Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service

Writer, editor, and award-winning voice actor Isen’s compelling debut essay collection touches on a wide range of topics including race, work, school, feminism, and life. Some of the topics are dense, but Isen has an ability to cut through the chaff and make her case. If we acknowledge structural racism, why are we having such a hard time resolving it, and can we stop assuming every marginalized person is an expert on their collective group trauma? She asks these questions in her own voice and is the perfect narrator of her ideas. In “Diversity Hire” you hear the sarcasm as Isen describes the diversity hire on a popular comedy TV show, meant as a joke, but she finds it all too real. The diversity hire is required to weigh in on all things related to inclusivity; after all, they were hired to prove the organization is inclusive. Isen asks how we can move beyond the lip service and work on action.