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A review by yasidiaz
Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Bryan Stevenson, Angela J. Davis, Marc Mauer
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
This book had so much information, but it was a frustrating read.
For all full transparency, I'm a Socialist, Communist, Marxist, or whatever you want to call it. Even more so, I'm an abolitionist and I don't think there is no fixing a system that was racist since the start. As Kwame Ture taught me, there is no reforming a house with a rotten foundation, when a house has a rotten foundation, you have to demolish it and start from zero. Therefore, I'm already lost when people try to talk me into reformation and how we can save the system.
I grew close to police culture, my father was a cop for almost as long as I have been alive. My father and granddad, are also black Puerto Rican men. I grew up seeing the abuses of police and how it was swept under the rug. I saw how when my dad's colleagues tried to do something good, they were usually thrown to the side. I soon learned that there is no such thing as a good cop, even if my father was one of them. I soon learned that no diversity, no amount of reformation, and no amount of training was going to fix a system that has always been meant to be like this.
So when essay after essay, I saw much more evidence of how racist and classist the American justice system is to then end with lackluster calls for policy change and reformation, I couldn't take much of it seriously. I only kept reading because the information itself was important and needed, even if I thought their conclusion missed the whole point.
I also want to note this book was published in 2017, three years before 2020, the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed. A part of me hopes, that at least some of the authors of these essays have grown since then and realized there is no reforming this.
If you haven't read about the American justice system and its treatment of Black Americans and other racial minorities before, I would first recommend anything from Angela Y. Davis and even readings and speeches from the late Kwame Ture. This could be a decent read after it, but I won't recommend it as a place to start.
For all full transparency, I'm a Socialist, Communist, Marxist, or whatever you want to call it. Even more so, I'm an abolitionist and I don't think there is no fixing a system that was racist since the start. As Kwame Ture taught me, there is no reforming a house with a rotten foundation, when a house has a rotten foundation, you have to demolish it and start from zero. Therefore, I'm already lost when people try to talk me into reformation and how we can save the system.
I grew close to police culture, my father was a cop for almost as long as I have been alive. My father and granddad, are also black Puerto Rican men. I grew up seeing the abuses of police and how it was swept under the rug. I saw how when my dad's colleagues tried to do something good, they were usually thrown to the side. I soon learned that there is no such thing as a good cop, even if my father was one of them. I soon learned that no diversity, no amount of reformation, and no amount of training was going to fix a system that has always been meant to be like this.
So when essay after essay, I saw much more evidence of how racist and classist the American justice system is to then end with lackluster calls for policy change and reformation, I couldn't take much of it seriously. I only kept reading because the information itself was important and needed, even if I thought their conclusion missed the whole point.
I also want to note this book was published in 2017, three years before 2020, the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed. A part of me hopes, that at least some of the authors of these essays have grown since then and realized there is no reforming this.
If you haven't read about the American justice system and its treatment of Black Americans and other racial minorities before, I would first recommend anything from Angela Y. Davis and even readings and speeches from the late Kwame Ture. This could be a decent read after it, but I won't recommend it as a place to start.