Scan barcode
A review by taniadoes
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Maya Schenwar
informative
fast-paced
5.0
I highly recommend this anthology as people seek to educate themselves on police violence against BIPOC and the ways to abolish the prison-industrial complex as a whole. To me, it was really eye-opening because these articles were written before 2016 but feel like they could've been written yesterday. Whether it was because of my own short attention span when I was younger or my inability to properly engage with these subjects, I question why it took me until now to see the extent of something that's been going on for so long. A quote that sticks out to me as I think of this is from the last chapter by Ejeris Dixon.
“There are times when we believe we inherently have the skills to address harm, simply because we have a strong political analysis or a strong desire to address harm. There’s a substantial distinction between having skills and learning skills, between being experts and practicing.”
With this in mind, I will continue to try to educate myself and those around me while also learning how to engage and support the movement for Black lives and prison abolition from the positions I find myself in.
“There are times when we believe we inherently have the skills to address harm, simply because we have a strong political analysis or a strong desire to address harm. There’s a substantial distinction between having skills and learning skills, between being experts and practicing.”
With this in mind, I will continue to try to educate myself and those around me while also learning how to engage and support the movement for Black lives and prison abolition from the positions I find myself in.