How Did We Get Here?
There’s a lot of hurt happening around the world right now. But there is also an acute pain piercing the United States specifically, as violence is erupting across the country between citizens and law enforcement. As a bookstore, we see it as our duty to offer as much insight as possible for those trying to understand: just how did we get here? We pulled together a list of books to help offer perspectives on the current crisis.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander’s runaway bestseller examines mass incarceration and how the “war on drugs” has disenfranchised huge portions of minorities. Alexander dismantles the idea that racism is no longer a structural problem, making the case that the criminal industrial complex has all but replaced earlier legal forms of racism, including slavery and Jim Crow. Placing police, judicial policies, and the criminal justice system under the microscope, The New Jim Crow demonstrates the wide ranging and devastating impacts of the current legal process on people and communities of color.
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
In response to the popular focus on “black rage” in times of racial tension and crisis, Carol Anderson traces the historical white rage that has been inflicted upon generations of black citizens. With each step seemingly towards racial equality (the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the landmark Brown V Board of Education case in the 50s, and the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the 60s for example), Anderson offers an oppressive tactical response from white powers (the Black Code and Jim Crow laws, segregated and defunded schools, and conservative Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs) that disproportionately affected black citizens and continued to oppress black communities.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist took the nation by storm after its publication last year. Written in the form of a letter to his son, Coates delivers a searing and emotional account of being black in America today. Both personal and political, Between the World and Me earned comparisons to James Baldwin’s The Fire This Time and has been hailed as an insightful new voice offering a framework to understand America’s race problem.
Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin by Phil Cushway
Collecting work from 43 talented African-American poets, Of Poetry and Protest also includes photographs of the poets, first person biographies, as well as personal essays on race and racism. It serves as a strong introduction to political poetry and the interaction between art and protest as it has been used by black activists through history.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
This seminal work of 14 essays by one of our country’s greatest intellectuals whose life, and career, spanned the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, meditates on the promises and failings of American democracy. Highly relevant and impassioned, Du Bois’s ideas continue to resonate. This book is a vital work in the history of American writing on race, including sociological studies of African American communities and the argument that strategies of accommodation and assimilation would not advance the cause of equality and liberation.
Ghetto: The Reinvention of a Place, the History of an Idea by Mitchell Duneier
Duneier, a prominent sociologist and ethnographer, introduces the work of several pioneering black thinkers and activists from the 20th century to better understand the evolution and purpose of ghettos in modern day society. Tracing the history back to 16th century Venice and the Nazi revival, Duneier aims to provide a detailed and nuanced account of the ways in which the ghetto has evolved in America as such a powerful structure meant to reinforce negative, unequal, and racist policies and perceptions.
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
While some believe that the election of Barack Obama heralds a new, “post-racial” America, Glaude argues that the state of things is more dire than ever; the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the endless murders of black people by police are just the most visible signs of the enduring inaccessibility of equality to the majority of African Americans. Combining manifesto, history, and memoir, Glaude argues that old models of activism are no longer useful, and a transformation of democracy from the ground up is necessary for real reform.
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Pointing to years of political rhetoric and policy, popular literature, and scientific research, Isenberg, noted American biographer, unites four centuries of history to show how instrumental and influential the notion of class is to our nation, despite a permeating narrative of a class-free country. Central to the myth of the American Dream that with hard work one can improve one’s position, poor whites have been at the heart of national politics and issues from the Civil War to the New Deal, and continue to influence and complicate national identity.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Racism isn’t natural or automatic, and like any idea it has a history — this book unearths that history. Kendi explores the roots of American racism: how it was developed and disseminated, honed by intellectuals and used to justify discrimination from the beginning of the United States, and is still alive and well today. Shedding light on the origins of racist tropes offers a way to discredit them, however.
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
Jill Leovy covers the story of a “ghettoside,” a senseless murder of one young black man by another — a common type of killing often ignored and unsolved. Following the investigation of Detective John Skaggs and his determined pursuit of justice for the murdered son of an LA cop, Leovy explores black violence in South Central LA and why this kind of murder happens in American cities. Leovy argues that what inner city neighborhoods like South Central need is more policing, not less, and that legal neglect drives the high rate of crime in these areas. With sharp reporting, this book is both a detective story and compelling social history.
The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop by Steve Osborne
Behind the scenes of life as an officer who served for 20 years in New York City’s Manhattan Gang Squad, Osborne’s collection of stories are engaging and intimate, giving the full spectrum of what it’s like to witness society at its best, and at its worst. Stories like this are a welcome reminder of the people who make up law enforcement and the complicated, scary, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, situations they find themselves in every day.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
This multiple award-winning long form lyric poem documents the myriad microaggressions that build up and silence people over time, from slights at the grocery store to verbal abuse online. Part essay, part poem, part image, Rankine’s beautiful and provocative book ties human identity to the ability to speak and be seen. In one of 2015’s more striking moments, a young black woman was spotted reading Citizen in the background at a Trump rally in a moment of silent protest.
Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching by Mychal Denzel Smith
How do you come of age as a young black man in America today? Mychal Denzel Smith explores his own answer to that question in his memoir, which describes his personal and political education growing up in a world that often seems to see young black men as less than human. In addition to looking at racism and anti-blackness, Smith takes on stereotypes about black masculinity, challenging assumptions about taboos like mental health and homosexuality and rewriting the script for what it means to be a black man.
Handcuffed: What Holds Policing Back and the Keys to Reform by Malcolm Sparrow
Former British police detective and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy school, Malcolm rejects the superficial surface analysis of the ills of modern policing. He calls for wide reform, arguing the police forces of today have moved away from their original missions of serving their communities, and must redirect their focus from narrow quantitative metrics to community problem-solving for public safety.
To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police by Norm Stamper
Stamper, a cop for 34 years, former Seattle police chief, and social activist is often credited for designing the nation’s first community policing program. After exposing the corruption and biases in a trigger-happy police force, he offers revolutionary ideas on systemic reform that focus on citizen participation in all aspects of police operations.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
This multiple award-winning memoir about the life of Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Movement, is a raw, heartfelt coming-of-age story of the young lawyer as he fought against a legal system bent on not seeing all citizens equally under the law, through several of his career-defining cases. Talented and ideal-driven, Stevenson exposes the conspiracy, political machination, and legal and moral murkiness plaguing the criminal justice system, and shares his inspiring commitment to defending the under- and unrepresented.
Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from the Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America by Calvin Trillin
Journalist Calvin Trillin began reporting in the sixties on the Civil Rights movement, and over the fifty years since has continued to return to the subject of race and racial tension. This book collects some of his most significant essays, covering issues like police shootings, voter suppression tactics, and race-based acts of terrorism over the years that might as well be pulled from modern headlines. Trillin’s elegant writing provides perspective on how much progress we have — and haven’t — made over the last several decades.
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn’s classic Marxist history of the United States takes a bottom-up approach, looking at the role of those often ignored in traditional textbooks — Native Americans, women, African-Americans, and the working class. His thorough examination of the ways in which the United States has consistently prioritized the interests of the elite over the needs of the poor, and deliberately disenfranchised various classes of people, reveals the dark underbelly of American history. It is every bit as relevant today as it was when it was first published.
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