Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin; the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful and uncompromising campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjustified treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States. The movement is only a few years old; but as Christopher J. Lebron argues in this book; the sentiment behind it is not; the plea and demand that "Black Lives Matter" comes out of a much older and richer tradition arguing for the equal dignity - and not just equal rights - of black people. The Making of Black Lives Matter presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals; including Frederick Douglass; Ida B. Wells; Langston Hughes; Zora Neal Hurston; Anna Julia Cooper; Audre Lorde; James Baldwin; and Martin Luther King Jr.; Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement. He also illuminates the crucial difference between the problem signaled by the social media hashtag and how we think that we ought to address the problem. As Lebron states; police body cameras; or even the exhortation for civil rights mean nothing in the absence of equality and dignity. To upset dominant practices of abuse; oppression and disregard; we must reach instead for radical sensibility. Radical sensibility requires that we become cognizant of the history of black thought and activism in order to make sense of the emotions; demands; and argument of present-day activists and public thinkers. Only in this way can we truly embrace and pursue the idea of racial progress in America.
#402579 in Books 2015-10-13Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.30 x .90 x 9.20l; .0 #File Name: 0190269243232 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy JPerezExcellen book on the Covenanters and their interactions with American Politics in Scotland all the way to America.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Exploring the Scottish sources of church-state unity in America; and anti-slavery sentiment.The first failed; the 2nd succeeded.By Margaret SanfordExcellent research; but needs listed bibliography and index.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in religion’s ...By rperDespite what many modern Evangelical Christians claim; America was NOT established explicitly as a Christian nation. The Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters); from our nation’s very establishment; decried this notion based on two highly significant defects in our Constitution: 1) it refused to acknowledge the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ; 2) it allowed for the godless institution of slavery. The RPs stood as virtually a lone voice of dissent on both these issues at our country's founding. This very well written and researched tome; seen from an outsider’s perspective; clearly establishes the Reformed Presbyterian argument. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in religion’s influence in our country’s history and concerned for why things wound up the way they are today; regardless of what you believe should be the case.
