5 Books on My Radar

One of the most rewarding things from the otherwise tumultuous past year was the birth of Next Gen Men's Beyond Our Own Knowledge (B.O.O.K.) Club. Sparked by the tragic murder of George Floyd in May, I, a white male in Western Canada wondered what I could do to show solidarity and affect change. Theodore Roosevelt once said ‘do what you can with what you have where you are.’

So I turned to my relatively small audience with the invitation for ten non-Black men to join me in reading a book written by a Black author (Photo: Instagram post on June 7th). I even offered to buy the book for them in return for them dedicating their time to the reading and a one-hour discussion after. I ended up with 27 men who raised their hands.

This was a transformative experience for me. In the world of clickbait, social media echo chambers and divisive discourse we created a shared experience. Whether it was a hard-copy, audiobook, or e-book we read the same words filtered through our individual lived experiences. 

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the appetite was there for creating brave spaces for important learning & unlearning that I thought it would be a great Equity Leaders offering to help engage, educate, and empower male-identified leaders across male-dominated industries to take on the challenge of leading by learning on a quarterly basis.

I was right.

Currently, we’re wrapping up our first official quarter with 49 leaders including cohorts from a tech company, energy company, and a financial institution as well as individuals spanning the C-suite, management, D&I practitioner, and otherwise. We’re all reading and discussing Caroline Criado Perez’s amazing book Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. Who else can claim they got 50 men (including facilitators) to read that all at once?! 

I’m excited to keep the momentum moving forward through B.O.O.K. Club into 2021. I make a point of not naming the book before the Quarter as I don’t want folks perpetuating inequity by picking and choosing the voices they care to hear, but here are five books on my radar that may or may not be part of our four-Quarter roster in 2021:

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

Recommended by my friend Erin Davis who is doing her change-making work over at Catalyst. She said it was one of the best books she read in 2020 and is apparently a TIFF Film now (including the amazing artwork of Kent Monkman of course)! One review reads:

"I learned a lot from this and was blown away by King’s ability to compress so much history by focusing on a limited set of themes. King does a great service in explaining the long history of Indian-White relations in North America so clearly and in using the sweep of the tragic failures to urge us all to do better in the future. This is no dry history, but a personalized account. I also appreciated his cushioning of uncomfortable truths with ironic humor and a sense that we are all facing the problems together."

Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present by Robyn Maynard

I was talking to a pretty high-ranking police officer in the wake of Black Lives Matter, and one point of contention I heard was something like "what's happening in the US isn't the same in Canada". So I was lucky to be sent Maynard's book by my NGM co-founder Jason Tan de Bibiana who is now working at the Vera Institute of Justice. One review reads:

"This book should be required reading for Canadians. I was quite angry as I read it. Why was I angry? There was so much in here that I did not know. I was not aware that we had slavery in Canada for 200 years, or that the Canadian government actively discouraged Blacks from immigrating by telling them they couldn't survive in this climate. This book is full of gems and you will learn so much by reading it. I urge you to read it, because the facts in here will blow your mind and make you angry at your public school education."

The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri

Looking at me, people wouldn't know it, but I came to Canada as a refugee immigrant in the early 90s. So this book title caught my eye when my friend Dr. Kristen Liesch from Tidal Equality shared it with me. One review reads:

"In addition to her riveting portrayal of what it means to be a refugee, often caught in a no-man's-land for months or even years as well as often being refused the asylum they so desperately need (as she eloquently says, no one leaves home, certainly with a family, just "because", it is desperation that drives people into boats, leaving everything they own and love behind them, searching for a safe place to live), Nayeri discusses ways in which those of us who "mean well" can interact helpfully with people trying to adjust to a new culture."

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

When Seth Godin talks, I listen. He doesn't often promote other people's work in his daily blog, so when I read this one, I knew it had to be special. I also think Caste is a fascinating way to talk about inequality. One review reads:

"Wilkerson finds that white skin is salvation for a lot of poor whites, who know with certainty that they are not the bottom of the heap – as long as there are blacks around. So it’s important to both keep them down and keep them poor. The situation is so devoid of truth or reality that 55% of Americans think all poor people are black. And that’s reason enough to keep the castes separate, and to be against aiding the poor."

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century by Alice Wong

The accessibility narrative has done so much for the inclusion movement to flip the narrative on its head from 'the person does not fit the place' to 'the place does not fit the person'. Yet, we often continue to leave discussions about varying abilities as an afterthought. I know I need to level up on this front, and maybe you do too. One review reads:

"In a world where the disabled voice is often viewed through the lens of what disability rights activist Stella Young coined as "inspiration porn" or with the rah-rah sympathies of the latest Lifetime Channel movie, a book like "Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century" is an act of revolutionary love and claiming of space."

So whether you join B.O.O.K. Club or not, I hope you continue to read Beyond Our Own Knowledge with me in 2021. To learning & unlearning ??!

(But let's be real, if you're a male-identified leader you should probably join. We're counting on you to help us build a movement of caring men championing equity and inclusion wherever we may be. And if you don't identify as male - tell someone! Use the code 'LINKEDIN' for 10% off by January 31st!)