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Jonathan Metzl, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease Beacon, 2009

The diagnosis of mental illness has always been colored by social biases, but a striking shift occurred during the turmoil of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Jonathan Metzl describes how African American men became disproportionately diagnosed with schizophrenia, which was reclassified as a disease of the violent, and how that skewed diagnosis continues to this day. (Encore broadcast.)

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Bernice McFadden, Glorious Akashic, 2010

San Rafael screening of Every War Has Two Losers, a film by Haydn Reiss

Two compelling characters: a fictional one, who gets caught up in the Harlem Renaissance, and a real one, a pacifist poet named William Stafford. A new novel by Bernice McFadden is set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, the Great Migration, and the civil rights era. Stafford's writings about peace, reconciliation, and human connection are the focus of a film by Haydn Reiss.

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Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap Penguin, 2010

Turbulence

Turbulence Collective, What Would It Mean To Win? PM Press, 2010

In a sense, Christos Tsiolkas's new novel is a form of social commentary: about where Australia is now, what race and class dynamics there are like, and what's happened to bonds of family and community in the face of rampant materialism. And in the second of a two-part interview, Tadzio Mueller addresses the question of protest movement dialogue and strategizing.

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Jonathan Metzl, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease Beacon, 2009

The diagnosis of mental illness has always been colored by social biases, but a striking shift occurred during the turmoil of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Jonathan Metzl describes how African American men became disproportionately diagnosed with schizophrenia, which was reclassified as a disease of the violent, and how that skewed diagnosis continues to this day.

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Jonathan Marks, Why I Am Not a Scientist: Anthropology and Modern Knowledge UC Press, 2009

Do genes determine race? Are some races innately more intelligent than others? And what about Charles Darwin -- is his name safe from those who would push a racist or misogynist agenda? Jonathan Marks points out political leanings and racial ideas still at play in some scientific disciplines, including genetics.

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George Lipsitz, Footsteps in the Dark: The Hidden Histories of Popular Music U. of Minnesota Press, 2007

According to George Lipsitz, popular music emerges from, and tells stories about, social conditions, power relations, and collective struggles. The songs, especially those that endure, convey histories otherwise hidden from view. Lipsitz also critiques Ken Burns's documentary Jazz and describes how techno emerged from the streets of Detroit.