Description
Book SynopsisA must-read for anyone interested in social justice and inequalities, social movements, the criminal justice system, and African American history. An excellent companion to Michelle Alexander''s The New Jim Crow and Ava DuVernay''s documentary 13th.Library Journal, Starred review
I was fortunate to grow up in a community in which it was apparent that our lives mattered. This memory is the antidote to the despair that seizes one of my generation when we hear the words ''Black Lives Matter.'' We want to shout: Of course they do! To you, especially. In this brilliant, painful, factual and useful book, we see to whom our lives have not mattered: the profit driven Euro-Americans who enslaved and worked our ancestors to death within a few years, then murdered them and bought replacements. Many of these ancestors are buried beneath Wall Street. Mumia Abu-Jamal''s painstaking courage, truth-telling, and disinterest in avoiding the reality of American racial life
Trade Review
"When enough time has passed, as in when what was staring us in the face can actually be acknowledged, it will be significant that one of the clearest voices on the injustice of our justice system has spent much of his life in prison, and by many accounts, wrongfully. Here Jamal directs his attention at other people who have suffered at the hands of justice, and tells their stories. What a remarkable thing to be doing from the heart of one’s own ongoing travesty.”—John Freeman, Literary Hub "The columns list the roll call of victims in real time, from Abner Louima to Travyon Martin and beyond. This is a book containing examples of, as one column called it, 'legalized police violence,' killings and abuse 'you pay for . . . every time you pay taxes, endur[ing] this every time you vote for politicians who sell out in an instant.' To Abu-Jamal, 'Americans are blind to everything but color' because 'United States history is a history of denial.’”—Todd Burroughs, “Drums in the Global Village" “Capsulizing the history of white slave patrols, their relationship to today’s police departments and a justice system that preserves immunity for officers who kill, Abu-Jamal goes on to suggest how and why we’ve arrived at such a horrific place in American history.”—Denise Sullivan, Down With Tyranny
Table of Contents
Contents (in progress) Contents When a Child is Killed Sean Bell The War Against Ourselves Children Behind Bars The Arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates The Other Inauguration Celebration When Judges Are Corrupt Oscar Grant and You Death in a Cell Trayvon Martin Wake up Call: Ferguson Sandra Bland To Protect and Serve Who?
