When They Call You a Terrorist

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].