The YWCA Real Reads series provides free community conversations exploring the effects of interpersonal and structural racism on our culture and society. These thoughtfully facilitated book discussions offer an opportunity to read, talk, and listen to others, to engage in real conversation, and connect across differences.
Format
Book discussion facilitated by YWCA experts via Zoom meeting or in person at your location.
REAL READS, REAL DISCUSSIONS
Are you interested in learning about antiracism, racial equity, and social justice? Books are a great place to start. Books can help us with our own self-reflection and can also give us an effective way to begin having crucial conversations with our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Readers can take part in a community movement to read, learn, think, talk about, and lead social transformation.
Interested in hosting a Real Reads Book Discussion? Gather your family, friends, co-workers, or neighbors, and we’ll bring the discussion to you with our experienced facilitators. Complete the form below and we’ll get back to you to make the arrangements.
2021-22 Book Schedule
September – November, 2021
Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is an explosive, alarming history that finally confronts how American governments in the twentieth century deliberately imposed residential racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide.
Racially motivated federal, state, and local governmental policies were supplemented by government programs that depressed African American incomes and oppressed African American lives in a myriad of ways that continue to plague our communities.
Hear about the book from the author himself!
Richard Rothstein is keynote speaker for the YWCA Racial Justice Breakfast on October 13, 2021. Find out more HERE.
February – April, 2022
In her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author Isabel Wilkerson examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
Through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, Wilkerson shows how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, caste is a powerful system that influences peoples’ lives and behavior and the nation’s fate.
Real Reads Book Discussion Request
If you are interested in hosting a YWCA Real Reads Book Discussion (offered Monday-Friday only), please complete the following form. Our staff will follow up promptly! Thank you for your interest.Questions? Contact Yvette Johnson-Hegge at yjohnson-hegge@ywcacin.org.