THESIS
Today, many would say that we live in a “post-racial society” but this is not the case for the millions of black and brown individuals living in America. In this book, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor points out the many modern examples of systematic oppression that many African Americans are currently facing in our daily lives.
SUMMARY
In this book, Taylor points out the exhausting and angering struggles that the Black community face. She talks about the corrupt “justice” system that locks up millions of African Americans, she discusses that the country is in fact a “colorblind” society that often tries to dismiss racism as a thing of the past, she brings attention to the poverty and unemployment rates in the African American community, and
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Chapter six was so powerful to me because it hits close to home. This chapter talks more about the Black Lives Matter Movement, how it developed, how it was influential, and how it is more than just a hashtag. I enjoy Taylor’s discussion into the BLM Movement because I can relate to it on a personal level. I got to live and experience this movement. Many individuals from my generation, Millennials, helped push this movement and make history. Taylor speaks about how the unjust deaths of many African Americans at the hands of those who are supposed to protect and serve was the catalyst to spark these BLM protest. So many brave individuals were protesting day in and day out to help spread the movement. The hashtag blew up all over social media and it became a global force. I saw the Black Live Matter Movement as a modern day Civil Rights movement. Like the Civil Rights Movement, we had many brave everyday people going out into the streets to fight for their rights as American citizens. Back then, they faced being sprayed down the street with powerful water hose, being beaten with night sticks by the police, having police dogs ordered to attack them, and being arrested but they did not let that put an end to their movement. Today, the Black community of our generation was brave and took on the police similar to our ancestors. We faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and the risk of being arrested but we pushed to continue the movement. Although with the BLM Movement, we did not always get the results we sought, we made the cases of the murders of our brother and sisters national news. I believe that without the BLM Movement, many cases that we protested justice for would have just been swept under the rug. It was pressure from the BLM Movement that began to force the indictment of some of these police officers. It was the works of the BLM Movement that forced the system to finally take accountability and start charging these