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A review by carolpk
The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace, Ron Harris
The Black And The Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement might have been named Black and Blue. What's the difference you say? This book which deals with encounters between Black Americans and our men and women in Blue, (law enforcement officers), sometimes Black or Hispanic but most often White, causes what I can only think of as a bruise, commonly described as a black and blue, one that never fades.
Author Matthew Horace certainly has the credentials to present this no nonsense, no holds barred expose what his subtitle names rampant injustices and racism; this inequality practiced by those we count on to uphold the law. He tells it like it is and is joined by many others in his field who back him up and tell the tale.
I'd have to be deaf and blind not to know that profiling, railroading, beating, and even outright murder is taking many innocent black lives in our country. I am sickened by it yet feel helpless to make the changes needed. It became far more gut-wrenching when you read one story after the other, gathered together in one place, stacked on top of each other in its disgusting pile, these occurrences of blatant hate for the color of a person's skin. How can we expect it not to topple and cause the protests, outrage riots, and more hate that it does?
Non-fiction that makes me think always earns my praise. Even better is non-fiction in which I learn. I'm sad to say one thing I learned in reading The Black And The Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement is that though I do not consider myself racist I am guilty of being biased. Can I be one without being the other? I think so.
The textbook definition of implicit bias says it is the attitudes or stereotypes that we all have. They, in turn, affect our encounters with people, and influence our actions and decisions in an unconscious manner. In other words, we internalize repeated messages from our family, our friends, our neighbors, our community, and the stereotypes and images we see on television, and in movies, magazines, and other media.
I believe my bias comes from my upbringing, my isolation in living in a highly white community and my fear of the few black that lived close by. An example. As a young girl, probably under the age of 11, I was allowed to go uptown, to shop, to visit the library, to see a movie. These activities were in a central area mostly on a main street. Safe. Adjacent to this street was a narrow road with industry, and small businesses. The street made a nice round about way to visit upper main. I was forbidden from walking that street as it also connected to the area where most of the town's populace of black people lived. I walked it anyway but always feared what might happen to me. Is this the real-life boogeyman Horace describes? Yet on that connector street I used to pass a black church where on Sunday mornings you could hear the most beautiful and uplifting singing. How could that be something to fear? Such confusion for this young girl. This may sound simplistic but there were many other implied threats like this. I was taught to fear those different than me. This is not an excuse my bias, it is an attempt to understand and to learn.
A thought-provoking read that will stay with me.
Author Matthew Horace certainly has the credentials to present this no nonsense, no holds barred expose what his subtitle names rampant injustices and racism; this inequality practiced by those we count on to uphold the law. He tells it like it is and is joined by many others in his field who back him up and tell the tale.
I'd have to be deaf and blind not to know that profiling, railroading, beating, and even outright murder is taking many innocent black lives in our country. I am sickened by it yet feel helpless to make the changes needed. It became far more gut-wrenching when you read one story after the other, gathered together in one place, stacked on top of each other in its disgusting pile, these occurrences of blatant hate for the color of a person's skin. How can we expect it not to topple and cause the protests, outrage riots, and more hate that it does?
Non-fiction that makes me think always earns my praise. Even better is non-fiction in which I learn. I'm sad to say one thing I learned in reading The Black And The Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement is that though I do not consider myself racist I am guilty of being biased. Can I be one without being the other? I think so.
The textbook definition of implicit bias says it is the attitudes or stereotypes that we all have. They, in turn, affect our encounters with people, and influence our actions and decisions in an unconscious manner. In other words, we internalize repeated messages from our family, our friends, our neighbors, our community, and the stereotypes and images we see on television, and in movies, magazines, and other media.
I believe my bias comes from my upbringing, my isolation in living in a highly white community and my fear of the few black that lived close by. An example. As a young girl, probably under the age of 11, I was allowed to go uptown, to shop, to visit the library, to see a movie. These activities were in a central area mostly on a main street. Safe. Adjacent to this street was a narrow road with industry, and small businesses. The street made a nice round about way to visit upper main. I was forbidden from walking that street as it also connected to the area where most of the town's populace of black people lived. I walked it anyway but always feared what might happen to me. Is this the real-life boogeyman Horace describes? Yet on that connector street I used to pass a black church where on Sunday mornings you could hear the most beautiful and uplifting singing. How could that be something to fear? Such confusion for this young girl. This may sound simplistic but there were many other implied threats like this. I was taught to fear those different than me. This is not an excuse my bias, it is an attempt to understand and to learn.
A thought-provoking read that will stay with me.