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elyssaisntreal's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
charlottesomewhere's review against another edition
5.0
A really important and informative read about the systematic racism and killing of Black people in America.
megant713's review against another edition
5.0
I hadn't heard of Benjamin Crump before the BLM movement took the US by storm in 2020. As I started researching more books and materials to better educate myself, I became very familiar with Ben and his work. This book is excellent and easy to read and digest. There is a lot of heavy material discussed and cases referenced that Ben has worked on or gotten familiar with, but I recommend sitting with it and letting it impact you in the way it needs to.
poursandpages's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This book.
Ben Crump was the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, for Michael Brown’s family. He’s currently the attorney for George Floyd’s family & Jacob Blake’s family.
He has seen some fucking shit.
Have you heard of Howard Morgan, a 53-year old Black off-duty cop who was shot by white policemen for HAVING HIS HEADLIGHTS OFF? What about Victor White III, a Black man who allegedly committed suicide while in HANDCUFFS in the back of a police car? Or Barbara Dawson, a Black woman who died in a hospital parking lot after doctors discharged her and forcibly removed her from the ER, claiming she was faking her pain? I hadn’t either, and there are SO many more we don’t hear about.
Crump walks through the injustices the Black community faces every single day, including the school-to-prison pipeline. A vicious cycle that starts with local tax revenues being the main source of public school budgets, leaving poor and BIPOC children trapped in impoverished towns with underfunded schools. Did you know that kids who don’t receive quality PRESCHOOL are 5x more likely to be chronic law breakers by age 27 and 7x more likely to have served jail time by age 40. What. The. Fuck.
Crump gives us a step-by-step guide to stopping these injustices:
1. Admit the problem. (Ahem, Trump voters. All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.)
2. Call out injustice.
3. Hold the powerful accountable.
4. Share information.
5. Change the focus from criminal justice reform to criminal justice transformed.
6. See that Black communities are represented in the structures governing them.
7. Rethink incarceration.
8. Change the mission of policing.
9. Amend Stand Your Ground laws.
10. End voter suppression.
11. End environmental racism.
12. Make access to critical financial support a priority.
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.” - Frederick Douglass
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” - Angela Davis
White people, please read this.
Ben Crump was the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, for Michael Brown’s family. He’s currently the attorney for George Floyd’s family & Jacob Blake’s family.
He has seen some fucking shit.
Have you heard of Howard Morgan, a 53-year old Black off-duty cop who was shot by white policemen for HAVING HIS HEADLIGHTS OFF? What about Victor White III, a Black man who allegedly committed suicide while in HANDCUFFS in the back of a police car? Or Barbara Dawson, a Black woman who died in a hospital parking lot after doctors discharged her and forcibly removed her from the ER, claiming she was faking her pain? I hadn’t either, and there are SO many more we don’t hear about.
Crump walks through the injustices the Black community faces every single day, including the school-to-prison pipeline. A vicious cycle that starts with local tax revenues being the main source of public school budgets, leaving poor and BIPOC children trapped in impoverished towns with underfunded schools. Did you know that kids who don’t receive quality PRESCHOOL are 5x more likely to be chronic law breakers by age 27 and 7x more likely to have served jail time by age 40. What. The. Fuck.
Crump gives us a step-by-step guide to stopping these injustices:
1. Admit the problem. (Ahem, Trump voters. All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.)
2. Call out injustice.
3. Hold the powerful accountable.
4. Share information.
5. Change the focus from criminal justice reform to criminal justice transformed.
6. See that Black communities are represented in the structures governing them.
7. Rethink incarceration.
8. Change the mission of policing.
9. Amend Stand Your Ground laws.
10. End voter suppression.
11. End environmental racism.
12. Make access to critical financial support a priority.
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.” - Frederick Douglass
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” - Angela Davis
White people, please read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality and Gun violence
Moderate: Racism
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