Introduction
When they call you a Terrorist is a memoir written by Asha Bandele and Patrisse Cullors. Patrisse describes her experiences as a black queer woman brought up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Los Angeles by a single mother. She narrates her experience with police brutality and her father’s struggles with addiction, the social and political conditions that encourage drug abuse, and the justice system. These everyday struggles have molded her into an epitome of hope and inspiration for not only blacks living in the US, but throughout the world. This book is a memoir not only of one of the most controversial civil movements in the history of the US, and the circumstances that resulted in its creation but also of Cullors as a person and an activist. This memoir is a symbol of survival, strength, and resilience of people who want to see real change happen in the world and have people treated fairly and equally regardless of their skin color. This paper reviews and critiques the main arguments in this work of art, in addition to connecting them to information from classwork.
Review
The book by Asha Bandele and Patrisse is subtitled “A Black Lives Matter Memoir” but this is not brought out until in the last quarter of the book. Instead, the better part of the book is dedicated to narrating the everyday struggles of Patrisse both as a child and a teenager. The things she went through put her through shame and sadness that forced her to retreat into a more private world filled with pain, loneliness, and confusion. Throughout her narrations, the reader can detect a sense of longing from Patrisse for the kind of secure relationships that her privileged white classmates took for granted. Through her stories, she brings out themes of mass incarceration, police presence in places meant to be safe such as schools and neighborhoods, intersectionality, sexuality, access to mental health support, childhood, love and hope, transformative justice, and personal and collective responsibility. Her personal history and narrative of growth are assembled to bring forth the birth, purpose, and success of Black Lives Matter in the cry for racial justice.
Through the narration of her different dimensions of life, a central intimate argument emerges. It is that of a black woman striving to make something of herself and others who are equally marginalized beyond themselves through building political power. From a young age, Patrisse recognized that women received little to no grace in the world ruled by men. Not even being on a spiritual journey gave her the hope, mentorship, guidance, and liberation she needed. Her mother was ashamed and scared by her religion for having her, and the bible upheld the story of anti-women. She made an intentional conscious decision to change to her true self, not only for her sanity and happiness but for the rest of the girls around her. She says, “I am changing, my whole life is changing, and for all the parts that feel terrifying and hard, there are other parts many of them that feel incredibly exciting and bursting with possibility” (Khan & Cullors, 2018, p 71-72). This decision has seen her push forward, motivate and realize her vision to have black women keep building power for some of the most marginalized.
Currently, most black women do not focus on their individual selves only but include others who are mistreated by the same wing of government meant to protect them. Cullors’ ideology can be backed by the happenings during Trump vs Hillary Clinton race for the presidency a few years back. Black women overwhelmingly supported the latter, with only less than 6% voting for Trump (Pew Research Center, 2018). This is contrary to 53% of white women who voted Trump in (Pew Research Center, 2018). In another situation, black women voted against Roy Moore vying for the Alabama Senatorial seat despite his previous cases of pedophilia and sexual misconduct. Cullors attributes this not to the fact that they preferred the other candidate but because they believed it was the best decision for Alabama and the country at large. Even though there is still a lot to be achieved, the Black Lives Matter organization champions to have the world grant black women dignity and respect regardless of their sexuality, ethnicity, or race. Her organization embraces all genders and sexualities and condemns contemporary society for depriving women of color of their rights and privileges.
Cullors challenges the world to learn and embrace a love that goes beyond their exhaustion from poverty and injustices from a malfunctioned system, one that empowers a particular type of political visioning. The kind of love Cullors advocates for integrates both political and interpersonal forces. She writes, “My community… this chosen family of mine loves in a way that sets an example for love. Their love as a triumph, as a breathing and living testimony to what we mean when we say another world is possible” (Khan-Cullors, 2018). This integrated love is fueled by fear and the need to protect those that matter in the lives of different people. It pushes one to keep fighting even when they can hardly find a personal reason to hold to the fight. Cullors’ success in her career as a trained organizer and activist has a lot to do with interpersonal support and communal visions of love and the future. She gradually develops these themes through her narration from her teen years when she joined the Los Angeles-based Strategy Center, to enacting the ideologies she had acquired, joining the different justice spaces and carrying out campaigns, and eventually the legislative wins she gains.
Another significant theme that is linked to the theme of integrated love emerges the principle of connection. Over and over again, Cullors restates the countless times and ways through which the government attempts to create a disconnection between its people. It creates traumatic disconnections of mass incarceration, school suspensions, solitary confinement, and isolation as a result of addiction and self-hate. In addition, the presence and unnecessary violence used by police create fear that facilitates further disconnection. Cullors saw both her father and brother get mistreated by the police and unjustly incarcerated, and her mum left to work two to three jobs to keep them going. However, despite the challenges, the authors constantly remind the readers that there is more to gain in fighting for the connection. It establishes a kind of power that can hardly be shaken. With this principle, people commit to remaining connected and present for their community members. The weight of bad and hurtful experiences may threaten to create a disconnection that defines the black community. However, Cullors insists that this is the ideal time to create human bonds that stimulate the acquisition of power through pursuing the connection regardless.
Connections to Class Material
The book When they call you a Terrorist significantly connects to most of the readings and topics covered throughout the course. Most of the topics covered revolved around race, ethnicity, and how they determine the kind of lives people lead in the US. Cullors agrees with Gabbidon, & Greene that the blacks are disproportionately affected by police brutality, unfair trials, and homicide victimization. They discuss the injustices in the justice system as experienced by minority youths and other people of color. They also try to explain theoretically how the situations are as they are. Similarly, even though in a different way of stories, Cullors describes the struggles she went through as she watched the people around her struggle to survive in their own country. According to Gabbidon, & Greene (2019), one of the theoretical perspectives on race and ethnicity is on functionalism. They emphasize the need for the different elements in the society to function as required to, to promote harmony and peaceful coexistence of the people in a society (Bowser, 2017). If one element fails, things are likely to fall out of place affecting the whole ecosystem.
In this case, whenever one ethnic or racial group experiences discrimination or inequalities a tension arises that paralyzes the social system for a while. For example, in 2013 the death of Trayvon Martin led to demonstrations on the streets and a lot of anger across social media platforms. This inspired the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. She indicates that it took the death of yet another American for something good to be invented. Recently, upon the death of George Floyd violent protests ensued for several days disrupting the normal functioning of the city.
The book When they call you a Terrorist expounds more on the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. While the readings in class mentioned and elaborated on such civil movements, their explanations were vague compared to what the book chosen offers. From the book, it is clear that this was not something that the founders randomly thought about. It had a lot to do with what they went through growing up in a minority community. They found inspiration and longed to have the privileges their white friends and classmates had. Unlike them, their white classmates went to bed without fear of police invading their privacy, without worrying about proving where and if they would be employed in the future or having to prove themselves to everybody twice as much as the others. Reading through the personal narration of Cullors paints a clearer picture of how and why the movement began, the vision, and its main portraits. Strengths and weaknesses of the arguments
Khan-Culler’s memoir are well articulated and nonlinear making most of her arguments relatable. She uses the voice of a clear-eyed analytical adult to narrate her stories and answers the questions on her audiences’ minds of how she got here. She argues that the life of black people is complicated right from their childhood. It begins with them watching their parents struggle to fit in a society that judges them based on everything, including their sexuality and ability to excel in anything. They grow up comparing their lives to those of their age mates from the white community and early age, they learn to be aggressive and fight for everything they want. This can be backed up by numerous studies in the recent past about the black community and the disparities they encounter.
Further, her argument on the strength of connection among blacks is relevant and manifested even in the current happenings. Blacks have learned to fight for each other instead of against each other. With this, they have recently realized gains in their fight for equality even though at a very slow rate. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has gained recognition not only in the US but throughout the world. Through the voices in this movement, high-profile corrupt prosecutors have been ousted, including Anita Alvarez who failed to charge police officers accused of killing 68 people (Lussenhop, 2016). they led a campaign that resulted in her losing her re-election bid for Cook County prosecutor.
The one weakness identified in this book is in how the authors imply that blacks are under a unique threat of murder victims. While statistics show that blacks are killed in high numbers, people from other ethnic groups face a similar challenge even though in a smaller number. The memoir seems to only focus on deaths by police while most of the homicide victims are killed by other blacks. For example, in 2018, 2925 black homicide cases were reported to the police, 2600 of these were committed by fellow blacks (FBI: UCR, 2018). In comparison, 208 blacks were killed by police officers in the same year (Statista, 2021). Not to dismiss the severity of the matter but the entire book omits or avoids the discussion completely. This is an area the book should have touched on; they should not have based the entire movement on just one aspect of the high rate of black killings. The movement should be equally vocal when blacks are killed by fellow blacks to ensure these threats are eliminated. Addressing the latter issue overrides the assumption associated with Black Lives Matter that blacks are under a unique racially motivated threat.
Conclusion
When they call you a Terrorist is a book that outlines the everyday struggle of black people, and especially women. The book addresses the issue of incarceration and disenfranchises of black men as shown through the author’s father and brother. In addition, it addresses other facets among the black community members including womanhood, sexuality, and spirituality. The main arguments Cullors makes in the book are the struggles of black women in fitting in and being granted the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings, the need for an integrated love that keeps them pushing and fighting for the community, and the principle of connection, which allows them to build a type of power that would be difficult to lose. The book connects to class in terms of the theories addressed and the issues the black community faces. She brings out her arguments in a manner that makes them relatable and relevant to the world today. However, she focuses her narrations on the evil the police do to the community leaving out how blacks bring each other down. This reaffirms the assumptions critics have that the movement has built its argument around the idea that blacks are under a unique and racially motivated threat.
References
Bowser, B. (2017). Racism: Origin and Theory. Journal Of Black Studies, 48(6), 572-590. Web.
FBI: UCR. (2018). Expanded Homicide Data Table 6. FBI. Web.
Gabbidon, S. L., & Greene, H. T. (2019). Race and crime (5th ed.). Sage.
Khan-Cullors, P., Bandele, A., & Davis, A. (2018). When they call you a terrorist. St. Martin’s Press.
Lussenhop, J. (2016). Chicago prosecutor loses her fight with Black Lives Matter. BBC News. Web.
Pew Research Center. (2018). An examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters. Pew Research Center – U.S. Politics & Policy. Web.
Statitsta. People shot to death by U.S. police, by race 2021 | Statista. Statista. Web.