Teaching College Students Communication Strategies for Effective Social Justice Advocacy by Robert J. Nash, Richard Greggory Johnson III, and Michele C. Murray (review)

Nash opens with the narrative of "Dennis," a student at Central High School who was being "cooled out" by his academic advisor. Dennis, who desired to be a high school teacher someday, wanted to enroll in college preparatory courses, but his guidance counselor urged Dennis to enroll in the vocational program.

Dennis's mother, "Mrs. Cruz," worried that her son was not excelling in his vocational classes because he was bored, scheduled a visit with the guidance counselor, the principal, and the superintendent. She had also noticed that, over the past few years, a disproportionate number of students of color were enrolled in vocational programs, while few minority students participated in the college preparatory courses.

When Mrs. Cruz confronted the superintendent, the conversation immediately became heated. The superintendent denied the allegation that the guidance counselor placed Dennis in a vocational program because of his ethnicity and social class. Mrs. Cruz, knowing that she lacked the privilege and power of the administrative team, could not get a straight answer when she pressed them to explain why her son was placed in vocational classes and why the guidance counselor discouraged him from taking the college preparatory courses.

Robert J. Nash, Richard Greggory Johnson III, and Michele C. Murray tell this compelling story to lay the groundwork for a conversation about how to employ effective communication strategies to advocate social justice through a process they call "advocacy dialogue." They offer five key communication strategies that they present through the detailed and applicable narratives from their personal experience in a variety of settings: in classrooms, residence halls, chapels, and multicultural centers.

Almost immediately in Chapter 1, Nash outlines a definition for advocacy dialogue by opening with a discussion about social justice. Their collective definition of social justice focuses on inclusivity first. Second, no one person's needs "carry an intrinsic right" that overrides another's needs (p. 3). Therefore, advocacy dialogue is the process of creating an inclusive conversation regarding equal opportunity.

In Chapter 2, Nash provides an overview of five types of advocacy communication styles. As a self-proclaimed neologism and derivation enthusiast, Nash created words for five basic advocacy styles on behalf of one cause or another with his students: radvocate, madvocate, sadvocate, fadvocate, and gladvocate. These highly approachable and operational definitions help the novice social justice advocate better understand how communication is effective. Essentially, he claims that how we frame our advocacy will lead to different outcomes. Each style is situational in nature; and through defining these communication styles, we can better understand our tendencies and improve our advocacy communication within our communities.

Each of the next five subsequent chapters thoroughly outlines one of the five communication styles, providing real-life narratives and honest and compelling case studies of each communication style, followed by a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks to each style. In Chapter 3, Johnson explores radvocacy. The chapter opens with a case study that demonstrates the complexities of advocacy and value of framing. He discusses how family dynamics, culture, and politics can influence involvement in the social justice system and explains that radvocates gravitate to the underlying roots of a social problem. The radvocate exists at one extreme or the other and is generally well educated on the social issue; however, her or his strong convictions can annoy others or be seen as a form of bullying.

In Chapter 4, Johnson explores the angry advocate who engages in madvocacy. As a self-diagnosed "recovering madvocate," Johnson describes several benefits of madvocacy, including authenticity and passion and making social issues "real" for others. However, he also suggests that there are drawbacks to this communication style. For example, the madvocate may seem to have a sense of entitlement and can lose control of the issue by communicating anger. Ultimately, this style...