Scan barcode
A review by kevin_shepherd
The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America by Lawrence T. Brown
4.0
In 2019, when then president Donald Trump called Baltimore “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” everyone intrinsically knew he wasn’t referring to actual rats and rodents. The illiberal euphemisms were crystal clear. Such is the nature of bigotry in the 21st century, it manifests itself under the guise of “plausible deniability.”
Professor Lawrence T. Brown’s Black Butterfly is a pull-no-punches exposé on the disempowerment of black families, black communities, and black coalitions in America. Brown tends to paint the national landscape with a rather broad brush, but he scrutinizes and analyzes the city of Baltimore in microscopic detail.
I can think of no higher praise for Black Butterfly than to say it put me in mind of Race Matters by Dr Cornel West. West, writing in 1993, talks about the shortcomings of both the political right and the political left and identifies the key issue as American Nihilism. Brown does much the same, but on a smaller, more comprehensible scale, and emphasizes American Apartheid rather than nihilism (a difference that is arguably semantic). Both works are substantial, both are extremely relevant, and both are highly recommended.
Professor Lawrence T. Brown’s Black Butterfly is a pull-no-punches exposé on the disempowerment of black families, black communities, and black coalitions in America. Brown tends to paint the national landscape with a rather broad brush, but he scrutinizes and analyzes the city of Baltimore in microscopic detail.
I can think of no higher praise for Black Butterfly than to say it put me in mind of Race Matters by Dr Cornel West. West, writing in 1993, talks about the shortcomings of both the political right and the political left and identifies the key issue as American Nihilism. Brown does much the same, but on a smaller, more comprehensible scale, and emphasizes American Apartheid rather than nihilism (a difference that is arguably semantic). Both works are substantial, both are extremely relevant, and both are highly recommended.