Life-and-Death Stories, and a Black Activist's Blueprint for Racial Justice
September 13, 2021
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Jones (The Dead Man’s Wife) issues a brisk and impassioned call for America to “right the wrongs of a past that is littered with laws meant to subjugate African Americans.” Each chapter recounts the story of a Black person victimized by the nation’s “racist criminal justice system” in the 21st century and offers a specific proposal for reform. For example, the 2020 murder of George Floyd frames a discussion of racial disparities in the enforcement of drug laws and the need for reparations to repair “a centuries-long pattern of stripping profit, property, and people from Black communities.” Elsewhere, Jones cites the 2014 killing of Michael Brown as evidence of why the federal government should more aggressively use consent decrees to reform police departments with a history of racist or abusive behavior, and backs up his call for the elimination of “stand-your-ground” laws with a harrowing retelling of Trayvon Martin’s 2012 killing by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Throughout, Jones details his own run-ins with the law before he overcame a crack addiction, and provides blunt depictions of systemic racism in action (“Black crack addicts are cast as enemies in a War on Drugs while white heroin addicts are the victims in an opioid crisis”). This cri de coeur rings loud and true.
October 15, 2021
A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and novelist tells the stories of 10 key figures in the Black Lives Matter movement. In a preface to this effective, occasionally simplistic book, Jones sketches a personal connection to his subject. He was once "Black in the system," struggling to put a past of addiction and petty crime behind him. While working as a doorman in his native Philadelphia, a local news station showed his mugshot, calling him a "wanted fugitive." The structure of the subsequent material is straightforward, as the author devotes each chapter to a different victim of systemic racism in law enforcement, most of them now household names--e.g., Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and George Floyd. After an engaging precis of the circumstances that brought these individuals into the crosshairs of law enforcement, the author links each case to a specific reform in policy that would address the failings in question. In the case of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in 2020 in her Louisville home, none of the first officers on the scene had body cameras. Like others before him, Jones makes the sensible argument that such footage would have been crucial to understanding what happened. In this case, the demand is that officers who fail to wear or turn on body cameras should face criminal charges and that the data from those devices (taxpayer-funded property) be made available to the public upon request. In the case of Trayvon Martin, the demand concerns the elimination of the much-discussed "stand-your-ground" laws, which have been shown to increase homicides rather than prevent them. Jones is a naturally compelling writer, and while many of the arguments have been made before and the structure becomes repetitive, the author relates them with both a vigor and informality that will appeal to readers not interested in committing to a more scholarly, nuanced text such as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. A persuasive, neatly packaged Black Lives Matter primer.
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