The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change. Bernard Mayer and Jacqueline N. Font‐Guzmán John Wiley and Sons. Inc, 2022.

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Rachel M. Goldberg
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21360

BOOK REVIEW

The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting

and Connecting for Social Change

Bernard Mayer and Jacqueline N. Font-Guzm

an

John Wiley and Sons. Inc, 2022.

This new addition to our field comes at a timely moment –when the world, and especially our

world in the United States - seems to be breaking-apart and remaking itself. Many are working

on using disruption to try and steer us towards democracy and justice, while we simultaneously

desperately need to connect and reconnect relationships and meanings strained by the isolation

of the pandemic. In fact, as the authors, Bernard Mayer and Jacqueline N. Font-Guzm

an argue,

we need connection even more if we are to effectively disrupt white supremacy and structural

violence, and move towards a more healthy and just society.

The overall topic has been a long time coming and is deeply needed in the field. There has

been a sense of division between peacemaking, conflict resolution, and nonviolent civil resis-

tance, and in fact, there have been conversations that set one up as in direct contradiction to

another. This undermined the truly important ways they reinforce and support each other to

make social change possible, and kept us from effectively supporting each other. It is also

important to mention that some of the critiques of the conflict resolution end of the field by the

nonviolent civil resistance end, including Bernie's, were and are needed, and those should not,

by any means, stop. In fact, this book shows real growth in the field. It engages white suprem-

acy and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with more sophistication and resonance than much of

our cannon, and we can thank Jacqueline Font-Guzm

an for this level of depth, as well as

Bernie Mayer, for seeking to confront his own and the field's racial blind spots.

Bernie has long offered sensible critiques to the field and challenged us to look at the social

justice implications of our work, as well as how we may be failing the real needs of our clients

(Mayer, 2015, Mayer, 2004. He started his work as a social worker and activist during the civil

rights movement of the 60's and 70's and then did anti-nuclear activism before (and during) his

work as a conflict resolver. His activism continues including environmental, anti-racist-and

anti-misogyny work. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzm

an is the new Executive Director of Diversity,

Equity, and Inclusion for Eastern Mennonite University's (EMU) Center for Justice and

Peacebuilding, and previously worked as a healthcare administrator and discrimination and

civil rights lawyer. She was raised in Puerto Rico and brings a decolonizing perspective to exam-

ining “how structures of oppression operate in the healthcare system and ways to create

counter-narratives to transform (or dismantle) institutional and structural injustices”(p. xiii).

She has done activism for Puerto Rican independence and “has provided mediation, facilitation,

and consulting services to organizations including the World Health Organization, U.S. Postal

Received: 3 August 2022 Accepted: 6 August 2022

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21360

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2022;40:285–287. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 285