OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham l Author- Activist Suzanne Brooks l June 12, 2012 ET

[Janice]

 

 

Suzanne Brooks, is an author, activist and musician.  She is an accomplished Recording Artist and Author with four CD's currently in distribution and two books in print.  She is  the author of , Escape is Not an Option and Ins and Outs. Her CDs include, Miles to go Before I Sleep;; Even Sad Memories are Great Women of Jazz; and,  a Trbute Listening To The Radio.

 She is an experienced and widely known Educator and Community Activist. Suzanne is the CEO / President of  International Association for Women Of Color Day and the owner of Creative Concepts/Systems, a recording and distribution enterprise.

 

Her new book, "The Constructive Extermination of Women of Color : Consequences of Perpetual Socio-Economic Marginalization" examines the unique experience of women of color under both racism and sexism and focuses on strategies which can help change the systems of our society which oppresses them.

 

She is the founder of The International Association for Women of Color Day which was established to promote the commemoration of Women of Color Day March 1st, annually and world wide. In 1981, the National Institute for Women of Color (NIWC) was established to build a strong national network for women of African, Alaska Native, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Latina and Pacific Island heritages and to advance the issues of Women of Color. These efforts resulted in National Strategies Conferences for Women of Color in 1982 and 1983 in Washington, DC, 1984 in Reno, Nevada and 1987 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. NIWC also published three Fact Sheets on Women of Color and as well as several NIWC Brown Papers—researched writings on issues of concern to Women of Color. In 1991, as Director of the California State University Multi-Cultural Center, Brooks implemented the first Women of Color Day program in California at that university. She directed subsequent programs there until 1995. Thereafter, Brooks began the work of converting a national observance into an international one.

 

ABOUT “The Constructive Extermination of Women of Color: Consequences of Perpetual Socio-Economic Marginalization”

 

The Constructive Extermination of Women of Color: Consequences of Perpetual Socio-Economic Marginalization is now in print, publication date November 22, 2011. In addition to 16 essays written for The Black Commentator (blackcommentator.com), the book includes an excerpt from my unpublished dissertation—The Autoethnography of An Activist: Racism and Sexism in Higher Education and an essay on Systems Thinking applied to racism plus sexism.

Some of the essays included in the collection from past writings have relevance to current issues making news, illustrating the kinds of social climates which exist or have existed and serve as background information. Thus, in light of recent scandals and new social movements—especially the Occupy movement and the treatment of protestors, the sections on Penn State and California State University Sacramento will be of interest to many readers.

 

This book is primarily directed to the attention of women of color and our allies, to stir discussions about our real circumstances, urging courage to act on our own behalves. Think of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and all the other ancestors who struggled to be free themselves and to free others. For enslaved and oppressed people, if we are not free, if we do not have full equality, we have nothing. We have been on the bottom of this and most societies for centuries.

 

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