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goldenjunegem's review
It was for class and finished the term, was great for the chapters I was able to read
standerson's review
informative
5.0
If you live in Baltimore — if you live in the US — you have to read this.
andrew_fallon's review
5.0
This book was incredible. The author gives such a comprehensive and clear view of the problems facing black neighborhoods in Baltimore, and gives the full history of the consistent decisions by the city of Baltimore to destroy and segregate those neighborhoods.
It is with this historical perspective that you can see just how extreme and intentional the discrimination has been, and how clear the impacts of it continue from the past into the present.
He also does a good job of providing specific solutions to these problems, with cost estimates and policies that would actually help these communities in a structural way, rather than throwing some money at the problem and having it all go to development companies anyway.
Great book to read if you’ve ever lived in Baltimore, or if you just have basic human compassion
It is with this historical perspective that you can see just how extreme and intentional the discrimination has been, and how clear the impacts of it continue from the past into the present.
He also does a good job of providing specific solutions to these problems, with cost estimates and policies that would actually help these communities in a structural way, rather than throwing some money at the problem and having it all go to development companies anyway.
Great book to read if you’ve ever lived in Baltimore, or if you just have basic human compassion
baghaii's review
5.0
This book was an accessible introduction about how inequity works in one city. Because Dr. Brown is a professor of public health, I expected this to be a dense body of work that was hyperfocused on lead poisoning in the city of Baltimore.
However, it was more of the 10,000-foot view of how various systems work together to create the current mess and what it would take to solve it.
He introduced some concepts that I had never seen before such as "whitelash" and "root shock." "Whitelash" is the reactionary oppression that happens when the white establishment is uncomfortable with change. The Donald Trump presidency was an example of whitelash. "Root shock" is the trauma experienced by displaced communities. It specifically refers to the displacement of Black communities during the "urban renewal" of the 1950s and 1960s.
It was interesting to see Dr. Brown referencing Noliwe Rooks term "segrenomics," that she used to describe how resources can be hoarded in white schools to the detriment of Black schools.
Toward the end of the book, Dr. Brown described that equity is not politically aligned. Sometimes Black communities can work inside the Democratic Party and sometimes outside of it. The part where he described Jackson, MS as a place where the community can work inside the Democratic Party already looks dated when the Black residents of Jackson are still boiling their water many weeks after cold weather broke the aged system that was delivering potable water to the Black residents of the city.
I hope that we see the type of authentic racial equity process that Brown would like to see. I liked that he warned us that there are a lot of people discussing racial equity that are not seeing the larger picture. The process of firing Black teachers and closing the schools that serve the most Black students is a racial equity issue.
However, it was more of the 10,000-foot view of how various systems work together to create the current mess and what it would take to solve it.
He introduced some concepts that I had never seen before such as "whitelash" and "root shock." "Whitelash" is the reactionary oppression that happens when the white establishment is uncomfortable with change. The Donald Trump presidency was an example of whitelash. "Root shock" is the trauma experienced by displaced communities. It specifically refers to the displacement of Black communities during the "urban renewal" of the 1950s and 1960s.
It was interesting to see Dr. Brown referencing Noliwe Rooks term "segrenomics," that she used to describe how resources can be hoarded in white schools to the detriment of Black schools.
Toward the end of the book, Dr. Brown described that equity is not politically aligned. Sometimes Black communities can work inside the Democratic Party and sometimes outside of it. The part where he described Jackson, MS as a place where the community can work inside the Democratic Party already looks dated when the Black residents of Jackson are still boiling their water many weeks after cold weather broke the aged system that was delivering potable water to the Black residents of the city.
I hope that we see the type of authentic racial equity process that Brown would like to see. I liked that he warned us that there are a lot of people discussing racial equity that are not seeing the larger picture. The process of firing Black teachers and closing the schools that serve the most Black students is a racial equity issue.
cefisher20's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
A well-written and researched book that presents a comprehensive plan to combat apartheid in Baltimore and beyond. This book presents lots of context and lots of solutions that at times felt too abstract.