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dinasamimi's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of painful history here -- each incident profiled deserves their own book. I would have liked a little more structure in the format. The chapters felt a little disjointed at times and left me craving more historical context. I came out of the reading asking how we got to this period of rebellion and why has policing gotten safer as protest and the act of rebellion has gotten increasingly dangerous since then. I don't feel like Hinton fully fleshed that out, which feels like an important piece to this.
gene_vieve_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
4.0
A very informative look at the history of not just police brutality but also black rebellion against racism. Reading this opened my eyes to a lot I hadn’t considered before. I’m just stepping in to reading nonfiction so this was a “light” read in that it felt accessible.
sampletcher's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
kevin_shepherd's review against another edition
4.0
“What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.” ~Lyndon B. Johnson, commenting on the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, 1968
In 1968, under then President Lyndon Johnson, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly referred to as the Kerner Commission, apprised government officials and lawmakers that any prospect of racial equity in America would be solely dependent on investment. The commission warned that, without the financial wherewithal, black communities were destined for a continuous and perpetual cycle of racial inequity.
“…time and time again, the decision was made to pursue a set of policies that were self-defeating at best, and grievously harmful at worst.”
Elizabeth Hinton’s America On Fire is a hard but crucially necessary lesson in American history. Spanning some sixty years, from 1960 to 2020, Hinton chronicles the repetitious political ineptitude of U.S. race relations.
1960s/1970s: Often under laws and ordinances that would never have been enforced in white communities (“fitting the description,” gathering in groups of two or more, “responding to a tip,” etc.), American cities and townships established an incarceration pipeline for black citizens via a recurring pattern of over-policing.
Hinton lays out the pattern: White over-policing breeds Black animosity. Black animosity generates Black grievances. Black grievances are met with White indifference. White indifference fuels Black rebellion. Black rebellion is countered with White retaliation. White retaliation results in Black people dying. Black people dying leads to (with no eye witnesses) White police officer exoneration, or (with lots of eye witnesses) White police officer acquittal. All of this leads to continued over-policing of Black communities and the cycle begins again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
“Now we know where we stand… and it’s at the bottom. We will act accordingly…” ~Horace B. Livingston Jr, Decatur Association for Black Action, 1968
An exhaustive analysis of every Black rebellion in America would have required volumes and volumes (in her notes Hinton references over 2,000 separate demonstrations, uprisings and outright revolts). Mercifully, no doubt in the interest of brevity and sanity, Hinton has limited AOF to a mere 382 pages - just enough to give her readers a sense of the enormity of the problem.
Solutions? Hinton makes it abundantly clear that the solution has been with us all along. Starting with Johnson’s Kerner Commission, the recommendations were there. We cannot invest a pittance in the communities and then roll barrels of cash into policing and prisons and expect conditions to improve. History has shown (see the notes for over 2,000 examples) that American leadership, read ‘majority white political leadership,’ has had its head up its proverbial ass for fifty+ years (and counting).
_________________________________________
The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/
In 1968, under then President Lyndon Johnson, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly referred to as the Kerner Commission, apprised government officials and lawmakers that any prospect of racial equity in America would be solely dependent on investment. The commission warned that, without the financial wherewithal, black communities were destined for a continuous and perpetual cycle of racial inequity.
“…time and time again, the decision was made to pursue a set of policies that were self-defeating at best, and grievously harmful at worst.”
Elizabeth Hinton’s America On Fire is a hard but crucially necessary lesson in American history. Spanning some sixty years, from 1960 to 2020, Hinton chronicles the repetitious political ineptitude of U.S. race relations.
1960s/1970s: Often under laws and ordinances that would never have been enforced in white communities (“fitting the description,” gathering in groups of two or more, “responding to a tip,” etc.), American cities and townships established an incarceration pipeline for black citizens via a recurring pattern of over-policing.
Hinton lays out the pattern: White over-policing breeds Black animosity. Black animosity generates Black grievances. Black grievances are met with White indifference. White indifference fuels Black rebellion. Black rebellion is countered with White retaliation. White retaliation results in Black people dying. Black people dying leads to (with no eye witnesses) White police officer exoneration, or (with lots of eye witnesses) White police officer acquittal. All of this leads to continued over-policing of Black communities and the cycle begins again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
“Now we know where we stand… and it’s at the bottom. We will act accordingly…” ~Horace B. Livingston Jr, Decatur Association for Black Action, 1968
An exhaustive analysis of every Black rebellion in America would have required volumes and volumes (in her notes Hinton references over 2,000 separate demonstrations, uprisings and outright revolts). Mercifully, no doubt in the interest of brevity and sanity, Hinton has limited AOF to a mere 382 pages - just enough to give her readers a sense of the enormity of the problem.
Solutions? Hinton makes it abundantly clear that the solution has been with us all along. Starting with Johnson’s Kerner Commission, the recommendations were there. We cannot invest a pittance in the communities and then roll barrels of cash into policing and prisons and expect conditions to improve. History has shown (see the notes for over 2,000 examples) that American leadership, read ‘majority white political leadership,’ has had its head up its proverbial ass for fifty+ years (and counting).
_________________________________________
The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/
jamesmata's review against another edition
DNF 35% really good and informative but so dry, want to try again later
thebookishnook's review against another edition
5.0
One of my new favorite books. Not because I enjoyed it necessarily, but because it made me angry. Hinton speaks almost effortlessly about systemic racism, policing, and calls to action in America in the past 300 years. Her voice is poetic, simple to understand, yet overwhelmingly emotional and hard hitting.
I wanna burn this place to the ground.
I wanna burn this place to the ground.
marireadstoomuch's review against another edition
5.0
A really well-organized modern history that is most impressive in its documentary record (well, among other things). I found the text to be a really insightful tracing of not simply events but also committee findings, opinion polls, political statements, legal precedent, and other sources. The text weaved various sources together in a really effective way to provide a deep and complete picture of regional and National rebellions in response to systemic abuse.