How to Start Making Change With Those You’d Rather Cancel

By Sonali Kolhatkar and YES! Media

Black feminist and reproductive justice organizer Loretta J. Ross has spent decades dealing with people she fundamentally disagrees with, starting with an encounter she had as a young sexual assault survivor. She was working as a rape counselor when she received a letter from a convicted rapist asking to visit him in prison because he wanted to learn how to not be a rapist. At first she was enraged but then decided to meet him. 

That interaction began her lifelong journey toward developing a philosophy about how people who are fundamentally on opposite sides of one another can come together. Her new book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change With Those You’d Rather Cancel—a handbook, a memoir, and a manifesto all at once—lays out what she has learned. 

Ross is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and associate professor at Smith College. She co-founded the National Center for Human Rights Education and the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. She spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about her new book.

You can listen to the full episode below.