Currently browsing category

Judy Helfand

Ancestral Land Claims

by Judy Helfand My friend offered to do some genealogy research for me. I already had a fairly extensive genealogy and history of my father’s side, the Jewish side. My paternal grandmother and grandfather emigrated to Canada and the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I suspected some …

The Color of Law: Review

by Judy Helfand Seeing a recommendation for The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, on the Racial Justice Allies Facebook page, I reserved it at the library, wanting to keep up with recent writing on institutionalized racism in the U.S. When I picked up the book I saw the subtitle—A …

From #BLACKLIVES MATTER to Black Liberation

Review by Judy Helfand In From #BLACKLIVES MATTER to Black Liberation Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor complicates and disturbs many of the current understandings of racism, racial history, and whiteness in the U.S., especially as these understandings are applied to organizing for freedom and justice for Black people. In the process she provides …

The Fire This Time: Read This Book

Book review by Judy Helfand I am writing about the Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward, because I want folks to read it. But I barely know what to say. When I finished “Message to My Daughters” by Edwidge Danticat, the final essay …