New Book on Complicit Racism is Published by 2Leaf Press
NEW YORK, June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- What happens when you discover at 62-years-old you didn't know anything about Emmett Till? If you are Carolyn L. Baker, you look deep within yourself and begin writing about your life as an unintentional accomplice to racism. The result is Baker's debut book, An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility, about a white woman's journey growing up and coming of age in segregated Southern California in the counter-cultural 1960s.
An Unintentional Accomplice follows Baker's awakening to the realities of her own white privilege, facing the painful reality that, no matter how "unintentional," by not actively opposing discrimination, as a white person, she acts as an "accomplice."
Baker reflects on her awakening to her cultural white privilege and unintentional racial harm and shares her journey to becoming an ally in building a more humane community. Instead of preaching to readers or writing a "self-help" book about white privilege, Baker provides a non-judgmental personal narrative designed to encourage readers to act upon "the better angels of our nature."
"The graphic photographs of Emmett Till's brutalized body after it was retrieved three days later, flashed across the screen," says Baker. "I sprang off the couch and screamed 'No!' It was the immediate and universal anguish every mother feels at the sight of such cruelty to a child. My heart was broken wide open, and from that moment, I began reviewing how, decade by decade, I had unconsciously been consuming racism my whole life. I read and wrote and read and wrote. And that was the beginning of my journey."
The irony for Baker is that she comes from a Quaker background embedded with a belief in equality of all human beings and social justice. To that end, for over thirty years, Baker worked in the nonprofit sector in wide-ranging organizations, from Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to the Clinton Global Initiative. While Baker spent a lifetime helping people, she never saw herself as a racist. "The cardinal sin of my ignorance and indifference was that it is so perfectly normal within my white culture," says Baker. "The fact that I was unaware of one of the most galvanizing events of the civil rights movement was the trigger that caused me to look at my insular life of whiteness."
Baker turned to 2Leaf Press, a black/brown female led press that publishes books about race and social justice. "I was impressed by Carolyn's desire to share her revelation with others," says Gabrielle David, publisher, "as well as her sincerity in wanting to take on this project. Since 2Leaf Press' mission is to spark conversations about race and social justice, I felt the publication of An Unintentional Accomplice would show readers, both black and white, where those biases come from and how counteracting them will be key to moving toward a more just society."
In An Unintentional Accomplice, Baker tackles institutionalized discrimination, the illusion of the American dream, with calls for a radically inclusive feminism. Shining a light on the concepts of comfort, power, privilege and identity, Baker acknowledges the benefits that racism has provided her and shares her process of coming to a healthy and functioning sense of white racial identity.
An Unintentional Accomplice was written and published to be read by all people of different ethnic backgrounds. Achieving racial and ethnic comity will require the highly unlikely combination of people's willingness to learn about each other and coming together. An Unintentional Accomplice is worthy of your time. You will not be disappointed.
Available on major online outlets. ISBN: 9781940939230 (Print), 208 pages. List price: $19.99. ISBN: 9781734618129 (ebk), $7.99. To order review or exam copies call (773) 702-7109 or email [email protected]. For interviews or speaking engagements: [email protected]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carolyn L. Baker, who had a thirty-year executive career in nonprofit settings as wide-ranging as Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to the Clinton Global Initiative, is currently working as diversity consultant connecting inclusion and diversity strategies to the needs of individuals and organizations. Formerly an adjunct professor in the community college systems, Baker earned a graduate degree in Educational Psychology from Northern Arizona University. An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility is her first book. www.anunintentionalaccomplice.com
ABOUT THE PRESS: 2Leaf Press is a Florida-based nonprofit organization that challenges the status quo by publishing alternative fiction, non?fiction, poetry and bilingual works by activists, academics, poets and authors. We are especially dedicated to publishing scholarship regarding diversity and social justice that is accessible to the general public. www.2leafpress.org
Gabrielle David
Publisher
646.801.4227
[email protected]
SOURCE 2Leaf Press
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