When They Call You a Terrorist
Ratings32
Average rating4.7
I listened to his in audio and it's so powerful. It's a mix of pricier on show the Black Lives Matter movement came to be (started by queer Black women!) and the story of Patrisse's life. A must read for all youth activists and adults too.
(After looking at the summary here I realize some of Khan- Cullors' journal entries were included which makes sense. There were passages in the audio that felt disjointed and I thought they were quotes but then weren't attributed. But it was probably journal entries! Just something to keep in mind if you listen.)
This was a fantastic memoir from one of the founders/organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement, though it's about much more than that. For most of the book, Khan-Cullors focuses on how policing and prison structures fail black families, and function to protect and benefit only a small subset of the U.S. population. Her frustration and anger with these systems is palpable, as she watched her brother and father struggle through the cycle of the system repeatedly, when mental health care and addiction services could have mitigated and prevented so much pain and trauma. Listening to the chapter about the torture inflicted upon inmates in California at the time Khan-Cullors' brother was incarcerated was particularly brutal - I don't handle violence very well, and thought about skipping ahead, but it felt important to be a witness to the pain of these men. No one deserves the treatment the prison guards inflicted upon them.
The audiobook was read by the author. Truly excellent.
CW: police violence against Black bodies, torture (including sexual assault), descriptions of untreated schizo-effective disorder, pregnancy (mostly uneventful, concluding with C-section).
As a white male, this was a much needed and eye opening view into what it means to grow up black in the United States. That and a wonderful background on the people behind the BLM movement. I think everyone in our country should read this
This book said and discussed so many important issues but ultimately the writing style was just a little too disjointed for me.
This book made me cry many times for many reasons. It isn't the sort of nonfiction with footnotes or an index (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Rather, it is a deeply personal memoir.Growing up, it never even occurred to me to fear law enforcement. I almost never interacted with police. My neighborhood and schools were not patrolled by officers. The only time I called 911 was accidentally, as a toddler playing with the landline receiver. Even today, aside from instinctively hitting the brakes when passing a sheriff, the police are hardly on my radar.People who grew up like me need to read books like this. When They Call You a Terrorist discusses the people and communities across the United States whose interactions with police officers are frequent and violent. Cullors speaks about those who cannot count on the police to help them. She speaks about what we can do about that, and all that she has done and continues to do about that. She draws connections between mass incarceration and factors like inaccessible food, housing, and healthcare. She shows her readers how we hold individuals accountable for systemic inequities. Many of the experiences she shares are difficult to read, but she always returns to healing, community, and love. I will say, I do not think this is a good introductory text for those interested in reading about anti-racist activism in the contemporary US. Cullors has lived and worked her whole life to speak on this subject in the way she does. Her perspective contradicts a lot of assumptions a lot of Americans have, and I think you need to have established some common ground to meet Cullors where she's at. Better to begin with something like [b:White Rage 26073085 White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide Carol Anderson http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456093492s/26073085.jpg 46010383] or [b:The New Jim Crow 6792458 The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328751532s/6792458.jpg 6996712].
WOW. I'm grateful to Patrisse for so openly sharing her life story. It's a must listen (she narraters the audio), especially if you're unfamiliar with or looking for more insight into the police state, the BLM movement and its inception, and the treatment of prisoners, especially those with mental illness. She spares nothing, the writing is excellent, and she gives data/statistics to show that her own familial experiences with poverty and incarceration are horrifyingly common.
