meant a lot to you. You can use the list to motivate yourself and be a source of confidence for future events.

5. You may be helping others!

Especially if this is a widespread issue, you are advocating for others as well. Like the saying that when you have a question in class, someone else is wondering the same thing, if something is bothering you in a group situation, it is probably bothering someone else too. Often in society, we convince ourselves that our issues are not shared and therefore not important. If you struggle with this, remember that we are not as polarized and independent as we believe. In addition, it is always important to advocate for yourself, even if you are the only person who wants change.

6. Remember the other person

Although you should be assertive in what you want and need, be aware of the person you are talking to and their experience. Mostly, this revolves around reminding yourself of the following:

-   People are not mind-readers, and may have no idea what they are doing or how something is working is unfavorable to you. If they did not know beforehand, it does not mean they do not care.

-   Most people are willing to listen and understand why you are advocating for yourself. Respecting someone else when going into a conversation is crucial to its success.

-   How you come across is important. Complaining to or blaming someone will not get you the most favorable outcome (this is why you should plan your points ahead of time and practice!)

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I want to add that this may be particularly difficult for many people in society and in certain situations. There is often a lot of backlash or disregard of importance when a person tries to advocate for themselves. Being a woman, person of color, part of the lgbtqia+ community, physically disabled, pregnant, Muslim (or of another religious group), or having social anxiety can affect how people are treated and viewed when speaking up (and this is not a complete list).This is not to alternate confidence of speaking up but to address that this is a real problem we have in society. The more we address it and talk about it, the better we can support ourselves and others to be more confident in how we advocate for ourselves.

Resources:

Choi, Lily. “How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace.” How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace, The Everygirl, 20 June 2018, theeverygirl.com/being-a-woc-in-the-workplace/.

Patel, Deep. “10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation.” 10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation, SUCCESS, 4 April 2017, www.success.com/10-powerful-ways-to-stand-up-for-yourself-in-any-situation/.

Galinsky, Adam . “How to Speak up for Yourself.” How to Speak up for Yourself, Ideas.ted.com, 17 Feb. 2017, ideas.ted.com/how-to-speak-up-for-yourself/.

McLeod, Lea, Feeling Frustrated? How to Advocate for Yourself at Work. The Muse, 5 July 2013, www.themuse.com/advice/feeling-frustrated-how-to-advocate-for-yourself-at-work.

Nunez, Vivian. “Self-Advocacy Is A Learned Skill.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 June 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/viviannunez/2016/06/17/self-advocating-is-a-learned-skill/#13e24f787f14.

How do you ADVOCATE for yourself?

By Paige Waskow

Advocating for yourself can often be really hard. Like, really REALLY difficult. You may have to talk to a boss, a professor you dislike, or a friend who is making you uncomfortable. It may be as simple as asking your roommate to turn off the light at a certain time or as complicated as asking for funding for research. Yet, we need to advocate for ourselves. It is an incredibly helpful skill to have and will help you move forward to do the things you want to do. You will be able to gain confidence and compromise with others, while pursuing your goals and needs. By starting now, you will benefit yourself in future jobs and interactions with people.

Here are three tips and reminders about advocating for yourself:

(In addition, look out for more tips in an additional posts coming soon!)

1. It might be uncomfortable or put you in an awkward position, but that is okay

Standing up for yourself is often uncomfortable. It is an active action and requires stepping out of passivity and not accepting the current situation to ask for what you want. It may not be received well or you may not get the answer you want. The goal is not to change everything to be perfect but to address a particular need or concern. In addition, talking about a problem when it first comes up allows for you to hopefully avoid further complication and make your insight heard.

2. You need to actually do something about it

It is really, incredibly easy to do nothing at all. It is even easier to gossip about a problem and perpetuate how upset you are about it. This may be obvious, but this solves absolutely nothing. If anything, it may make your problem worse. The person may take offense to gossip and make it harder for you and your wants to be acknowledged and taken seriously in the future. It takes courage and uncomfortability to talk to someone, as mentioned above, but it is your best chance at getting an outcome that is favorable to you. Without taking that step, the situation you are in will continue to be the same.

3. Advocating for yourself will get easier with practice and is a learned skill

Small steps:

Although you may and can accomplish a big advocating goal whenever you want to, it is often helpful to get in the practice of starting small. Practice figuring out what you want or what you see a problem with. This is not to say you should always feel the need to address everything, but if you have a legitimate opinion or concern about something, have the conversation. This will help you prepare for the future, become more comfortable talking to others, and build the habit to address a pressing concern.

Small wins and compromise:

Not every conversation will go well or how you want it to. Perhaps your teacher did not understand why you think that their homework assignments are sporadic and do not help you learn. Or maybe, your boss will not change your shift exactly how you want it. This can be extremely frustrating, as we often have one idea of the perfect situation, however, small wins can be a big deal and so can compromise. By creating even that small change, you have changed something. And now, the person you talked to knows it is a concern to you! Your situation will most likely be more in your favor. In addition, remember that you have the right to ask and your concern is legitimate.

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I want to add that this may be particularly difficult for many people in society and in certain situations. There is often a lot of backlash or disregard of importance when a person tries to advocate for themselves. Being a woman, person of color, part of the lgbtqia+ community, physically disabled, pregnant, Muslim (or of another religious group), or having social anxiety can affect how people are treated and viewed when speaking up (and this is not a complete list).This is not to alternate confidence of speaking up but to address that this is a real problem we have in society. The more we address it and talk about it, the better we can support ourselves and others to be more confident in how we advocate for ourselves.

Resources:

Choi, Lily. “How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace.” How to Advocate for Yourself as a Woman of Color in the Workplace, The Everygirl, 20 June 2018, theeverygirl.com/being-a-woc-in-the-workplace/.

Patel, Deep. “10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation.” 10 Powerful Ways to Stand Up for Yourself in Any Situation, SUCCESS, 4 April 2017, www.success.com/10-powerful-ways-to-stand-up-for-yourself-in-any-situation/.

Galinsky, Adam . “How to Speak up for Yourself.” How to Speak up for Yourself, Ideas.ted.com, 17 Feb. 2017, ideas.ted.com/how-to-speak-up-for-yourself/.

McLeod, Lea, Feeling Frustrated? How to Advocate for Yourself at Work. The Muse, 5 July 2013, www.themuse.com/advice/feeling-frustrated-how-to-advocate-for-yourself-at-work.

Nunez, Vivian. “Self-Advocacy Is A Learned Skill.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 June 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/viviannunez/2016/06/17/self-advocating-is-a-learned-skill/#13e24f787f14.