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Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It
by Tonika Lewis Johnson, Maria Krysan
Multiple times a day, in cities across the US and beyond, a simple yet powerful message is repeated by the well-meaning, the ill-informed, and the bigoted: "don't go" – avoid at all costs those Black and Brown disinvested neighborhoods that have become bywords for social disorder and urban decay.
This book is a collection of intimate stories and evocative photos that uncover the hidden influence of both subtle and overt "don't go" messages and the segregation they perpetuate in Chicago. Told by everyday people to Tonika Lewis Johnson and Maria Krysan – a Black artist and a White academic who met through their shared passion for anti-segregation work – the stories paint a rich picture of life in a segregated city.
One by one, the storytellers upend pessimism with candid, deeply personal, humorous, and heartbreaking tales, and with novel ideas for simple actions that can serve as antidotes to both racism and "place-ism."
By inviting readers into the lives of regular people who have ignored the warning to stay away from "don't go" neighborhoods or who live in those very same neighborhoods, the stories in Don't Go illuminate the devastating consequences of racial segregation and disinvestment as well as the inevitable rewards of coming together.
"[F]irsthand accounts provide a fascinating window into the bizarre emotionality of racism … a deeply revealing examination of the psyche of a city." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Every one of us, no matter how much we're committed to racial justice and believe in racial equality, has stereotypes that we need to overcome. If you think you're immune from the stereotypes of 'dangerous Black neighborhoods,' you should read this book." —Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law
This information about Don't Go was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Tonika Lewis Johnson is a photographer and multi-media artist, and creator of the Folded Map Project. She is recipient of the 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and one of Chicago Magazine's 2017 Chicagoans of the Year.
Maria Krysan is LAS Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago, and co-author of the multiple award-winning book Cycle of Segregation.
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