卡麗·奧利維婭·亞當斯
For those searching for answers following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and the resulting unrest across the nation, its important to understand the history and context of racism in the United States. The University of Chicago Press has identified 11 books that it has published that provide a primer on police violence, educational inequity, and other forms of institutional racism. These books come from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, including education, history, medicine and sociology, but they all have similar missions: to better inform our opinions, offer insight into the perspectives and lives of others, and to give voice to those who have often been silenced.
The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence
Laurence Ralph
In The Torture Letters, Laurence Ralph chronicles the history of torture in Chicago, the burgeoning activist movement against police violence, and the American publics complicity in perpetuating torture at home and abroad.
Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs
Colin Gordon
The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson1, Missouri ignited nationwide protests and brought widespread attention police brutality and institutional racism. But Ferguson was no aberration2. As Colin Gordon shows, the events in Ferguson exposed not only the deep racism of the local police department but also the ways in which decades of public policy effectively segregated people and curtailed3 citizenship, not just in Ferguson but across the St. Louis suburbs.
Tacit Racism
Anne Warfield Rawls and Waverly Duck
In Tacit Racism, Anne Warfield Rawls and Waverly Duck illustrate the many ways in which racism is coded into the everyday social expectations of Americans. They argue that these interactions can produce racial inequality, whether the people involved are aware of it or not, and that by overlooking tacit racism in favor of the fiction of a “color-blind” nation, we are harming not only our societys most disadvantaged—but endangering the society itself.
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, Second Edition
Edited by Alfreda M. Duster, with a new foreword by Eve L. Ewing and a new afterword by Michelle Duster
Ida B. Wells is an American icon of truth telling. Born to slaves, she was a pioneer of investigative journalism, a crusader against lynching4, and a tireless advocate for suffrage, both for women and for African Americans. This engaging memoir, originally published in 1970, relates Wellss private life as a mother as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight for equality and justice.
Remembering Emmett Till
Dave Tell
Take a drive through the Mississippi Delta today, and youll find a landscape dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most chilling are those devoted to the murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a beacon in the fight for racial equality.
Beyond the Usual Beating: The Jon Burge Police Torture Scandal and Social Movements for Police Accountability in Chicago
Andrew S. Baer
Chicago police commander Jon Burge decades-long tenure on the Chicago police force was marked by racist and barbaric interrogation methods, including psychological torture, burnings, and mock executions—techniques that went far “beyond the usual beating.” After being exposed in 1989, he became a symbol of police brutality and the unequal treatment of nonwhite people, and the persistent outcry against him led to reforms such as the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois.
Murder in New Orleans: The Creation of Jim Crow5 Policing
Jeffrey S. Adler
Using the history of New Orleans crime, Adler shows how the vicious response to African American crime occurred even as such violence plunged in frequency—revealing that the citys cycle of racial policing and punishment was connected less to actual patterns of wrongdoing than to the national enshrinement of Jim Crow. Rather than some hyperviolent outlier6, Adler argues, this Louisiana city was a harbinger of the endemic racism at the center of todays criminal justice state. Murder in New Orleans lays bare how decades-old crimes, and the racially motivated cruelty of the official response, have baleful7 resonance in the age of Black Lives Matter.
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicagos South Side
Eve L. Ewing
Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Asst. Prof. Eve L. Ewing of Chicagos School of Social Service Administration reveals that black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. She argues that the fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.
The Color of Mind: Why the Origins of the Achievement Gap Matter for Justice
Derrick Darby and John L. Rury
American students vary in educational achievement, but white students in general typically have better test scores and grades than black students. Why is this the case, and what can school leaders do about it? In The Color of Mind, Derrick Darby and John L. Rury answer these pressing questions and argue that we cannot make further progress in closing the achievement gap until we understand its racist origins.
Building the Prison State: Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration
Heather Schoenfeld
Reframing the story of mass incarceration, Heather Schoenfeld illustrates how the unfinished task of full equality for African Americans led to a series of policy choices that expanded the governments power to punish, even as they were designed to protect individuals from arbitrary state violence. To reduce the number of people behind bars, Schoenfeld argues that we must transform the political incentives for imprisonment and develop a new ideological basis for punishment.
The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills
David A. Ansell, MD
When detailing the many things that the poor have not, we often overlook the most critical—their health. The poor die sooner. Blacks die sooner. And poor urban blacks die sooner than almost all other Americans. In The Death Gap, David A. Ansell gives a grim survey of these realities, drawn from observations and stories of his patients in Chicago.
對于那些尋找喬治·弗洛伊德被警察殺害緣由以及后來引起全國騷亂答案的人們來說,了解美國種族主義的歷史和背景很重要。芝加哥大學(xué)出版社篩選出自己出版過的11本書,作為了解美國警察暴力、教育不平等和其他體制性種族主義的入門讀物。這些書涵蓋了不同的視角和學(xué)科,包括教育學(xué)、歷史學(xué)、醫(yī)學(xué)和社會學(xué),但它們的使命相似:更好地影響我們的觀點,讓我們了解他人的視角和生活,并為那些經(jīng)常被禁聲的人發(fā)聲。
《酷刑信:反抗警察暴力》
作者:勞倫斯·拉爾夫
勞倫斯·拉爾夫在《酷刑信》中記錄了芝加哥酷刑的歷史,介紹了反抗警察暴力的激進主義運動的迅速發(fā)展,并且指出,之所以酷刑在國內(nèi)外長期存在,美國公眾難辭其咎。
《公民布朗:圣路易斯郊區(qū)的種族、民主和不平等》
作者:科林·戈登
2014年,邁克爾·布朗在密蘇里州弗格森被殺,引發(fā)了全國范圍的抗議活動,并引起了人們對警察暴行和種族主義體制性不公的廣泛關(guān)注。但弗格森并非特例。正如科林·戈登所揭示的那樣,弗格森的事件不僅暴露了當?shù)鼐炀指畹俟痰姆N族主義,也暴露了幾十年的公共政策是如何在實際中隔離人民和限制公民權(quán)的,這不僅發(fā)生在弗格森,在圣路易斯全縣郊區(qū)都是如此。
《心照不宣的種族主義》
作者:安妮·沃菲爾德·羅爾斯和韋弗利·達克
安妮·沃菲爾德·羅爾斯和韋弗利·達克在《心照不宣的種族主義》一書中闡述了種族主義在美國日常社會中的種種表現(xiàn)。他們認為,無論相關(guān)人員是否意識到這一點,它們會共同導(dǎo)致種族的不平等,而且,對心照不宣的種族主義視而不見,而支持美國無種族歧視的謊言,這不僅傷害了美國社會中最弱勢的群體,而且還給社會本身帶來了隱患。
《為正義而戰(zhàn):艾達·B.韋爾斯自傳》,第二版
阿爾弗麗達·M.達斯特編輯,伊芙·L.尤因作新版序言,米歇爾·達斯特作新版后記
艾達·B.韋爾斯是美國“說真話”的代表性人物。她出身于奴隸家庭,是調(diào)查性新聞報道的先驅(qū),是反對私刑的斗士,也是婦女和非裔美國人選舉權(quán)的不懈倡導(dǎo)者。這本引人入勝的回憶錄初版于1970年,講述了韋爾斯作為一名母親的個人生活,以及她作為教師、演講人和記者為爭取平等和正義而進行的公開活動。
《紀念埃米特·蒂爾》
作者:戴夫·特爾
如果你在今天駕車穿越密西西比三角洲,你會發(fā)現(xiàn)一處景致,這里有很多民權(quán)運動主要人物和事跡的紀念碑。也許最令人不寒而栗的是那些埃米特·蒂爾遇害事件紀念碑,那是由仇恨和不公正釀成的悲劇,成了爭取種族平等的燈塔。
《虐囚:喬恩·伯奇警察酷刑丑聞與芝加哥警察問責社會運動》
作者:安德魯·S.貝爾
喬恩·伯奇在芝加哥警察部隊擔任警察指揮官數(shù)十年,其間最出名的就是動用種族主義的野蠻審訊手段,包括心理折磨、灼燒和模擬處決——這些手段遠遠“超出了通常意義的刑訊”。其劣跡在1989年被曝光后,他便成了警察暴行和歧視有色人種的象征,民眾對他持續(xù)的抗議促成了伊利諾伊州廢除死刑等改革。
《新奧爾良謀殺案:警方執(zhí)法中的種族歧視》
作者:杰弗里·S.阿德勒
即便非裔美國人的犯罪率大大下降了,但對這類犯罪還是以殘暴的方式應(yīng)對。作者阿德勒用新奧爾良的犯罪活動歷史,揭示了這種殘暴應(yīng)對模式是如何形成的——新奧爾良對有色人種的執(zhí)法和懲罰這一整套程序,與其說與實際的不法行為模式有關(guān),不如說是與美國上下對種族歧視習(xí)以為常有關(guān)。阿德勒認為,路易斯安那州的這座城市不是極端暴力的特例,而是當今刑事司法中心種族主義猖獗的先兆。《新奧爾良謀殺案》揭示了數(shù)十年的犯罪活動史和警方受種族主義驅(qū)使的殘暴執(zhí)法在這個“黑命貴”的時代依然觸目驚心。
《校園里的幽靈:種族主義和芝加哥南區(qū)學(xué)校的關(guān)閉》
作者:伊芙·L.尤因
芝加哥大學(xué)社會服務(wù)管理學(xué)院的助理教授伊芙·L.尤因?qū)⑺难芯恐哺跉v史悠久的非裔美國人社區(qū)布朗茲維爾。她透露,黑人認為關(guān)閉黑人社區(qū)學(xué)?!m然這些學(xué)校不那么完美,但那是屬于他們的學(xué)校——是眾多種族主義政策中的又一項。她認為,爭取保留這些學(xué)校是美國黑人為創(chuàng)造理想的生活和實現(xiàn)真正自主而進行斗爭的另一條戰(zhàn)線。
《心靈的顏色:為什么找出成績差距的根源對于實現(xiàn)正義至關(guān)重要》
作者:德里克·達比和約翰·L.魯里
美國學(xué)生的成績各不相同,但白人學(xué)生通??梢垣@得比黑人學(xué)生更好的考試分數(shù)和成績等級。為什么會這樣?學(xué)校領(lǐng)導(dǎo)又能對此做些什么呢?德里克·達比和約翰·L.魯里在《心靈的顏色》一書中回答了這些緊迫的問題,并提出,除非我們了解其種族主義根源,否則我們無法在消除成績差距方面取得進展。
《建設(shè)監(jiān)獄國家:種族與大規(guī)模監(jiān)禁的政治》
作者:希瑟·舍恩菲爾德
希瑟·舍恩菲爾德復(fù)述了美國大規(guī)模監(jiān)禁有色人種的故事,說明了非洲裔美國人尚未達到完全平等的現(xiàn)狀和由此引發(fā)的一系列政策措施,盡管制定這些政策是為了保護個人免受專制國家暴力的影響,卻擴大了政府懲罰的權(quán)力。舍恩菲爾德認為,為了減少入獄人數(shù),我們必須改變監(jiān)禁的政治動機,并建立一種新的量刑思想基礎(chǔ)。
《死亡鴻溝:不平等是如何殺人的》
作者:戴維·A.安塞爾,醫(yī)學(xué)博士
在談及窮人的諸多匱乏時,我們往往忽略了最關(guān)鍵的東西——他們的健康。窮人的壽命短。換句話說,黑人的壽命短。城市里貧窮的黑人比幾乎其他所有美國人的壽命都短。在《死亡鴻溝》一書中,戴維·A.安塞爾基于他在芝加哥接診病人的評論和敘述,審視了這些殘酷的現(xiàn)實。