A review by laurenleigh
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by asha bandele, Patrisse Khan-Cullors

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I picked this one up for the “set in your hometown” prompt of the Free Black Women’s Library 2021 challenge. It is a very powerful, moving memoir for any reader, but I gained an extra level of meaning by also being from LA like Patrisse Khan-Cullors. I grew up in a different area about a decade later, but this was such an enlightening experience. It highlighted my extreme privileges in so many ways. I had good grocery stores nearby. Cops weren’t regularly patrolling my neighborhood. I had parks to play in. Hell, I had a backyard, even that is a privilege. There are so many harrowing moments in this memoir that reveal how our policing and criminal justice system were, and still are, completely and unfairly set up to criminalize Black people. One of the most shocking moments for me was when her brother was having a psychotic break, post-prison. When her family called paramedics to assist, they would do absolutely nothing when they discovered he had a record. They wouldn’t come to help, and they told her to call the cops. You know, the folks that traumatized him in the first place. I feel reinvigorated to deepen my commitment to prison reform and abolition movements, starting with some typing work for my fave, Black & Pink.
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