A review by ralowe
From #blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

5.0

*from #blacklivesmatter to black liberation* is keeanga-yamahtta taylor's impressive tour de force re: how race and class thought together adds up to a massive threat to the established order: got x and king killed. but no, it's a lot more scandalous and exciting than that! grounded solidly in nothing less than the tea of history, from lee atwater and the southern strategy implemented into nixon's ostensibly colorblind neoliberal cuts on the social infrastructure blacks desperately need (serving as a blueprint for ford, reagan, carter, ad nauseum"_) on up to al sharpton's middle class respectability manifesting as constant condemnatory attacks on ferguson street resistance characterized as "thugs"ќ, taylor shows and proves how essential the analytical force where race and class intersects is to any true advance. also, i believe this book should be read alongside saidiya hartman's *scenes of subjection* due to both holding such precise and provocative articulations of the harrowing plight of black folks trapped in america. the indisputable fact that the whole system gotta burn is given quite compellingly in accounts of black elected official's vocal anti-black contempt baked into the job description, in stoplights rigged so cops can write traffic tickets on black motorists, in criminalizing truancy so black minors get funneled into special legal proceedings without defense counsel. elephant in the room: aside from a harmless sentence on page 30 from hal draper there is nothing related to the international socialist organization in taylor's book, published 2016. the iso officially dissolved early this year, taylor was a member. reading this was like our initial black queer *moonlight* screening, waiting for something bad to inevitably happen. if i was being proselytized to i didn't know it. haven't read any iso materials to compare. unlike other texts orbiting BLM organizing there was no project managerial tone; one better, taylor holds the feet of the professionalization of activism to the fire. i did wonder if taylor's critique of nonprofits was a retention of the tactics the iso would use to draw the unsuspecting into their cult. whatever the cause, this book is a perfect storm of radical anti-establishment history propelling black mobilization. in another stunning moment, when considering demands as ways to hold police accountable, taylor dodges the conventional strategies: the whole book has been a critique of assimilation, of co-optation, of top-down. for taylor, demands "to rein in the police state"ќ (page 181) provide an intersectional structure towards coalescing street rebellion, rather than a supplication for institutional outcome. taylor shows it works. inspiring, BLM's apparent anti-institutional movement. a driving concern is whether black political life in the wake of BLM can maintain this mobilized understanding of race and class as expansive reciprocating analytical entities to further a better world. this, in the tradition of assata shakur and angela davis, is what taylor brilliantly writes here.