Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High

Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High

Pascoe, C. J.

Paperback

General Gender StudiesGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesGLBTQIA Studies

Publisher Price: $24.95

ISBN10: 0520418336
ISBN13: 9780520418332
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: Feb 25 2025
Pages: 264
Weight: 0.86
Height: 0.59 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
This provocative story of contemporary high school argues that a shallow culture of kindness can do more lasting harm than good.

Based on two years of research, Nice Is Not Enough shares striking dispatches from one high school's regime of kindness to underline how the culture operates as a Band-Aid on persistent inequalities. Through incisive storytelling and thoughtful engagement with students, this brilliant study by C.J. Pascoe exposes uncomfortable truths about American politics and our reliance on individual solutions instead of profound systemic change.

Nice Is Not Enough brings readers into American High, a middle- and working-class high school characterized by acceptance, connection, and kindness--a place where, a prominent sign states, there is no room for hate. Here, inequality is narrowly understood as a problem of individual merit, meanness, effort, or emotion rather than a structural issue requiring deeper intervention. Surface-level sensitivity allows American High to avoid political topics related to social inequality based on race, sex, gender, or class. Being nice to each other, Pascoe reveals, does not serve these students or solve the broader issues we face; however, a true politics of care just might.

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General Racism & Ethnic Studies

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