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Podcast: New Books in African American Studies
Episode: Tajja Isen, "Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service" (Atria/One Signal, 2022)
Description: In this stunning debut collection, Catapult editor-in-chief and award-winning voice actor Tajja Isen explores the absurdity of living in a world that has grown fluent in the language of social justice but doesn't always follow through.These nine daring essays explore the sometimes troubling and often awkward nature of that discord. Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service (Atria/One Signal, 2022) takes on the cartoon industry's pivot away from colorblind casting, the pursuit of diverse representation in the literary world, the law's refusal to see inequality, and the cozy fictions of nationalism. Isen deftly examines the quick, cosmetic fixes...