The Lived Experience of Democracy: Criticizing Injustice, Building Community

Edited by Kaitlyn Baker, Sophia Cheng, Elise Ebert, Hannah Ellis, Keilah Gadson, Angela Grey-Theriot, and Niharika Singhvi Working and Writing for Change Series Editors: Steve Parks and Jessica Pauszek Information and Pricing 978-1-64317-364-1 (paperback, $17.99); 978-1-64317-365-8 (PDF, $9.99). © 2023 by New City Community Press. 136 pages, with photographs and bibliographies. Bookstores: Order by fax, mail, or phone. See our "Sales and Ordering Page" for details.   From the Introduction The Lived Experience of Democracy: Criticizing Injustice, Building Community reflects the exploratory efforts of students attempting to make sense of their surroundings. We are a group of students who have been living and working within a university that bears the marks of centuries of racism and exclusion. As students at the University of Virginia, we regularly walk along the infamous Serpentine Walls that once hid the labor of enslaved peoples from the earliest students at the University. We walk within a history that echoes with the racist and sexist admission process of the university that denied admission to Black students until 1950 and admission to women students until 1970. And through much of this history, student activists have been fighting for recognition of those people hidden behind those walls and those people excluded from attending. These students coupled their educational goals with the goal of moving the University towards accountability and equity. Resistance, however, has often been fierce. The powerful work of student advocacy groups on grounds has been continually met by individuals and coalitions who wish to suppress democratic practices, inclusive values. Many of the authors in this anthology watched as white supremacists invaded the campus just four years ago, leading to the murder of a young woman, Heather Heyer. The “Unite the Right’’ rally was a sign to all of us at the University of Virginia, as well as many others nationally, to take on a more active role in reforming the current state of our democracy.