Calling in: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781982190804)

From a pioneering Black feminist and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, this urgent and exhilarating memoir-manifesto-handbook provides bold, practical new ways to transform conflicts into connections, even with those we're tempted to walk away from.

In 1979, Loretta Ross was a single mother in Washington who'd had to drop out of Howard University. She was working at the DC Rape Crisis Center when the organization got a letter from a man in prison saying he wanted to learn how to not be a rapist anymore. At first, she was furious. As a survivor of sexual violence, she wanted to write back pouring out her rage. Instead, she made a different choice, a choice to reject the response her trauma was pushing her towards. This choice would set her on the path towards developing a framework that would come to guide her whole career: Rather than calling people out, try to call even your unlikeliest allies in. Hold them accountable--but with love.

Calling In is at once a handbook, a manifesto, and a memoir--because the power of Loretta Ross's message comes from who she is and what she's lived through. She's a Black woman who's deprogrammed white supremacists, and a survivor who's taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism. With stories from her five remarkable decades in activism, she vividly illustrates why calling people in--inviting them into conversation instead of conflict and focusing on your shared values over a desire for punishment--is the more strategic choice if you want to make real change. And she shows you how to do so, whether in the workplace, on a college campus, or in your living room.

Courageous, awe-inspiring, and blisteringly authentic, Calling In is a "masterclass in constructive confrontation" (Adam Grant) and a practical new solution from one of our country's most extraordinary change-makers--one anyone can learn to use to transform frustrating and divisive conflicts that stand in the way of real connection with the people in your life.

Author: Loretta J. Ross
ISBN-10: 1982190809
ISBN-13: 9781982190804
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Language: English
Published: 02/10/2026
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 8.38h x 5.50w x 0.88d