caughtbetweenpages's review
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Not rating, in keeping with my general practice with non-fiction.
This collection of essays about the injustices Black men face in the American justice system gives an important overview of the history of racism in the US (particularly as it ties to the police and judicial bodies therein) and how it has perpetuated and reinforced systems leading to the over-incarceration and dehumanization of Black men. While I knew about the individual parts many of the essays were written about, presenting them as one collective body of work helped me tie the various pieces together and understand more completely the complexity and inherent racism within the system as a whole; I hadn't realized the degree to which prosecutors hold the lives of Black men in balance, and how easily they can tip those balances without recourse and reinforce the cycles that empower the system of oppression in the first place.
This collection of essays about the injustices Black men face in the American justice system gives an important overview of the history of racism in the US (particularly as it ties to the police and judicial bodies therein) and how it has perpetuated and reinforced systems leading to the over-incarceration and dehumanization of Black men. While I knew about the individual parts many of the essays were written about, presenting them as one collective body of work helped me tie the various pieces together and understand more completely the complexity and inherent racism within the system as a whole; I hadn't realized the degree to which prosecutors hold the lives of Black men in balance, and how easily they can tip those balances without recourse and reinforce the cycles that empower the system of oppression in the first place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Xenophobia
malikp's review
3.0
Policing the Black Man is a collection of essays covering the topics such as: policing, incarceration, the court system, implicit bias and more. These essays go through great lengths to explain concepts fundamental to understanding the role policing plays in the lives of Black men. Using lots of research and data, the various authors do a good job breaking down these concepts, but a lot of the essays are covering overlapping themes. The read gets really redundant towards the end.
sarahxsimon's review
3.0
Each individual essay was quite good, but the collective sum of them was repetitive and not as insightful as I had hoped. There's a reason this book took me three months to read. I wish the authors could have collaborated more; I did not need each of the twelve essays to explain the deaths of Eric Garner or Michael Brown. Overall, I wish the book were more cohesive and that I had learned more.