Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsExpands our understanding of Black rebellion against racism and police brutality
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022
Too often people confine the history of Black rebellion in the U.S. to the mid 60’s from Harlem and Watts to the MLK riots. Hinton in this book tries to correct the record, detailing continued uprisings into the early 70’s and the pattern that took place after that. Usually, the early riots took place in response to police brutality of the usual sort. The riots after 1972 were mostly in response to particularly outrageous examples, murders etc.(15) The author believes that in part this is due to the increase in mass incarceration which intimidated people and got some potential rioters off the street.
“ Yet by the mid 1970s amid deindustrialization , disinvestment and the increasing police presence in low income urban communities , rebellions were far less frequent. The beginning of mass incarceration helped bring the uprisings to an end.”(204) “ Black Americans had more or less resigned themselves to the policing of every day life.”(206) “ By the 1980s, law enforcement authorities and police unions enjoyed even greater power and influence, further constraining reform ..”(207) “ Rising crime and mistrust within communities themselves—exacerbated by Federal policies –are factors that generally made rebellion less frequent in the last decades of the 20th century and into the 2010s “ (232)
The author believes that the riots should rather be called rebellions against intolerable conditions.(7) Black churches were often at the forefront of even violent protest. From May ’68 through December ’72, i.e. after the MLK assassination riots, “960 segregated communities across the U.S. witnessed 1949 separate uprisings.”(10) Rebellions after the early 70s were more multi-ethnic (234)
A key factor in the decline of rebellions after 1972 was the professionalization of the police starting under LBJ and the massive increase in police funding from the Feds. The Safe Streets Act brought the Federal government into local policing for the first time ( 22-23). One justification for this was the rise of sniping at police which was heavily exaggerated (38);
Rebellions ended when energy was spent but also sometimes from intervention by radical activists and/or clergy (40). “ aggressive policing tends to incite violence”(45) Overpolicing of housing projects was a key factor (54) . Vigilantism was promoted by Eisenhower (73)
Any action challenging white supremacy was called violent (88). This was based on the assumption that there was no reason to challenge the white supremacist order. Even as the KKK waned in late 60s , new forms of white supremacist organization grew. The mayor of Cairo Illinois in 1970 said “ If we have to kill them, we’ll have to kill them” , about Black people (92) Black self-defense rose in response to this.
This lead police to see any form of armed self-defense was “ part of a larger revolutionary conspiracy or an expression of community pathology .” This belief “ prevented those in power from imagining alternatives to further escalation of the crime war. The cycle of violence and rebellion could be broken , but not by the application of more violence”(120)
The “ Poisoned Tree” (121)discusses the issue of “ bad apples” and notes that the original analogy is misused. The original idea is much more apt—one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel. In this case, the barrel itself is rotten and infects all the apples. The school to prison pipeline developed during the period of Black rebellion. (148)
Often the recommendations of commissions such as the Kerner Commission had good elements(174) but these were rarely if ever implemented and they also tended to “ pathologize Black residents”(175). Following from Plessy vs. Ferguson, Blacks were blamed for seeing enforced segregation as a badge of inferiority. They often implied that inequality was caused by poor Black behavior (176). In the end , police were still empowered to deal with the results of these and the white racism that Kerner et. al. noted. (179)
Crips and Bloods economic plan, pg 244
The reforms proposed included more money for police as well as DoJ oversight on police violence.( 271)
The outcome of commissions etc. “ was ambivalent, --not intentionally int malicious , but mealy mouthed and non-committal . In a sense the responsibility lies with liberalism itself—in the premise that goodwill, educational opportunities , markets and limited anti-discrimination laws will solve inequality “in due time”. The consequences are still with us today.” ( 193) !!!!
,The author argues that the pattern of rebellion has changes “ mainly Rebellions throughout America , from those in the 1960s to Cincinatti in 2001 mainly involved Black protesters , yet the most sustained collective violence of 2020 did not emanate from Black ghettos . ..it came from majority-white cities and suburban communities . Most of the looting in 2020 took place in upscale neighborhoods and it targeted high end retaliers..”( 294)
“These developments suggest that as the country becomes more diverse and as the history and fact of systemic racism is further brought to light , rebellions led and comprised solely of Black people and taking place in segregated Black communities may be a thing of the past.”(295)
The latter statement is a bit speculative. However, it is based in part on the general stagnation and decline in living standards for workers and the poor since the onset of neo-liberalism. The George Floyd rebellion was not just about racism, but also about the general opposition to ruling class attacks. The fight against racism and police murder was intertwined with but also a surrogate for many other issues.
As the author points out, liberal reformism has failed. However, the recent multiracial rebellions , still usually led by Black people, points the way toward a real solution. The politics of Solidarity across race lines against racism and exploitation/poverty/austerity is hopefully the wave of the future. Understanding the previous pattern is important to solidifying this new militant solidarity . This book is interesting, provocative and useful for this purpose!
