Toxic Literacies: Exposing the Injustice of Bureaucratic Texts

"Official documentation" hides human rights violations in this country. Men, women, and children are incapacitated by legally sanctioned discriminatory practices that occur through the use of bureaucratic texts such as laws, court transcripts, medical reports, insurance policies, and work orders.

Based on a six-year ethnographic study, Toxic Literacies tells the story of:

Bureaucratic texts control the lives of men and womenCindy, Sam, Laurie, Kathryn, people we pass on the street every dayliving on the margins of American society. In Toxic Literacies, Denny Taylor explains how we allow this to happen and makes a compelling case for it to stop.