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We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism
This groundbreaking book shows how, working individually or with others, you can truly help to end racism in the world. Clyde W. Ford, who has spent his life fighting for racial equality and harmony, now brings you 50 steps that put the power to change the way things are into your hands: address unresolved issues in your own life, initiate family discussions and parental guidance, lead church and fellowship groups, teach about cultural diversity, put together civic and community projects, change a workplace or neighborhood, and deal with national and worldwide issues.
- GenresSocial Issues
194 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
46 people want to read
About the author
Clyde W. Ford
20 books31 followersClyde W. Ford is a software engineer, a chiropractor, and a psychotherapist. He’s also the award-winning author of twelve works of fiction and non-fiction, whose most recent book, THINK BLACK: A Memoir will be published in September 2019 by Amistad/HarperCollins.
Clyde W. Ford earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Mathematics from Wesleyan University in 1971, then worked as a systems engineer for IBM. In 1977, he returned to school, enrolling at Western States University in Portland, Oregon, where he completed his Doctorate in Chiropractic. Later, he undertook post-doctoral training in psychotherapy at the Synthesis Education Foundation of Massachusetts, under the direction of Steven Schatz, and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York. Ford was in private practice as a chiropractor and psychotherapist, first in Richmond, Virginia, and later in Bellingham, Washington.
At sixteen, Ford traveled to West Africa in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, attempting to come to terms with the tragedy. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, “The young man traveled alone that summer to the Elmina slave portal, on the continent’s west coast, and heard voices in a mystical experience that permanently marked him.” Looking back on the event more than 20 years later, Ford told the Plain Dealer, “The meaning of my own life is based in the meaning of those who have gone before. The ancestors are there, still informing, still influencing us.”
BODY-MIND HEALING
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Clyde wrote about body-mind healing; in the mid-1990s he concentrated on the healing of racial wounds; and in 2000, he wrote about mythology, and how myths could heal psychic wounds. Besides exploring healing issues in books and on the lecture circuit, he has conducted seminars and written numerous articles for Massage Magazine, Massage Therapy Journal, and Chiropractic Economics. In 1991 East West Magazine recognized Ford’s work in somatic therapy as one of the 20 trends reshaping society. Linda Elliot and Mark Mayell in East West Magazine described Ford as “an ‘engineer’ who’s building a bridge across the chasm that separates practitioners who focus only on body structures and those who concentrate specifically on the psyche.” From 1992 to 1996 Ford regularly taught somatic psychology at the Institut fur Angewandte Kinesiologie in Freiburg, Germany.
In 1989 Ford wrote his first book, Where Healing Waters Meet, about his many years of experience working with the healing of emotional wounds through touch and movement therapy, rather than talk therapy. That was followed in 1993 by Compassionate Touch, a book which amplified these themes and documented Ford’s work with adult survivors of sexual abuse, mainly women.
RACIAL HEALING
The riots and racial divisiveness in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 left Ford feeling frustrated. After speaking to a number of friends who shared his frustration, he decided to write a book about social justice and racial healing. “When we’re dealing with an issue like racism,” Ford told Karen Abbott in the Rocky Mountain News, “So many people feel it’s a daunting issue and that they can’t do anything. A certain paralysis sets in. But anybody and everybody can make a difference.” While Ford remained optimistic, he also admitted that the roots of racial discord run deep. “It’s really not just African American’s place to deal with that,” he told Linda Richards in January Magazine. “We have in our history our own reckoning with that process. But the entire society needs to reckon with that.”
In 1994 Ford completed We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism. “Racism is a social issue,” Ford told Cynthia M. Hodnett in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It is important to look beneath the surface to find out what the issues are that need to be addressed.” Ford realized that many people were
Clyde W. Ford earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Mathematics from Wesleyan University in 1971, then worked as a systems engineer for IBM. In 1977, he returned to school, enrolling at Western States University in Portland, Oregon, where he completed his Doctorate in Chiropractic. Later, he undertook post-doctoral training in psychotherapy at the Synthesis Education Foundation of Massachusetts, under the direction of Steven Schatz, and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York. Ford was in private practice as a chiropractor and psychotherapist, first in Richmond, Virginia, and later in Bellingham, Washington.
At sixteen, Ford traveled to West Africa in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, attempting to come to terms with the tragedy. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, “The young man traveled alone that summer to the Elmina slave portal, on the continent’s west coast, and heard voices in a mystical experience that permanently marked him.” Looking back on the event more than 20 years later, Ford told the Plain Dealer, “The meaning of my own life is based in the meaning of those who have gone before. The ancestors are there, still informing, still influencing us.”
BODY-MIND HEALING
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Clyde wrote about body-mind healing; in the mid-1990s he concentrated on the healing of racial wounds; and in 2000, he wrote about mythology, and how myths could heal psychic wounds. Besides exploring healing issues in books and on the lecture circuit, he has conducted seminars and written numerous articles for Massage Magazine, Massage Therapy Journal, and Chiropractic Economics. In 1991 East West Magazine recognized Ford’s work in somatic therapy as one of the 20 trends reshaping society. Linda Elliot and Mark Mayell in East West Magazine described Ford as “an ‘engineer’ who’s building a bridge across the chasm that separates practitioners who focus only on body structures and those who concentrate specifically on the psyche.” From 1992 to 1996 Ford regularly taught somatic psychology at the Institut fur Angewandte Kinesiologie in Freiburg, Germany.
In 1989 Ford wrote his first book, Where Healing Waters Meet, about his many years of experience working with the healing of emotional wounds through touch and movement therapy, rather than talk therapy. That was followed in 1993 by Compassionate Touch, a book which amplified these themes and documented Ford’s work with adult survivors of sexual abuse, mainly women.
RACIAL HEALING
The riots and racial divisiveness in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 left Ford feeling frustrated. After speaking to a number of friends who shared his frustration, he decided to write a book about social justice and racial healing. “When we’re dealing with an issue like racism,” Ford told Karen Abbott in the Rocky Mountain News, “So many people feel it’s a daunting issue and that they can’t do anything. A certain paralysis sets in. But anybody and everybody can make a difference.” While Ford remained optimistic, he also admitted that the roots of racial discord run deep. “It’s really not just African American’s place to deal with that,” he told Linda Richards in January Magazine. “We have in our history our own reckoning with that process. But the entire society needs to reckon with that.”
In 1994 Ford completed We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism. “Racism is a social issue,” Ford told Cynthia M. Hodnett in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It is important to look beneath the surface to find out what the issues are that need to be addressed.” Ford realized that many people were
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 28, 2020
I ordered this book quite awhile ago, before the recent anti-racial movement triggered by George Floyd’s racially motivated death at the hands of brutal police. I ordered it because I loved his more recent Think Black book. So when anti-racism started becoming the focus of social media, I chose to read this book one step a day and post on Facebook with a summary of each step and include my personal perspective.
Yes, it’s written in 1994 so it would have been nice to see an updated version published. But the fact that it was published over 25 years ago and almost all of it was entirely relevant today certainly speaks to our need to once again focus on real change in anti-racist actions and legislation.
So I reported for 50 days on Facebook every step of this book. It was an awakening experience that I would have never accomplished just by reading it. It elicited civil discussions and appreciation from my friends who followed along.
It’s a wonderful book. Written not in anger but in the spirit of Rodney King, asking for cooperation and unity, outlining practical steps in uncovering and challenging racism, and in the hope that we all can get along. Thank you Clyde W. Ford.
Yes, it’s written in 1994 so it would have been nice to see an updated version published. But the fact that it was published over 25 years ago and almost all of it was entirely relevant today certainly speaks to our need to once again focus on real change in anti-racist actions and legislation.
So I reported for 50 days on Facebook every step of this book. It was an awakening experience that I would have never accomplished just by reading it. It elicited civil discussions and appreciation from my friends who followed along.
It’s a wonderful book. Written not in anger but in the spirit of Rodney King, asking for cooperation and unity, outlining practical steps in uncovering and challenging racism, and in the hope that we all can get along. Thank you Clyde W. Ford.
October 9, 2022
Dated but a pretty good list of stuff. Except for the "computer" stuff. That was obsolete. Also pleased with the Keith Haring print on the cover.
May 22, 2014
A great introduction to anti-racist work. If you are just starting to think about how you can work against racism, i highly recommend Ford's book.
I would love to see "We Can All Get Along" updated. Both the statistics and the ways that the internet is talked about (or not talked about) make the work highly dated in some ways. Not that i think that updated stats will show that racism has been eliminated; far from it. But it would be great to have more updated figures, more recent works cited, and an integration of the internet and social media into anti-racist activism.
Still, even being dated, this book is worth a read.
I would love to see "We Can All Get Along" updated. Both the statistics and the ways that the internet is talked about (or not talked about) make the work highly dated in some ways. Not that i think that updated stats will show that racism has been eliminated; far from it. But it would be great to have more updated figures, more recent works cited, and an integration of the internet and social media into anti-racist activism.
Still, even being dated, this book is worth a read.
May 28, 2010
It seems like recently I've heard a lot of otherwise kind people saying, "I'm not racist, but..." To me that just doesn't fly. I saw this book in a high school psychology classroom and read it to reaffirm my personal zero-tolerance policy.
February 5, 2016
This is a good one -- a slim volume desiogned to get your creative juices flowing towards the important goal of ending racism. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews