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They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement

Los Angeles Times Book Prize

They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement

Wesley Lowery

Wesley Lowery's They Can't Kill Us All is reported nonfiction centered on Ferguson and Baltimore, tracing the deaths that fueled protest and the movement that followed. Built from field reporting and interviews, it examines police violence and racial inequality in the United States.

racial justicepolice violenceprotest movementsBlack Lives Matterjournalism

Work Information

A field-reported account of Ferguson, Baltimore, and the ongoing struggle over racial justice.

Drawing on the author's on-the-ground reporting, the book follows the Ferguson and Baltimore cases to examine the structures behind police violence and institutional inequality. It keeps the urgency of reportage while asking what each death means for society as a whole.

Book Information

Publisher
Little, Brown and Company
Published
2016-11-15
Pages
256 pages
Language
英語
Size
15.24 x 1.59 x 23.5 cm
ISBN-13
9780316312479
ISBN-10
0316312479
Price
5405 JPY
Category
洋書/History/Americas/United States/21st Century

A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it. Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs. Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.

Wesley Lowery is a national reporter for the Washington Post who covers law enforcement and justice. He was the paper's lead reporter in Ferguson, Missouri and covering the Black Lives Matter protest movement, and was a member of the team awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. His reporting has previously appeared in The Boston Globe , The Los Angeles Times , and The Wall Street Journal .

Reviews

  • excellent book a lot of point a view a learning experience

  • Very straightforward account. But also a little basic, and passionless. If you want an overview of events then this is a good start. If you want something really involving and and of greater consequences look elsewhere.

  • Wesley Lowery, the young black Washington Post reporter who was in the right place at the right time to be assigned to cover the Ferguson police department killing of Michael Brown and the ensuing protest from the city’s grieving black majority, wrote this account from his notes and memories of his time there. He has done a good job. Lowery’s book not only documents the abuses that blacks face on a daily basis, it makes it harder for the problem to be swept under the rug. The social media and resulting main stream media coverage of Ferguson hasn’t stopped the killings. But the attention paid them has focused the country on the depth of the legacy of our Jim Crow past and on the need to find the means and the will to stop the killings and general mistreatment of our black people. Lowery’s book is important for the eye witness account he provides of Ferguson. He also covers, albeit in less details the killings of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Walter Scott among others. The cumulative effect on the reader crumbles one’s belief in the fairness of our criminal justice system. It is flawed to the point where comparisons with third world dictatorships are not that far-fetched. Over and above the value of the book as a record of the Ferguson protests is the insight it offers on the ways a great newspaper, in this case the Washington Post, covers a story. Lowery, as the reporter on the scene, has a say, so to the editors who assess the significance of the story and then decide on the extent of related coverage as well as the effort put in to the main story. Likewise, the book reveals how a reporter works a story. It is likely to become a staple for journalism courses. End note. DeRay McKesson, who turned his Ferguson vigil and sidewalk smart phone reporting into a leadership position in the Black Lives Matter movement, receives significant attention in Lowery’s book. The author tells us a good deal about McKesson’s methods and his role in the movement. The roles of other black leaders get similar attention, another plus for the book.

  • Great book, great author. I learned a lot while reading this. Wesley has a great writing style, an easy and understandable read. I also felt the feelings he had when describing his personal struggles in the book. Keep up the great work!

  • An excellent review of the events leading to the Black Lives Matter movement. Provides a deeper and more balanced understanding than TV news of the risk of coming into contact with the police in the US particularly for black men.

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