We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

by Kellie Carter Jackson (Author, Narrator)

A radical reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to white supremacy 

Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary.” In We Refuse , historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.  
 
The dismissal of “Black violence” as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force—from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt—has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away. 
 
Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Social Justice, Audiobook, American History

10 pages, Audible Audio

First published June 4, 2024

Reviews

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love about this book is showing the depth of history. Often times, the understanding of the political movements of the past extend only to the broadest contexts that focus on singular events or “great men,” but this does a great job at exploring the larger, deeper, more intimate context of things like slave revolts, bus boycotts, and even wonderful nuances of the ideas of traveling while Black. This is a wonderful supplemental read if you’re trying to expand your historical perspective

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful and well-written book about Black resistance to white supremacy with a focus on the United States. Loved Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson’s writing about violent resistance and the importance of considering violence as a tool to fight back against literal murder, lynching, dehumanization, etc. Well-rounded analyses too of multiple methods of resistance including leaving/refusing to stay in racist situations as well as creating joy even amidst pain and suffering. Definitely pushes back against whitewashed, fragile ego-serving notions of nonviolence as the only way to promote social justice. Great historical research and appreciated her brief yet vulnerable connections from her own life to the history and contemporary topics she writes about.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We Refuse" by Kellie Carter Jackson is a powerful, necessary addition to the existing literature on Black resistance. Carter Jackson, drawing from her expertise as a historian and her personal experiences, challenges the simplistic narrative often imposed upon Black struggles against white supremacy. Rejecting the dichotomy between nonviolence and violent resistance, she explores the myriad tactics used by Black folks and Black communities throughout history.

From the beginning of the book, Carter Jackson positions herself within a tradition of scholars like W.E.B. DuBois, asserting the unyielding belief in Black humanity and the rejection of deference to oppressive systems. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, she dismantles the myth of scarcity perpetuated by racism, instead advocating for collective refusal of the status quo.

The book is a well-paced blend of personal stories intertwined with historical accounts and offers a deeply intimate perspective on the resilience and courage of Black folks. Carter Jackson's homage to her own ancestors, particularly her great-great-great-grandmother denied medical care as a child, serves as a reminder of the stakes involved in resisting systemic oppression. There are so many additional stories highlighting the resistance efforts of young black girls who've been mostly erased from historical records that make this book one of a kind!

One of the book's many strengths lies in its exploration of lesser-known forms of resistance, such as truancy as a means of withholding labor and reclaiming autonomy. Carter Jackson handles these topics with sensitivity and respect, highlighting the ingenuity and creativity of enslaved individuals in navigating their circumstances. Loved the subheading on flight as another resistance mechanism and read it over 3x!

Carter Jackson dives into the complexities of protection violence, exploring its necessity within the context of survival and self-defense. Through in-depth analyses of historical events like the Boston Tea Party and the Christiana Resistance, she contextualizes these acts of resistance within larger narratives of Black liberation.

"We Refuse" serves as both a corrective to historical inaccuracies and a celebration of Black strength and power. Carter Jackson's prose is impassioned and compelling, refusing to let Black stories be forgotten or reduced to the margins. This book is a testament to the power of refusal as a cultural and political force, offering readers a path towards healing and liberation.

"We Refuse" is an essential read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Black resistance and the ongoing struggle for justice. Kellie Carter Jackson's scholarship is not only informative but outstanding among most books I've read on the subject. Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is no cure for racism and anyone who tells you they can end racism is selling snake oil."

What better day to finish this book than on the 4th of July. You can't celebrate America without reminding them that the country was founded on racism and that Black people have from day one been fighting back. To rip a direct quote from this book " This is a book about the ways Black people in America have responded to white supremacy. " To be a Black American is to be at all times in fight or flight. Violence is a necessary part of fighting racism, protest and civil disobedience alone are insufficient. Nonviolence has its limits. This country needs a new revolution.

"Revolution is clean water, access to quality health care, sufficient shelter, equitable schools, safety, an end to mass incarceration, and restorative justice. "

I learned of We Refuse from the YouTube show The Majority Report with Sam Seder, Kellie Carter Jackson was on the show and the way she talked about the people in this book made me want to immediately go out and pick this book up.

"Vengeance is a white imaginary project. Black people are not consumed with revenge but with justice. "

"Resistance to oppression is a natural right."

I love reading about history, which is so important. If history weren't important then white people wouldn't try so hard to erase Black people from history. It's important to remember that the Founding Fathers didn't consider ALL PEOPLE to be created equal and revolution was never intended for Black people. Despite that, the first person to shed blood for the revolution was a Black man named Crispus Attucks.

"In history forgetting is political. "

"Slavery exploited Black women's womb for capital and then robbed them of their children. "

"Equality threatens the myth of white supremacy. "

I could truly just copy every word of this book because every word is so impactful. Basically, the point of this book is...

Nonviolence never saved anyone.

[Strega Di Gatti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rewires your thinking. Essential read for progressives who like to pontificate about non-violence based on their sketchy memory of a MLK quote.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good.

A history at Black resistance—and what is viewed as resistance in a world of white supremacist rule.

Resistance is so often viewed through the binary white lens of violence vs nonviolence, but there are so many other ways to resist, ones that seem especially poignant in the days, weeks, and months to come in the US.

Highly recommend, and that cover is just AMAZING.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Kellie Carter Jackson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.

The narrator of this audiobook is Kellie Carter Jackson. I am not usually a fan of authors reading their own nonfiction history books, but this was really well done. The audio quality was crisp and clear. I enjoyed being able to hear the emotion in the authors own voice. Most especially because her statements are so powetful.

"This is a book about the ways Black people in America have responded to white supremacy—including through force. The intrinsic belief in Black humanity is essential to understanding Black resistance to racial terror."

This is an important and powerful historical record. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I started this with extremely high hopes. I'm elated to share that I was not disappointed in the slightest. I was familiar with the basics of this history as both a historian and Black Feminist. Still, I learned so very much. Even the information I was familiar with was presented in a new light and connected to other applicable historical characters and incidents.

I purchased the Kindle copy of this when it was released and so was excited when I saw the audiobook available to review on NetGalley. My quotes in this review and in my updates as I was listening to the audiobook are taken from the digital book, which was published this past June.

This book is right on time as this has important history to remember and keep in mind as our nation heads into a presidential election like no other with extremely high stakes.
"Or we can let whiteness drown in the violence of its own making."

Thank you to Kellie Carter Jackson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

[Daphinie Cramsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, this cover should be a poster, it’s so beautiful! Secondly, this book was amazing! I have been slowly working through W. E. B. Du Bois’ ‘Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880’ which this book refers to on page one so I am familiar with how far our history has been whitewashed and frankly heavily applied with white-out. However, this book also has even more detailed events that I hadn’t read before and it had me pacing the living room!

However, the place this book really shines is in the analysis of resistance and violence.

“If violence is a tool designed to harm then even economic sanctions, which do not directly cause bloodshed, can be understood as a form of violence. “ (pg. 17)

The text continues throughout that white supremacy is what has instilled the definition of violence and consistently provides examples of how it is a constant double standard against Black advancement and the Black community.

I have also learned so much about Haiti that I frankly had no idea. That is absolutely on me and I was so inspired by the history I’ve learned here to continue reading about Haiti’s history as well as how it has affected Cuba’s. I’m looking forward to learning more events of our history that have been purposely whitewashed under the flag of patriotism. And thankfully after having read this, I’m more prepared to be aware of how white supremacy has adjusted the lens of history and its records.

I do also want to say that this may all sound disheartening but this book is that but also full of hope and joy. Kellie Carter Jackson invited us into her home, into her life, and into her own family’s history and it was truly moving to be allowed this glimpse in. We Refuse is a love letter to Black resilience and it is not just worth a read but worth a spot on every home’s shelf.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨ Review ✨ We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

Thanks to Seal Press and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, not least because of this incredible cover! This book centers justice, healing, and joy in considering how we can dismantle systemic racism and seek collective liberation.

Carter Jackson brings her historical research forward in this engaging and accessible book for public audiences that makes a compelling argument recognizing the existence of violent Black resistance against white supremacy from the 1600s through today. She argues that glorifying non-violent resistance (particularly MLK Jr. and non-violent groups in the Civil Rights Movement era) as the only acceptable means of resistance supports the goals of white supremacy by defining violent resistant as radical and unnecessary. Instead, she shows us a range of examples in which violent resistance was necessary and engaged in only as a last resort.

She organizes her examples in five sections: Revolution, Protection, Force, Flight, and Joy, and her examples cross vast times and places in the U.S. and its territories. (Protection and Force stood out to me as being particularly poignant). Throughout these examples, women feature prominently, showing that resistance and force aren't just male prerogatives. She weaves in stories from her own family, making this feel even more intimate.

From page 1, she's unapologetic in her arguments and the case she is building here, and to my fellow white readers, this might make you feel emotional or defensive. Resist these urges and read this book that's an incredibly written and argued case for recognizing black use of force as resistance throughout U.S. history.

From the first pages of this, I became such a fan girl of KCJ and proceeded to read several other pieces of her historical writing over the summer. I can't wait to see how she grows as a historian and writer for broader public audiences in the years to come.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: history, nonfiction on race, politics, and social justice
Pub Date: June 2024

[Lindsay Farr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot of history that was not taught in my classes, or if it was it was not with this level of detail, care, and empathy. Appreciated especially the focus on black women’s roles in rebellion

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! This type of book should be read to spark critical thinking and discussion surrounding American/World History – specifically the impact of the oppression and enslavement of African people and their methods of resistance and rejection. The author pulls from documented cases, historical facts, and firsthand experiences to illustrate various forms of defiance and rebellion.

The violence and hatred of White Supremacy and anti-Blackness are explored – she initially examines how the concept of Black inhumanity fuels racist policies and acts and then goes on to expand on the shortcomings of nonviolent protests (i.e. marches, demonstrations, speeches, and sit-ins) to counteract it. She admits that achieving liberation and Black humanity will not be easy and brilliantly outlines five categories for readers to explore: Revolution, Protection, Force, Flight, and Joy.

This novel is easy to read with timely, engaging topics, and would be a great group read in social and academic settings.

Thanks to the publisher, Basic Books | Seal Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

Using examples both from (mostly) US history at large and her family's own history, Kellie Carter Jackson expertly and unapologetically puts on clear display the wide range of strategies and tools that black women and men have used to resist white supremacy and oppressive systems over the centuries, and continue to do so. "We Refuse" is one of those history books that's an eye-opening mini-education readably packed into a few hundred pages - which in turns speaks to both the failures of my education (and others) growing up in the United States, and the very clear need for works like Jackson's. As a librarian, I definitely consider this a must-have for both public and academic shelves.

[Lilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope more people read this.
It examines what “violence” really is in our society and has me seeing things differently when I thought I was already open minded.
There were so many times in this book that I thought, “I’ve never considered that before” and I think all of this can help me be a better ally and raise others up.
The more I learn, the more I understand how the systematically racist roots go ever deep in this country. And it’s time to see it and change it.

[Nicole Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, inspiring, well-written, well-narrated. Good organization into the five main categories. I enjoyed the occasional personal family stories that fit in with the themes. After borrowing the audiobook from the library, I bought a physical copy so I could keep it for reference and to make notes in.

[Sophia Eck · Rating 4 out of 5]

audiobook

can we talk about the fact that bell hooks wrote All About Love for an audience of Black women to relate to that previously unfortunately less catered to demographic about the practice of love, and then all these years later, it has been made out to be a booktok book and is used performatively by primarily white men to appeal to women? Men really do have to make everything about themselves once again

[Tya C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely need a physical copy of this! Our history needs to be printed so that it can’t be denied.

[Jesse Hassinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kellie Carter Jackson's essential "We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance" re-centers the conversation about Black resistance away from white supremacy and into the hands of the Black individuals and groups who have, since the Middle Passage, been at the front lines of their own resistance and liberation by any means. Jackson posits five aspects of resistance: Revolution, Protection, Force, Flight, and Joy. Not all of these include the use of violence and none of them only rely on non-violence as the ultimate means for liberation, but whether it is the flight from oppressive labor (slavery or sharecropping through to this century's underpaid labor force) or armed protection from white community members during Jim Crowe through redlining to today's over-intrusive 911-happy neighborhood watch members, frequently the threat of violence is enough to break down the enraged white "do-gooder".

Jackson gives examples that are mostly new to this reader, and frequently centering women, finding people, places, and aspects of more well known events that illustrate her thesis without relying on the tropes of the well-worn historical people who have become two dimensional with overuse and the weight of holding prime examples. By doing so, Jackson renews her arguments with fresh examples that show that it wasn't just one person who was trying to resist, but it was thousands of individuals, families, and communities throughout the States and Islands.

[Joshunda Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. We Refuse has a beautiful if incendiary cover that I think beautifully captures its contents. Covering all the ways Black folks refuse white supremacy and its violences, Kellie Carter Jackson throughly examines Revolution, Protection, Force, Flight and Joy as historical remedies - noting they are not cures. At a time when I have been feeling powerless to respond to the events of the world, it was so powerful to be reminded that there have always been ways to empower ourselves to reject oppression or dehumanization through refusal. I love this book so much before I finished I got copies to gift to my loved ones.

[Carolyn Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Force is what happens when white people fail to live up to the laws of their own creation.“

Highly recommend. This book provided an incredibly well-researched journey into the global timeline of Black resistance to white supremacy. It explores key figures in global Black history that refused to accept a life and existence where they were anything but equal and used whatever means necessary - both violent and non-violent - to resist white supremacist oppression.

[Sol Luna The Book Heaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need EVERYONE to read this book.

[Erricka Hager · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a roadmap for us for the next four years! I also love that Black joy was covered because I feel like it’s over overlooked as a strategy of Black resistance.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would best describe We Refuse as a "strong" book. It is bold in its argument and in its connecting the past to the present, both in terms of our nation and in the author's personal history. Jackson makes the case that black resistance has had a much wider scope than has typically been considered in American history. The personal stories of her family experiences link the larger narrative to individual histories. Throughout the book, she makes a compelling argument that resistance has always been the key to freedom, and that without individuals' agency, there may not have been a cause to change the status quo.

The book's best contribution is in the previously unknown stories of several historical figures. The Christiana Rebellion will be new for several readers, and the story of Williams, Mabel, and Roberts will force readers to reconceptualize African American history and its popular theme of passive aggressiveness towards change. Even Harriet Tubman's story gets a unique perspective. While many people may have heard about her activism, she is portrayed as more militant and more combative than in the past. Maybe unsettling for some, but a much needed correction to the subdued, sanguine myth of the Underground Railroad leader that we tend to adopt as children.

Jackson ends the book on a sense of positive, forward thinking. Joy, she writes, is also inherently a form of resistance. It can lead to improved conditions, positive mental states, and can be the spark for future action. It allows people to stand up forcefully and work against the system.

For readers who think the story of black advocacy has already been written, read We Refuse.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is for all the times Black people pushed back against white supremacy & said, “Nah”, “Hell naw”, “F*ck No!”, Not today”, “You got me f*cked up!”…and for all the times them people had to f*ck around and find out.

This should be required reading and a companion book to US history textbooks. Get into the cover! We Refuse “pushes against and beyond the dominant civil rights narrative that conditions us to see Black people as worthy actors because of their commitment to nonviolence.” While nonviolence is commendable, “we must be honest about what actions produce structural results and what actions produce symbolic results.”

Force-from work stoppages, property destruction to armed revolt—-has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital, tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away. We Refuse reframes popular narratives about revolution, highlighting countless ways Black people refuse and resist white supremacy. Highly recommend!

[Care · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is outstanding! I really liked the way it was formatted and the content was very compelling. Such a treasure.
content warnings:
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

[Garrett S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kellie Carter Jackson teaches that there are many types of non-nonviolent resistance. The white supremacist power structure is inherently violent, but we’ve been taught that Black resistance to it is the real violence. This was a really informative deep dive, highly highly recommend.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Absolutely incredible book.

[Nicholas Mccane · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, the book cover sells itself. I need that photo hanging in my home.

We Refuse is the history book that I’ve been looking for. The American school system, they want us to think that the only black heroes are MLK and Rosa Parks. They teach us only about those two because of the nonviolent, peaceful protest approach. America makes us believe that Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Harriet Tubman, and the Black Pather Party are bad and the wrong way to go about justice. And what’s crazy is that many people believe this nonsense.

“Nonviolence never saved anyone.”

“There is no form of protest white supremacy will approve. Whether Black people take a knee or burn down the QuikTrip, the backlash will always be the same. Appeasing white power struggles will not work.”

Kellie Carter Jackson introduces us to many people who chose other ways to say no to white oppression. And no, I’m not only referring to fighting violence with violence.

I’ve learned more about my people’s history from this book, then all my years in the public school system. And there are so many women (who I’ve never heard of before) who were badass. This is a must-read for everyone.

The book has five sections. Revolution, protection, force, flight, and joy. All the sections were outstanding, but the joy one almost brought me to tears.

This book is full of sentences and paragraphs that you could quote. Here’s one:

“Nearly every African American could teach a master class in refusing the terms in our degradation.”

I can go on and on, but just read the book.

[andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

an effusive thanks goes to tantor audio and netgalley for the advanced audiobook copy of this book and my greater thanks goes to kellie carter jackson for putting this book into the world. (so glad you found your thumb drive!)

this book is currently out in hardcover and digital formats, but the audio drops July 09, 2024 and is, in my opinion, one of the most essential and relevant reads released in quite a while.

--

last year, i read March: Book One, a graphic novel series memorializing the life of the late senator john lewis, specifically unpacking his belief system centered in nonviolence. it's no secret that, particularly after trump, racism has exponentially shown itself publicly and loudly again. (a note here: i am in no way suggesting racism wasn't ultra prevalent prior to trump's inauguration, just that the installment of a violent racist into the american presidency seemed to embolden and inflame the racists still living in our country to be louder and more violent than the recent years prior, but i acknowledge as a white person i've had the inordinate privilege of not being privy to the same hatred and violent acts as black, indigenous, and other people of color.)

one of the stupidest talking points i've heard was the dissection on "appropriate protest", particularly when the protests in question happen in the wake of yet another white officer killing another unarmed black person - perhaps even trying to incriminate the black person by planting evidence, lying about their actions (which are later disproved by body cams or witnesses), and suggesting they deserve death, usually for the crime of just living while being black. so i picked up we refuse because i was interested in reading the counterpoint to the nonviolence argument.

this was actually immaculate. jackson uses historical examples to make her point - the haitian revolution, the christiana riot, john brown's raid - but what made this special was interspersing these historical events with the history of her own family. jackson's great-grandmother arnesta was nine and stepped on a nail. a white doctor refused to treat her unless her mother would agree that in exchange for his services, arnesta would live her life in slavery, doomed to a life of certain abuse, rape, and violence on top of subjugation. arnesta's mother's breathtaking choice to deny the doctor the right to arnesta's personhood was horror inducing, not because a mother was refusing care for her child but because a person saw a child facing probable death and instead of rendering immediate care thought first about acquiring ownership over another human. this is white violence.

jackson expertly weaves the necessity of violence from therein, but does several incredible things that need to be called out:

1.) she centers the actions of black women, in particular, often forgotten or diminished by history. i cherished the story of solitude, a pregnant woman fighting back against france for a better life for her baby. i think about the unthinkable act of violence perpetrated against her when she was captured - she would be allowed to give birth, her child would become a slave. i think about margaret garner, the woman that fleed enslavement and when followed and cornered to be brought back to her plantation, began to kill her children because death was better than them living their lives enslaved. i can't imagine being faced with a choice like this.

2.) there's not just a heavy focus on violence as an antidote to oppression, but also flight being a reasonable response. i also loved the emphasis on black community, how black people had to look after each other because relying on the humanity and kindness of white people was not something that could be expected or guaranteed. this culminated in a story about tye anders, a young, black man accused of running a stop sign (with no evidence). he pulled up in front of his grandmother's house. he was lying on the ground screaming that he was scared. he clearly had no weapons. multiple guns were trained on him. his 90 year old grandmother walked out of the house and stood between the police and tye. jackson didn't tell this story to talk about why police don't need to exist (we should all be aware of this) but to display a certain kind of protection and bravery that could only be displayed by person that has seen the worst things that white supremacy does to black people. this brings me to point 3 -

3.) jackson spends a whole chapter talking about black joy, how its existence is a radical act, how the joy of black people can remove some power from white people trying to express their power and privilege. i'm glad the book ended on this note. i think it's not and has never been the oppressor's business to tell the oppressed how to respond to their own oppression, there's always going to be someone that tries to do so. the same people that live in a country where bull connor directed officers to use their dogs and physically attack CHILDREN during the children's march want to claim that it's "history" don't deserve to have opinions about how black people respond to the violence enacted against them by white people or a white supremacist society.

frankly, i treasure this book. i think this should be required reading in schools. it was truly an honor to be able to hear kellie tell her own family's stories in her own voice. i try my best to educate myself (and i will continue to learn until i'm no longer able) but i value this book for teaching me things that i did not know and never would have considered. truly one of my favorite books of all time.

[Cici · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smooth read that wove together numerous historical anecdotes to paint a picture of the value of black resistance over the ages and how it’s sustained by joy. At times it could feel a little repetitive/drawn out, but it was good nonetheless (esp considering that it’s a history book that *i* managed to read in full). Perhaps a 3.5

[January · Rating 5 out of 5]

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson (2024)
290-page Kindle Ebook story pages 7-241

Genre: Nonfiction, Race Relations, African American History, Civil Rights, Politics and Government > United States, Social Justice

Featuring: Resistance, White Supremacy, Social Structure, Racism Against Black People, Preface, Introduction: My Ancestor’s Refusal; Nonviolence, Peaceful Protests, Revolution, Sickle Cell Anemia, Civil War, Haiti, Historical Figures, Guadeloupe, Boston Massacre, Reconstruction, Protection, Lucy Stanton, Eliza Ann Elizabeth Howard, Christiana Resistance, Margaret Garner, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Tye Anders, Force, Washington Riot, Flight, Bessie Coleman, Sisters of the Skies, Joy, Drowning: A Postscript, Discover More, Bibliography for Kellie Carter Jackson, Praise for We Refuse, Notes

Rating as a movie: R for descriptions of violence

Songs for the soundtrack: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron, "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" by James Brown, "Joy" by The Georgia Mass Choir, Dorothy Anderson, and Kirk Franklin; Omarion, B2K, "Electric Boogie" by Marcia Griffiths, "Cupid Shuffle" by Cupid, "Wobble" by V.I.C., "WAP" by Cardi B. featuring Megan Thee Stallion, "A Bay Bay" by Hurricane Chris, "CUFF IT" by Beyoncé, "Wanna Be A Baller" by Lil' Troy featuring Fat Pat, Yungstar, Lil' Will, Big T and H.A.W.K.; "Waiting On A Miracle" by Stephanie Beatriz

Books and Authors mentioned: Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 by W. E. B. Du Bois; What Then Must We Do? by Leo Tolstoy, The Soul of Man under Socialism by Oscar Wilde, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King Jr., The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House by Audre Lorde, Burn! (original title: Queimada) by Franco Solinas and Giorgio Arlorio; Ashley Simpo, Imani Perry, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear” Toni Morrison, - All titles listed in Notes including those listed previously here and tons more. The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker by David Remnick, Freedom Dreams by Robin D. G. Kelley, The Grimkes by Kerri K. Greenidge, America on Fire by Elizabeth Hinton,


My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🇺🇸🔗🆓️🇭🇹📜

My thoughts: 🔖Page 38 of 290 Chapter One REVOLUTION - This is good. I didn't know what to expect, but it is going to be a great discussion for book club.
🔖120 Chapter Three: Force - This story is so good, I'm going to give my son a chance to read it.

So, I'm reading this book for a book club for military wives and this story is written by an Air Force spouse, I'm not sure if that's by design or coincidence, but I love that. This story needs to be heard, I learn so much I didn't know before. My son started this today and I wish I could include his thoughts but I couldn't stop reading and had no intentions of waiting on him. This was too good to slow down. This book is not only enlightening, it's full of thought bombs and meaningful insights.

Recommend to others: Yes. I already recommended it to my and I think my husband is next.

Memorable Quotes: My great-grandmother Arnesta was about nine years old when she stepped on a rusty nail. Not long after, infection began to set in—likely tetanus. Her mother, Mary Bullard, was frantic. Arnesta was her only child, and she was going to lose her if she did not act fast. Mary sent Arnesta to the only doctor she knew, a white man who lived in a big house on the other side of town. The white doctor offered to help, but in exchange Arnesta would have to live with him for the rest of her life, working for his family. Growing up Black and a girl in 1915 left her vulnerable. In rural Alabama, during one of the worst periods of race relations in America, these were the detestable but predictable terms of engagement. Mary, panic stricken, agreed. Thankfully, Mary’s mother, a former slave, intervened and refused the doctor’s proposal. She picked up her ailing granddaughter and took her home. There, she administered every natural remedy at her disposal. Arnesta survived, but for the rest of her life, she walked with a limp. Whatever space she entered, whatever path she took, she was marked by an imprint of racial violence. My mother told me this story when I was a child to explain my great-grandmother’s limp. It was not until I was an adult that I realized that rusty nail was not the root of her trauma. This story has always gripped me, for several reasons. First, Arnesta was a child, her mother’s only child. How could a doctor refuse a dying child medical care when it was in his ability to heal her? He abandoned his oath, Primum non nocere—“First, do no harm.” Second, nearly fifty years out from slavery, white folks still felt entitled to Black labor and life in perpetuity. Clearly, everything was transactional to this white doctor. Built into the deal he offered was a lifetime of servitude and likely physical and sexual abuse. White supremacy in America can be summed up by these two diabolical options: live a life in bondage, or refuse and limp.1 To be Black in America is to limp. My great-grandmother’s gait had nothing to do with biology and everything to do with power—the power of the white doctor to neglect, and attempt to exploit, a little Black girl who came to him for help. But this book is not about the white doctor or the millions of white people like him. In many ways, this book is about my great-great-great-grandmother’s response: her refusal. It is about how she saved my great-grandmother. It is about resistance to white violence that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy Black lives.

Most extremist violence in America comes from the political right.9 In a report by the Anti-Defamation League, researchers found that between 2012 and 2021, out of 450 murders committed by political extremists, 75 percent involved white right-wing extremists and over 55 percent were connected to white supremacist groups.10 The fear of white right-wing extremists committing acts of violence is prevalent and on the rise. For too long the GOP not only has refused to confront such violent ideology and practice but has become comfortable with it. In some cases, violence has become a clarion call. The American public demands that people of color remain nonviolent but fails to ask the more important question, “Why are white Americans so violent?” The responsibility of nonviolence should be on the oppressors, not the oppressed.

Revolutions do not necessarily require bloodshed, but they do require sacrifice. My sister could have refused to donate her cells. But the procedure did not require her life.

American society has trained people to believe not only that white supremacy is the natural way of things but that white supremacy is the savior that ends revolutions begun by people of color and the poor. Racism and classism has blinded Americans so they cannot see white supremacy as their own Armageddon against Black people. How might our thinking change if we considered mass incarceration an apocalypse? Or economic inequality a catastrophe instead of the status quo? For Black people, the state of Black health, wealth, education, and housing is the end of the world in slow motion. Revolutions are birthed from oppression. Thus, revolution is first and foremost a response that seeks change for the benefit of humanity. Revolutions are not needed to improve a system. They are needed to create a new world. And, unlike an uncontrollable asteroid headed toward Earth, white state violence is neither natural nor unstoppable. Equality, equity, and reparations are not impossible—they seem that way only when we believe that white people are omnipotent.

In other words, the sustainability of revolution is dependent on not just victory but how that victory is remembered. Statues are not superficial. They offer a shortcut to the past, a way of valuing what was accomplished. Extracting history is difficult and preserving memory can be even more fraught. The violence of white supremacy is also bound up in forgetting. That Black revolutionary victories have been marginalized and forgotten is not accidental. The French did not just want to eliminate Black leadership; they sought to erase Black history because history often serves as a road map to a possible future. In marginalizing the past, white people were attempting to make Black people beholden to an identity stuck in subordination. These revolutionary leaders became footnotes because of their attempts to maintain freedom. But not all revolutions end in failure or suppression. Where Guadeloupe failed, Haiti succeeded, in the most powerful example of revolution ideals the Western world has ever seen. And even in failure, white supremacy is weakened, its fallibility exposed. The Black men and women of Guadeloupe were not afraid of failure; they feared the inability to live free. There is honor in failure; integrity, too. The story of Solitude is a powerful portrait of revolution.

Revolutions do not require violence, but violence can ensure certain guarantees. For Black people in the French Antilles, violence and even the threat of violence guaranteed that liberation could not be ignored or delayed.

In America, revolutions and violence belong to powerful white men alone. To be clear, there is a social contract between poor white men and wealthy white men in support of white supremacy. White women are also included in this social contract. Despite misogyny and distinct socioeconomic standings, white men and women are united in their racial identity. Together, these categories share varying forms of domination and an unrepentant sense of pride. Since the beginning of this country, riots and violent rhetoric have been markers of patriotism and whiteness. When the Founding Fathers fought for independence, violence was the clarion call. Phrases such as “Live free or die,” “Give me liberty or give me death,” and “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” echoed throughout the American colonies and in many ways continue today. Force and violence have always been used as weapons to defend liberty because—as John Adams once said in reference to the colonists’ treatment by the British—“we won’t be their Negroes.”

Hypocrisy was not a hidden agenda. And yet, the Founding Fathers and the Enlightenment thinkers they quoted are credited with creating the most comprehensive and noteworthy ideas about liberty and equal humanity.

Western enlightenment was always rooted in the subjugation and enslavement of African and Native peoples. Sarter concluded that patriots’ first step should be to liberate the enslaved. He warned that, should slaveholders continue in their oppression of Black people, the Bible was clear: “And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him… shall surely be put to death.” In this sense, revolution only belonged to the enslaved.

The First Rhode Island Regiment was made up entirely of Black soldiers, and Washington chose this all-Black company to lead the Continental army in the final battle at Yorktown. However, fighting in exchange for freedom was a precarious deal, and being placed on the front lines of a battle only signaled that one was disposable. In 1778, Rhode Island recruited the enslaved with the promise of freedom only to later rescind the promise.

Revolution involves the total transformation of society and the liberation of all people, not a few.

For the first time in the nation’s history Black men were free, were citizens, and had guaranteed suffrage. The revolutionary work of Reconstruction went further than any other country in the Western Hemisphere. And yet this revolution still did not extend to women. In less than a generation, just several years, Black men went from being enslaved to being elected officials. Robert Smalls was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. During the Civil War, he managed to steal a Confederate ship with his family on board and sail it undetected to Union strongholds. His contributions helped convince Lincoln that Black men should be enlisted as soldiers to help win the war. When the war was over, Smalls returned home and invested in his communities. He entered politics and won an election as a Republican to the South Carolina legislature.

During a lecture in Ohio, the abolitionist William J. Watkins explained his position on leaving and the Haitian emigration movement. Watkins saw no hope for gaining equal footing with white Americans. “The social and political disabilities under which we labor crush us to the earth,” argued Watkins, adding, “Here in Ohio, our children are not allowed to take their seats in the same school with the whites, but are driven to some nook or corner, in an isolated position, as though they were the special pets of the smallpox. Even the churches refuse the recognition of our equal manhood.” Watkins then proceeded to discuss the need to change conditions for African Americans. For Watkins to view America as a place worthy of his continued habitation, he had to be able to answer specific questions in the affirmative: “Will the time ever arrive when the colored man will have equal rights with the white man? Will he ever have equal access to the Presidential chair, or occupy seats in the Cabinet, or in the Senate, or on the bench of the Supreme Court?” In sum, Watkins asked, “Will the white man so far forget the black man’s complexion that he will consent to be governed by him, or to receive the law from him?” If Black men could not hope for recognition in ways that effectively granted equality, Watkins indicated, he saw no reason to stay in America. He urged his fellows to place themselves in a country where no barriers would oppose the development of their “mental and moral being, but where [their] every faculty [could] proudly sweep the whole circle of human activity.”22 However, Watkins did not support schemes to leave en masse, such as the colonization efforts in Liberia or Sierra Leone, which he labeled both impossible and impractical.23 He believed that Haiti and Canada had some of the strongest appeal as destinations. In Haiti, Black Americans could demonstrate their capacity for self-government. Watkins explained that emigrants from Ohio could have their passage to the island paid for by the Haitian government. In addition, each head of household would receive sixteen acres of land, and eight acres would be given to individuals as a payment for their investment in the country. The Haitian government had also promised to provide emigrants with subsistence for up to eight days after their arrival. An Ohio newspaper assured its readers that “much interest will be awakened by this lecture.”24 The land incentives in Haiti were not the only attraction. Black Americans saw leaving for Haiti as an opportunity to cultivate Black Nationalism. Haiti offered a national identity that was encouraging and elevating to Black Americans after the lamentable Dred Scott decision.

As he stood at the podium, he talked about the difference between happiness and joy. “Happiness is fleeting,” he said, “but joy is grounded by grief.” Joy is birthed from hard places. He shared passages from the Old Testament and reminded us about the trials faced by Job, Joseph, and David. Joy was the antidote to trauma and loss.

Antoine was livid and used his on-camera interview with a journalist to confront his sister’s attacker: “Well, obviously we have a rapist in Lincoln Park. He’s climbing in your windows, snatching your people up, so hide your wife, hide your kids.” Antoine was not laughing. He was livid. He warned the intruder, “We looking for you. We gonna find you. I’m letting you know that. So you can run and tell that. Homeboy!”19 However, instead of inspiring viewers to address the trauma of the attack and help find the culprit, Antoine Dodson’s rage became a spectacle. Millions flocked to social media to gawk at the clip, laugh, and share with others what they believed was a hilarious character.