How to End Injustice Everywhere

In this eye-opening and compelling work, psychologist Melanie Joy reveals the common denominator driving all forms of injustice. The mentality that drives us to oppress and abuse humans is the same mentality that drives us to oppress and abuse nonhumans and the environment, as well as those in our own groups working for justice.

How to End Injustice Everywhere offers a fascinating examination of the psychology and structure of unjust systems and behaviors. It also offers practical tools to help raise awareness of these systems and dynamics, reduce infighting, and build more resilient and impactful justice movements.

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Melanie Joy, PhD, is a psychologist specializing in the psychology of oppression and social transformation and in relationships. She is a long-time advocate for justice, and was a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, for 11 years, where she taught courses on privilege and oppression, feminist psychology, psychological trauma, and animal rights. Her work has helped explain why individuals and institutions engage in behaviors that harm other people, animals, the planet, and themselves—as well as how to change this pattern.

Joy is the award-winning author of seven books, including the bestselling Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows and Getting Relationships Right, and she’s the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence. She is also an internationally recognized speaker and trainer who’s presented her work in 50 countries across six continents, and she’s the founding president of the charitable organization Beyond Carnism. You can learn more about her work at melaniejoy.org.

Experts Agree: This Book Changes the Game

“Dr. Joy leverages her deep training and ethos towards promoting diversity and culture, as well as respect both for humans and non-humans alike. She delves into questions that gaze at us straight in the eyes, like pink elephants in the room, that the world through willful ignorance or otherwise has had the inability to see. Until now. How to End Injustice Everywhere sheds light on how the relational will always triumph, and how through understanding the drivers and levers of injustice, a just world may be closer than we dare to dream.”

— HRH Dr Anjhula Mya Singh Bais 
Chair, International Board, Amnesty International

“In How to End Injustice Everywhere, Melanie Joy powerfully explains how our attempts to end injustice must be inclusive, because the psychology that informs all forms of injustice - against humans, animals, and the environment - is the same.”

— Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor, Harvard Business School and author of Better, Not Perfect and Complicit

“How to End Injustice Everywhere has the potential to revolutionize how we think about injustice and to empower our justice movements for humans, animals, and the environment.”

— Moby, musician, author, producer, and activist

“How to End Injustice Everywhere is a thought-provoking book that sheds light on the way we think about oppression and social justice.”

— Marianne Williamson, speaker, activist, author of four #1 New York Times bestselling books, and US presidential candidate

“Melanie Joy invites readers to look at justice from a new and comprehensive perspective. How to End Injustice Everywhere is refreshing, provocative, and about time. In the age of polycrisis, a systemic approach to justice is essential, and this book is a good place to start.”

— Lasse Bruun, Director, Climate and Food, United Nations Foundation

“A just world is one where dignity and rights are equally respected. The big question is how to create this just world—for human beings and every other living being, as well as for the environment. Thankfully, Melanie Joy draws our attention to the common denominator driving all injustices, providing a way forward.”

— Kwami Kpondzo, Africa Coordinator, Global Forest Coalition; Executive Director, Centre for Environmental Justice—Togo; Former Campaigns Coordinator, Friends of the Earth