Don't Label Me

An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times

De: Irshad Manji

Narrado por: Irshad Manji, Fatima Boorman

“Charming and disarming, a story like this heals the divides that threaten to destroy America. Don’t Label Me speaks for all of us who are more than the boxes that others put us into.” (Marianne Williamson, New York Times best-selling author)

A unique conversation about diversity, bigotry, and our common humanity, by the New York Times best-selling author, Oprah “Chutzpah” award-winner, and founder of the Moral Courage Project

In these United States, discord has hit emergency levels. Civility isn't the reason to repair our caustic chasms. Diversity is.

Don't Label Me shows that America's founding genius is diversity of thought. Which is why social justice activists won't win by labeling those who disagree with them. At a time when minorities are fast becoming the majority, a truly new America requires a new way to tribe out.

Enter Irshad Manji and her dog, Lily. Raised to believe that dogs are evil, Manji overcame her fear of the "other" to adopt Lily. She got more than she bargained for. Defying her labels as an old, blind dog, Lily engages Manji in a taboo-busting conversation about identity, power, and politics. They're feisty. They're funny. And in working through their challenges to one another, they reveal how to open the hearts of opponents for the sake of enduring progress. Listeners who crave concrete tips will be delighted.

Studded with insights from epigenetics and epistemology, layered with the lessons of Bruce Lee, Ben Franklin, and Audre Lorde, punctuated with stories about Manji's own experiences as a refugee from Africa, a Muslim immigrant to the US, and a professor of moral courage, Don't Label Me makes diversity great again.

©2019 Irshad Manji (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Great ideas

Irshad makes some great points in her book. The perspectives are needed in today’s divided country. While I love animals, I did not fully like the conversations with her dog. I felt they cheapened the content and made it appear more juvenile. There were times when a conversation with the dog would have added something, but in a metered doses. Otherwise, her explanation about how labels dehumanize us was spot on.

What a wonderful book

I really appreciate her insight and the thought about active listening, owning our emotions, and the role us progressives have in our current society. I’ve seen many of us progressives as victims but the concept of competitive victimhood shed more light on why we compete to be seen as bigger victims. A must read for anyone who is serious about change in culture and diversity and how we need to examine ourselves and our actions if we want to spur that change.

mind and life changing, affirming

as someone who finds themselves struggling with the topic of diversity, I find the author's views and suggestions both refreshing and reasonable. I will take many of the suggestions and try and apply them to my own life.

Urgent and Necessary

Professor Manji delivers a clarion call to the table of cultural pluralism. As a former Christian missionary turned agnostic, I was riveted by her clear direction and insights. She offers more than the sum of her experiences as an outspoken lesbian muslim (I cringe even writing those "labels"). Instead, her voice is used to offer a template for humble conflict resolution. True resolution, not a mic drop and walk away. Cultural hot buttons desperately need a format to earnestly engage with opposing views. Otherwise, we need to admit that we only engage those topics in discussion for the entertainment value of argument. Thank you, Professor, you have challenged me anew to consider each individual's textured experiences that lead to labels. Even political discussions run much deeper than talking heads (media sluts, as you dub them) lead us to believe. Committing myself to POOP time, not CCRAP.

Challenging our status quo

I began following Irshad about 10 years ago when she was leading the Moral Courage Project at NYU. Given her knowledge and experience challenging the status quo in her religion, she comes to the topic of division in the United States with credibility and clarity of thought. This book really caused me to analyze how I have been using labels to simplify complex people, and how by asking questions--rather than focusing on 'fixing' the person--I can create meaningful relationships, and maybe even heal the wounds in our society. I also appreciated Irshad's creativity in writing this book in the format of a conversation with her rescue dog, Lily. Irshad describes that over time Lily let down her guard and eventually trusted Irshad, her new human mom, despite the abusive trauma Lily experienced in her earlier years. I began to see why Irshad wrote the book this way. Lily offers a lesson that we all need to learn in order to heal our divided world. If you want to do your part to be a bridge in a divided world, I highly recommend you add Don't Label Me to your library.