Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want
Written by Ruha Benjamin
Narrated by Ruha Benjamin
5/5
()
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Ruha Benjamin offers an inspiring and uniquely personal vision of how we can build a more just world one small change at a time
“A book as urgent as the moment that produced it.”—Jelani Cobb, Columbia Journalism School
Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Part memoir, part manifesto, Viral Justice is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day.
Vividly recounting her personal experiences and those of her family, Benjamin shows how seemingly minor decisions and habits could spread virally and have exponentially positive effects. She recounts her father’s premature death, illuminating the devastating impact of the chronic stress of racism, but she also introduces us to community organizers who are fostering mutual aid and collective healing. Through her brother’s experience with the criminal justice system, we see the trauma caused by policing practices and mass imprisonment, but we also witness family members finding strength as they come together to demand justice for their loved ones. And while her own challenges as a young mother reveal the vast inequities of our healthcare system, Benjamin also describes how the support of doulas and midwives can keep Black mothers and babies alive and well.
This inspiring audiobook offers a passionate and practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming our relationships and communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world.
Related to Viral Justice
Related audiobooks
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anti–Racist Organization: The Anti–Racist Organization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heal Your Way Forward: The Co-Conspirator’s Guide to an Antiracist Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Didn't We Riot?: A Black Man in Trumpland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Souls Of Black Folk Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Burst of Light: and Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Are Prisons Obsolete? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Facilitator's Guide for White Affinity Groups: Strategies for Leading White People in an Anti-Racist Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seen and Unseen: Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Property: Policing, Prisons, and the Call for Abolition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Social Science For You
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Viral Justice
11 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I appreciate the balance of research and personal stories. It was beautiful!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book!!! Ruha provides a broad foundation from which we can imagine viral justice. The ability to tie history, current events and trends together to illustrate the impact of injustice and the potential for us all to thrive is inspiring. Totally go ahead and listen!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thank you for this book, Dr Benjamin. It is heartening to believe that the small things that we do, when done in community with others, can and do have a viral impact. This got me excited to figure out what it is that lights my fire and to go after that piece of social justice. Thank you. I think I may need to read the actual text so I can make notes next time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This made me rethink my views on justice and the emotions tied to racism and our society as a whole.