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Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
Unarmed citizens shot by police. Drinking water turned to poison. Mass incarcerations. We’ve heard the individual stories. Now a leading public intellectual and acclaimed journalist offers a powerful, paradigm-shifting analysis of America’s current state of emergency, finding in these events a larger and more troubling truth about race, class, and what it means to be “Nobody.”
Protests in Ferguson, Missouri and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations. They unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.
In Nobody, scholar and journalist Marc Lamont Hill presents a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of race and class by examining a growing crisis in America: the existence of a group of citizens who are made vulnerable, exploitable and disposable through the machinery of unregulated capitalism, public policy, and social practice. These are the people considered “Nobody” in contemporary America. Through on-the-ground reporting and careful research, Hill shows how this Nobody class has emerged over time and how forces in America have worked to preserve and exploit it in ways that are both humiliating and harmful.
To make his case, Hill carefully reconsiders the details of tragic events like the deaths of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and Freddie Gray, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He delves deeply into a host of alarming trends including mass incarceration, overly aggressive policing, broken court systems, shrinking job markets, and the privatization of public resources, showing time and time again the ways the current system is designed to worsen the plight of the vulnerable.
Timely and eloquent, Nobody is a keen observation of the challenges and contradictions of American democracy, a must-read for anyone wanting to better understand the race and class issues that continue to leave their mark on our country today.
Protests in Ferguson, Missouri and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations. They unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.
In Nobody, scholar and journalist Marc Lamont Hill presents a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of race and class by examining a growing crisis in America: the existence of a group of citizens who are made vulnerable, exploitable and disposable through the machinery of unregulated capitalism, public policy, and social practice. These are the people considered “Nobody” in contemporary America. Through on-the-ground reporting and careful research, Hill shows how this Nobody class has emerged over time and how forces in America have worked to preserve and exploit it in ways that are both humiliating and harmful.
To make his case, Hill carefully reconsiders the details of tragic events like the deaths of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and Freddie Gray, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He delves deeply into a host of alarming trends including mass incarceration, overly aggressive policing, broken court systems, shrinking job markets, and the privatization of public resources, showing time and time again the ways the current system is designed to worsen the plight of the vulnerable.
Timely and eloquent, Nobody is a keen observation of the challenges and contradictions of American democracy, a must-read for anyone wanting to better understand the race and class issues that continue to leave their mark on our country today.
270 pages, Hardcover
First published July 26, 2016
247 people are currently reading
8004 people want to read
About the author
Marc Lamont Hill
10 books469 followersDr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading intellectual voices in the country.
He is currently the host of BET News and VH1 Live, as well as a political contributor for CNN. An award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Hill is Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College. Prior to that, he held positions at Columbia University and Temple University.
Since his days as a youth in Philadelphia, Dr. Hill has been a social justice activist and organizer. He is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. He is also a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union. Dr. Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. Over the past few years, he has actively worked on campaigns to end the death penalty and to release numerous political prisoners.
Ebony Magazine has named him one of America’s 100 most influential Black leaders.
Dr. Hill is the author or co-author of four books: the award-winning Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity; The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black life in America; Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Gentrifier (January 2017). He has also published two edited books: Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility; and Schooling Hip-Hop: New Directions in Hip-Hop Based Education.
Trained as an anthropologist of education, Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education.
He is currently the host of BET News and VH1 Live, as well as a political contributor for CNN. An award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Hill is Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College. Prior to that, he held positions at Columbia University and Temple University.
Since his days as a youth in Philadelphia, Dr. Hill has been a social justice activist and organizer. He is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. He is also a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union. Dr. Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. Over the past few years, he has actively worked on campaigns to end the death penalty and to release numerous political prisoners.
Ebony Magazine has named him one of America’s 100 most influential Black leaders.
Dr. Hill is the author or co-author of four books: the award-winning Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity; The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black life in America; Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Gentrifier (January 2017). He has also published two edited books: Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility; and Schooling Hip-Hop: New Directions in Hip-Hop Based Education.
Trained as an anthropologist of education, Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
August 4, 2016
I have read quite a few books over the past few years dealing with police brutality, systemic racism, and general inequalities and some of them have been fluff pieces and others were groundbreaking in the material they presented so I was not sure what I was getting into when I started reading Nobody. The topics range from the killing of unarmed black men, to the water crisis in Flint, to the most bone chilling concept of feeling like a "nobody" in a place that is supposed to be your home. This book not only digs deep into the longstanding societal and procedural issues behind recent police shootings but it also perfectly captures the emotions that many African-Americans felt each time we heard of someone dying.
But there were many who said, "There is no way that a police officer would ever shoot somebody in the back six, seven or eight times." But like Thomas, when we were able to see the video, and we were able to see the gun shots, and when we saw him fall to the ground, and when we saw the police officer come and handcuff him on the ground, without even trying to resuscitate him, without even seeing if he was really alive, without calling an ambulance, without calling for help, and to see him die face down in the ground as if he were gunned down like game, I believe we all were like Thomas, and said, "I believe."
Marc has been one of my most favorite journalists to watch on television, but I now have a new found respect for him after reading this book. If you are looking for a book that includes thought-provoking analysis into how we got to this point in our country then this is the book for you. Nobody is painful, exhausting, and yet quite brilliant. If you are a fan of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and/or The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander then you should definitely add Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill to your list to read!!
But there were many who said, "There is no way that a police officer would ever shoot somebody in the back six, seven or eight times." But like Thomas, when we were able to see the video, and we were able to see the gun shots, and when we saw him fall to the ground, and when we saw the police officer come and handcuff him on the ground, without even trying to resuscitate him, without even seeing if he was really alive, without calling an ambulance, without calling for help, and to see him die face down in the ground as if he were gunned down like game, I believe we all were like Thomas, and said, "I believe."
Marc has been one of my most favorite journalists to watch on television, but I now have a new found respect for him after reading this book. If you are looking for a book that includes thought-provoking analysis into how we got to this point in our country then this is the book for you. Nobody is painful, exhausting, and yet quite brilliant. If you are a fan of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and/or The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander then you should definitely add Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill to your list to read!!
May 26, 2021
"The stories of Ferguson, Baltimore, Flint, and countless other sites of gross injustice remind us of what it means to be largely erased from the social contract. They expose life on the underside of American democracy, where countless citizens are rendered disposable through economic arrangements, public policy, and social practice. They spotlight the nagging presence of the exploited, the erased, the vulnerable, the dehumanized—those who are imagined, treated, and made to feel like Nobody."
5/5
Through the stories of African Americans that have been killed (Michael Brown, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Dorian Johnson,Paula Cooper, Jordan Davis, Ramsey Orta, Kathryn Johnston.), Marc Lamont Hill exposes the underlying truth and history of what happened to those that are considered "nobodies" in society. Some of the main topics discussed are: broken schools, evaporated labor markets, policing practices, the neglect of the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, drug wars, the Flint water crisis.
It is difficult for me to write a review for this book because every single sentence is worth reading; there is so much that I have learned from this book. I have read reviews that say this book fails to answer what should be done, but I do not think this was ever the intent. "To understand the complexity of oppression, we must avoid simple solutions and singular answers." There is no one quick solution, simply defunding the police will not counteract the deep seeded "economic conditions, political arrangements, and power relations that transforms everyday citizens into casualties of an increasingly intense war on the vulnerable". This book attempts to answer the question how, how have we gotten here? Only when we begin to understand the complexity of how we got here, can we begin to make the necessary changes.
5/5
Through the stories of African Americans that have been killed (Michael Brown, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Dorian Johnson,Paula Cooper, Jordan Davis, Ramsey Orta, Kathryn Johnston.), Marc Lamont Hill exposes the underlying truth and history of what happened to those that are considered "nobodies" in society. Some of the main topics discussed are: broken schools, evaporated labor markets, policing practices, the neglect of the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, drug wars, the Flint water crisis.
For the vulnerable, it is the violence of the ordinary, the terrorism of the quotidian, the injustice of the everyday, that produces the most profound and intractable social misery.
It is difficult for me to write a review for this book because every single sentence is worth reading; there is so much that I have learned from this book. I have read reviews that say this book fails to answer what should be done, but I do not think this was ever the intent. "To understand the complexity of oppression, we must avoid simple solutions and singular answers." There is no one quick solution, simply defunding the police will not counteract the deep seeded "economic conditions, political arrangements, and power relations that transforms everyday citizens into casualties of an increasingly intense war on the vulnerable". This book attempts to answer the question how, how have we gotten here? Only when we begin to understand the complexity of how we got here, can we begin to make the necessary changes.
In order to repair the damage that has been done, we must craft a new set of frameworks for our economy, for our schools, for our justice system, for public housing. We must resist the power and persuasion of market values. We must reinvest in communities. We must imagine the world that is not yet.
September 6, 2020
A well executed overview of the ways state violence is perpetuated against America’s Black citizens. Hill uses infamous murders of Black people as catalysts for his historical analysis and breaking down of how we got here. Lots to learn. Well edited and not repetitive.
September 3, 2016
Marc Lamont Hill presents a lot of statistics and data along with copious notes to posit that Black people, by and large represent the collective Nobody. He uses the recent killings of African-Americans at the hands of the police to explore the policies and practices that have created and sustain this environment that allows for deadly force by paid officers when confronting the Black citizens of America. The book reads like a recent recap of the more prominent cases of police misconduct and brutality.
With the publication of this book, Marc seems to be announcing his coming out and claiming space as a public intellectual to be taken serious. The book is only 184 pages but serves as an adequate volley to staking his standing in that influential space.
The first chapter deals with the Ferguson, MO and the murder of Michael Brown, with a history of Ferguson and how given that history, the events leading to the murder of Brown can only be considered an inevitable clash. Chapter two takes us to Baltimore, MD and the Freddie Gray case, with a brief look into the Sandra Bland traffic stop, that ultimately led to the loss of her life. Ms. Bland ending up in jail behind a failure to signal a lane change, still baffles the rational mind.
So with each chapter, he uses a recent case to highlight the particular subject he wants to explore. For example chapter four entitled Armed, uses the Jordan Davis murder and the tragic Trayvon Martin assassination to talk about the proliferation of guns in the society and the lack of sensible gun laws. Funny, how in the lates sixties when Black groups were talking about arming themselves to combat police abuse, the conservatives and the NRA would have none of it. "I see no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons." That was then CA governor Ronald Reagan in 1967 voicing his opinion.
In chapter five, Caged, Marc Hill looks at the prison industrial complex in America and the misapplication of justice. Which has often meant Just-Us. Marc gives us an interesting, albeit brief history on how the ethic of punishment changed over time and has morphed into the horrible facilities that currently exist in America today.
Overall it isn't a bad book, but next time out it would be helpful for Marc Hill to give us some solutions to these various issues that confront the Nobody. A way forward from his perspective would have been helpful as a last chapter perhaps.
As one who remains sufficiently humbled by the power of words, I often wonder if others can approach a work such as this one; with one perspective and have his/her mind changed based on the information presented. I hold out hope that this is a possibility for all fair minded people because ultimately a changed mind will lead to changing actions leading to an improved society where Nobody could one day become somebody and eventually representative of anybody.
With the publication of this book, Marc seems to be announcing his coming out and claiming space as a public intellectual to be taken serious. The book is only 184 pages but serves as an adequate volley to staking his standing in that influential space.
The first chapter deals with the Ferguson, MO and the murder of Michael Brown, with a history of Ferguson and how given that history, the events leading to the murder of Brown can only be considered an inevitable clash. Chapter two takes us to Baltimore, MD and the Freddie Gray case, with a brief look into the Sandra Bland traffic stop, that ultimately led to the loss of her life. Ms. Bland ending up in jail behind a failure to signal a lane change, still baffles the rational mind.
So with each chapter, he uses a recent case to highlight the particular subject he wants to explore. For example chapter four entitled Armed, uses the Jordan Davis murder and the tragic Trayvon Martin assassination to talk about the proliferation of guns in the society and the lack of sensible gun laws. Funny, how in the lates sixties when Black groups were talking about arming themselves to combat police abuse, the conservatives and the NRA would have none of it. "I see no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons." That was then CA governor Ronald Reagan in 1967 voicing his opinion.
In chapter five, Caged, Marc Hill looks at the prison industrial complex in America and the misapplication of justice. Which has often meant Just-Us. Marc gives us an interesting, albeit brief history on how the ethic of punishment changed over time and has morphed into the horrible facilities that currently exist in America today.
Overall it isn't a bad book, but next time out it would be helpful for Marc Hill to give us some solutions to these various issues that confront the Nobody. A way forward from his perspective would have been helpful as a last chapter perhaps.
As one who remains sufficiently humbled by the power of words, I often wonder if others can approach a work such as this one; with one perspective and have his/her mind changed based on the information presented. I hold out hope that this is a possibility for all fair minded people because ultimately a changed mind will lead to changing actions leading to an improved society where Nobody could one day become somebody and eventually representative of anybody.
September 27, 2016
This book should be incorporated in to high school and college U.S. history curriculums across the nation. Marc Lamont Hill does an excellent job bringing to light the social, cultural and economic aspects of deeply rooted racism in America. While Hill cites a great number of statistics and empirical studies, he is careful to not lose sight of the humanity and vulnerability of the subject at hand.
December 4, 2016
I found very little new information in "Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable...", but I'm still very happy to have read it. Written and published before Trump's victory, the message in "Nobody" is even more ringing as we cope with the aftermath. We are a fractured society, but what we're sensing collectively isn't wrong. "What our current age is hiding is...troubling. No matter how many politicians try optimistically to mask the fact, manufacturing, as we have long known it, is over." For the disadvantaged, this means that the chance of being economically comfortable in one's lifetime is low, with an equally bleak forecast for future generations. Trump, one of the 1%, tapped into this deep and well-founded insecurity and played the LBJ card of: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." America's long history of racial divisiveness made this strategy a winner for him, and no doubt he'll be richer for it. The tragedy is that instead of unifying those of us who are losing out from our current global economic model, it has pitted us against each other on racial and political lines.
America has never been kind to people who are different, and it has taken us centuries to begin to shift. The problem is that we are still only beginning, something we lost sight of when Obama was elected. As Hill put it: "Maybe now, with a Black man in the White House, the American Empire was finally prepared to enter its much-desired post-racial era, in which race would no longer be a central organizing feature of our social world. As wrongheaded as the idea was then, it seems downright absurd today...[given the] racial, cultural, and economic divides that continue to starkly define American life well into the twenty-first century." (25-26). We as people contain implicit biases that color our every interaction, unconscious judgements based on clothes, speech affects, skin color, etc. These prejudices have been part of America since the beginning and are built into the foundation. By pretending otherwise, we do a tremendous disservice to communities of color and make it evermore impossible for us to make real change to a system that is only benefitting a few.
The biggest insight that I took from "Nobody" was that these systems which we live in, with their entrenched biases against people of color and the poor, are part of a dialogue that our country and its lawmakers have been having since its inception. Nowhere is it writ that things have to be this way, but in order to change them we need to be honest with ourselves that we don't live in a land of equality. Racism and classism are as alive and well, as they always have been, and only by acknowledging them can we begin re-defining the systems that are so broken that a large part of our country elected a man with a personality disorder to save them. Who is our government and our economy serving, who are law enforcement protecting, and are we willing to go along with it even if means that while we rest in comfort, others are suffering? "Make America Great Again" is a stupid slogan because America has never been great, not for all of its citizens. But we do have, as Americans, an optimism that we can continually make ourselves better, to be great. We just need to re-define what that means. I'm glad there are people like Marc Lamont Hill out there to galvanize us and make us question the way things are, because it is very easy to do nothing when you're not directly facing adversity.
America has never been kind to people who are different, and it has taken us centuries to begin to shift. The problem is that we are still only beginning, something we lost sight of when Obama was elected. As Hill put it: "Maybe now, with a Black man in the White House, the American Empire was finally prepared to enter its much-desired post-racial era, in which race would no longer be a central organizing feature of our social world. As wrongheaded as the idea was then, it seems downright absurd today...[given the] racial, cultural, and economic divides that continue to starkly define American life well into the twenty-first century." (25-26). We as people contain implicit biases that color our every interaction, unconscious judgements based on clothes, speech affects, skin color, etc. These prejudices have been part of America since the beginning and are built into the foundation. By pretending otherwise, we do a tremendous disservice to communities of color and make it evermore impossible for us to make real change to a system that is only benefitting a few.
The biggest insight that I took from "Nobody" was that these systems which we live in, with their entrenched biases against people of color and the poor, are part of a dialogue that our country and its lawmakers have been having since its inception. Nowhere is it writ that things have to be this way, but in order to change them we need to be honest with ourselves that we don't live in a land of equality. Racism and classism are as alive and well, as they always have been, and only by acknowledging them can we begin re-defining the systems that are so broken that a large part of our country elected a man with a personality disorder to save them. Who is our government and our economy serving, who are law enforcement protecting, and are we willing to go along with it even if means that while we rest in comfort, others are suffering? "Make America Great Again" is a stupid slogan because America has never been great, not for all of its citizens. But we do have, as Americans, an optimism that we can continually make ourselves better, to be great. We just need to re-define what that means. I'm glad there are people like Marc Lamont Hill out there to galvanize us and make us question the way things are, because it is very easy to do nothing when you're not directly facing adversity.
February 2, 2017
Social science is my thing. I totally nerd out. *cheesy grin*
I purchased this book for research purposes but reading it soothed a bit of an ache. I needed to be reminded now more than ever why having compassion isn't a bad thing. Why it's my responsibility as a citizen of the United States to care for vulnerable and underserved individuals who reside both inside and outside of my community. Marc Lamont Hill has done a fantastic job highlighting the social, cultural, and economic disparities that impact the lives of the vulnerable. Nobody is an impressive body of work.
For anyone who has ever found themselves saying, "Why does everything have to be about race?"
"I don't get why people protest; everyone is equal. We all have the same rights."
"I don't get why people can't pick themselves up by the bootstraps; I never had a handout."
"I don't get why Black Lives Matter is a thing, All Lives Matter. It's discrimination."
"I don't get why people just don't listen to the police and do as they're told," this book is for you.
I implore you to buy it or at least borrow it from your local library. Expand your thought process because things are not as cut and dry as you may believe.
There's a tidbit about our current president, Mitt Romney, and Rick Snyder. The portion of the book in which they're mentioned focuses on capitalism, privatization, and businesspeople infiltrating the government. I found this part fascinating:
"In the way that privatization separates government responsibilities from democratic accountability, the notion is flawed from its very conception. Businesses are not made to function for the public good. They are made to function for the good of profit. There is nothing inherently evil in that. In most cases, the profit motive will almost certainly lead to a more efficient and orderly execution of tasks. But it does not necessarily lead to equitable execution of tasks; indeed, it quite naturally resists an equitable execution of tasks. Furthermore, by injecting moneymaking into the relationship between a citizen and basic services of life—water, roads, electricity, and education—privatization distorts the social contract. People need to know that the decisions of the governments are being made with the common good as a priority. Anything else is not government; it is commerce."
Annnnnnd end scene.
5+ stars.
I purchased this book for research purposes but reading it soothed a bit of an ache. I needed to be reminded now more than ever why having compassion isn't a bad thing. Why it's my responsibility as a citizen of the United States to care for vulnerable and underserved individuals who reside both inside and outside of my community. Marc Lamont Hill has done a fantastic job highlighting the social, cultural, and economic disparities that impact the lives of the vulnerable. Nobody is an impressive body of work.
For anyone who has ever found themselves saying, "Why does everything have to be about race?"
"I don't get why people protest; everyone is equal. We all have the same rights."
"I don't get why people can't pick themselves up by the bootstraps; I never had a handout."
"I don't get why Black Lives Matter is a thing, All Lives Matter. It's discrimination."
"I don't get why people just don't listen to the police and do as they're told," this book is for you.
I implore you to buy it or at least borrow it from your local library. Expand your thought process because things are not as cut and dry as you may believe.
There's a tidbit about our current president, Mitt Romney, and Rick Snyder. The portion of the book in which they're mentioned focuses on capitalism, privatization, and businesspeople infiltrating the government. I found this part fascinating:
"In the way that privatization separates government responsibilities from democratic accountability, the notion is flawed from its very conception. Businesses are not made to function for the public good. They are made to function for the good of profit. There is nothing inherently evil in that. In most cases, the profit motive will almost certainly lead to a more efficient and orderly execution of tasks. But it does not necessarily lead to equitable execution of tasks; indeed, it quite naturally resists an equitable execution of tasks. Furthermore, by injecting moneymaking into the relationship between a citizen and basic services of life—water, roads, electricity, and education—privatization distorts the social contract. People need to know that the decisions of the governments are being made with the common good as a priority. Anything else is not government; it is commerce."
Annnnnnd end scene.
5+ stars.
March 10, 2019
I liked this book, but it did not feel like an original contribution. It was devastating and well-written, but it felt a bit scattered. It tried to cover so many recent events and their historic underpinnings.
May 5, 2018
Not an easy book to read by any stretch of the imagination as it talks about how American society has in many ways both overtly and through state sponsored laws allowed Blacks, Latinos, the poor, the mentally I'll and the LGBTQ community to become throw away people. But an important book about racial, social and economic injustice and the ways that we can combat these inequalities.
May 11, 2018
In "Nobody," Marc Lamont Hill addresses what has been called "disregard." Understanding that "hate" is too blunt and charged a term, this might describe a (mostly) passive, inhumane disinterest for one's fellow humans and citizens. In order to do this, you have to disregard their humanity: mostly this takes the form of ignoring their plight, but at times it calls on its sufferers to doubt the pain they express or the innocence they claim, to assume the best of their tormentors even against the weight of evidence.
That is the context in which MLH wants us to examine the horrifying string of modern day lynchings of black folks in the United States. He inveighs against our wormy bromides--self-defense is only a concept for white people; freedom means freedom from consequence for acting out on racist impulses; "broken windows," "prosecutorial discretion," and "stop and frisk" are nominally neutral and rational policies that in practice allow cops, judges, and prosecutors to enforce a modern Jim Crow, etc.--and challenges us to care about the lives people like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland led before they had their fatal run-ins with law enforcement. Chillingly, he asks us to ponder what their lives would have been like had they not lost their lives--would they have ended up caged and undignified in the penal system, anyway? Quarry for police and a begrudged burden for the government in their own country?
This book focuses on the list of names that have become all too familiar, and traces it from the Stepfordy 1950s, when people were perhaps too insulated from the poor and people of other races to really understand how bad it was for people of color, to the 1990s and 2000s, where whites across the political spectrum disbelieved or downplayed the suffering of black people, claiming they were exaggerating, or presuming (as cognitive bias studies show is common) that the darker person was the aggressor, to the present day, when we have videorecordings of everything from unarmed black people being gunned down in broad daylight to cops planting weapons on the body or not bothering to call for medical intervention when the life of a person of color is in mortal danger.
One would think that this would be enough for the doubting Thomases of the world, but it almost seems to have normalized these occurrences and exhausted their potential. If you care about the people victimized in this way, you're exasperated that the hecatomb of black bodies is not enough, and if you don't really care about the people being victimized, then no amount of frothy racial animus or unnecessary violence will convince you that this is something our country not only tolerates but actively promotes.
That is the context in which MLH wants us to examine the horrifying string of modern day lynchings of black folks in the United States. He inveighs against our wormy bromides--self-defense is only a concept for white people; freedom means freedom from consequence for acting out on racist impulses; "broken windows," "prosecutorial discretion," and "stop and frisk" are nominally neutral and rational policies that in practice allow cops, judges, and prosecutors to enforce a modern Jim Crow, etc.--and challenges us to care about the lives people like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland led before they had their fatal run-ins with law enforcement. Chillingly, he asks us to ponder what their lives would have been like had they not lost their lives--would they have ended up caged and undignified in the penal system, anyway? Quarry for police and a begrudged burden for the government in their own country?
This book focuses on the list of names that have become all too familiar, and traces it from the Stepfordy 1950s, when people were perhaps too insulated from the poor and people of other races to really understand how bad it was for people of color, to the 1990s and 2000s, where whites across the political spectrum disbelieved or downplayed the suffering of black people, claiming they were exaggerating, or presuming (as cognitive bias studies show is common) that the darker person was the aggressor, to the present day, when we have videorecordings of everything from unarmed black people being gunned down in broad daylight to cops planting weapons on the body or not bothering to call for medical intervention when the life of a person of color is in mortal danger.
One would think that this would be enough for the doubting Thomases of the world, but it almost seems to have normalized these occurrences and exhausted their potential. If you care about the people victimized in this way, you're exasperated that the hecatomb of black bodies is not enough, and if you don't really care about the people being victimized, then no amount of frothy racial animus or unnecessary violence will convince you that this is something our country not only tolerates but actively promotes.
February 5, 2019
I read this book to kick off my black history month TBR. And wow, this book packs a punch. Though it's only been a few years since many of the horrible, news-covered murders of people such as Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, this book serves as a serious reminder as to why people are angry and why we still need to be angry.
Hill analyzes the justice system, defenses, prosecutions, personal history, and laws surrounding each case. He deconstructs biases and offers insight as to how the general public learned to view such cases and how the general public came to recognize such victims as iconic for marches and movements, how these victims became sloganized. Not only that, but with many cases he delves into state history, such as the history of some states which still have capital punishment, who have slowly formed the Stand Your Ground laws, and whose cities were once booming places of economics only to today become considered as the "ghetto" or "slums".
He argues such a sensitive topic in a truly poignant way that educates and informs while not making any judgements towards his audience. Thanks to this book, I have a much better knowledge as to the politics surrounding many of the cases he highlights, and I also learned about many other, less publicized cases. Not only that, but he reminded me why it is that I was angry just a few years ago and why I still need to be just as angry and indignant.
This is a necessary book to read, and it's a book that you will not regret reading.
Review cross-listed here!
Hill analyzes the justice system, defenses, prosecutions, personal history, and laws surrounding each case. He deconstructs biases and offers insight as to how the general public learned to view such cases and how the general public came to recognize such victims as iconic for marches and movements, how these victims became sloganized. Not only that, but with many cases he delves into state history, such as the history of some states which still have capital punishment, who have slowly formed the Stand Your Ground laws, and whose cities were once booming places of economics only to today become considered as the "ghetto" or "slums".
He argues such a sensitive topic in a truly poignant way that educates and informs while not making any judgements towards his audience. Thanks to this book, I have a much better knowledge as to the politics surrounding many of the cases he highlights, and I also learned about many other, less publicized cases. Not only that, but he reminded me why it is that I was angry just a few years ago and why I still need to be just as angry and indignant.
This is a necessary book to read, and it's a book that you will not regret reading.
Review cross-listed here!
May 13, 2017
This. Book.
"Nobody" is one of the few books I've read that's been so recent, it was almost a refresher of what I'd already witnessed play out online and on television. To hear each of account in detail - the death of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, and more - with a road map to trace back how these scenarios aren't just one-off occurrences was eye-opening. So much so, that I truly feel this book should be required reading from now on in schools because of how honest and straightforward it is about our current state as a country and how we got here. I've learned more from Marc Lamont Hill's in-depth analysis of "broken window policies", how the criminal justice system works, how the economy has taken such a disturbing turn, and more than I have EVER learned from ANY history class in high school (and I was in A.P. classes) and during my undergraduate.
Everyone needs to read this book. It's so important. I assure you that you will feel as floored as I am at the whole system of this country and want to demand change as much as I do.
"Nobody" is one of the few books I've read that's been so recent, it was almost a refresher of what I'd already witnessed play out online and on television. To hear each of account in detail - the death of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, and more - with a road map to trace back how these scenarios aren't just one-off occurrences was eye-opening. So much so, that I truly feel this book should be required reading from now on in schools because of how honest and straightforward it is about our current state as a country and how we got here. I've learned more from Marc Lamont Hill's in-depth analysis of "broken window policies", how the criminal justice system works, how the economy has taken such a disturbing turn, and more than I have EVER learned from ANY history class in high school (and I was in A.P. classes) and during my undergraduate.
Everyone needs to read this book. It's so important. I assure you that you will feel as floored as I am at the whole system of this country and want to demand change as much as I do.
June 27, 2019
Thought provoking, insightful, and oh so important, this book had even more meaning for me just because as I read I drew off of my own life experience and that of my family, my friends, my people. Marc Lamont Hill did a wonderful job writing this and shedding light on the often forgotten ramifications of these horrific acts to the community, oftentimes well after the initial catastrophe has occurred and everyone has "moved on". If I had to critique one thing, it would be that Hill seemed to have bitten off more than he could chew (which in and of itself is a shame considering this book's subject matter) and that as a result certain events didn't get the weight or attention that they deserved. However, that is an almost trivial complaint compared to the rest of a very good book that will leave you thinking long after you've finished the last page.
October 18, 2016
I liked this one, and there's certainly a lot of value here. I was hoping for more focus on Flint, as I feel that that story has been really underreported, but that only came with about 30 pages left to go in the book. I did appreciate the deeper context given to the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and Freddie Gray in particular. Other than that, I think Michelle Alexander told the story of mass incarceration and forgotten American communities better. If more of the book had been devoted to Flint I'd probably feel differently.
July 5, 2020
This book is exactly what I'd wanted: lots of data and examples and historical context and ideas about why civil rights are such a hot mess right now. This really brings civil rights issues out of the 60s and up to the present, being written during the 2016 presidential campaign. This covers, but goes much deeper than, police brutality. Take the time. Also, it's not nearly as long as it looks-about 45% of the book is footnotes and an index. Thank you, Dr Hill, for thanking the time!
June 15, 2023
yawn fest
August 12, 2016
This is a more thorough than average take on the incidents of police brutality that led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, but if you've read enough books, articles and what have you on the topic chances are that there's very little here that you haven't already heard before. But if you've been living under a rock, or locked up or in a coma or whatever, this is the one to get—other than No Country for Black Men, natch.
It tells the story of incidents like the Mike Brown shooting, Eric Garner getting choked out, Freddie Gray, so on and so forth, which you could have already seen on the news, but then it goes a step further to break down the sociological factors that led to them being in that situation in the first place. It's thorough without being overly long or academic, and it's sympathetic to the victims without buying into some of the more BS narratives that have emerged from these incidents.
It tells the story of incidents like the Mike Brown shooting, Eric Garner getting choked out, Freddie Gray, so on and so forth, which you could have already seen on the news, but then it goes a step further to break down the sociological factors that led to them being in that situation in the first place. It's thorough without being overly long or academic, and it's sympathetic to the victims without buying into some of the more BS narratives that have emerged from these incidents.
June 6, 2020
Did you know we have FOR PROFIT PRISONS in our prison system? So people are making money by making sure people get arrested. If that doesn’t make you mad... it should.
This was a really good and important read. I majored in sociology with an emphasis in criminology so this was completely up my ally and this felt like it connected a lot of dots things I learned about in college and it was focused on the disadvantages that POC experience. I think it’s a very important read and I would absolutely recommend it to everyone.
A quote that hit me “It’s a simple dynamic, gather up all unwanted, unnecessary peoples, anyone who poses a threat to the commanding social order to the hyper individualism of our market driven times, anyone’s who’s very presence might force us to consider a shared public responsibility or an expansion of the social safety net, and put them in a cage where they will be invisible to the rest of us. We do not want to know that the vulnerable exist”
This was a really good and important read. I majored in sociology with an emphasis in criminology so this was completely up my ally and this felt like it connected a lot of dots things I learned about in college and it was focused on the disadvantages that POC experience. I think it’s a very important read and I would absolutely recommend it to everyone.
A quote that hit me “It’s a simple dynamic, gather up all unwanted, unnecessary peoples, anyone who poses a threat to the commanding social order to the hyper individualism of our market driven times, anyone’s who’s very presence might force us to consider a shared public responsibility or an expansion of the social safety net, and put them in a cage where they will be invisible to the rest of us. We do not want to know that the vulnerable exist”
August 8, 2016
Hill writes with a grave, urgency in a deeply-researched accounting of the wars on our home soil: War on Crime, War on Drugs, and War on Terror - and how those wars have created the injustice experienced today by the vulnerable. He has given me a deeper understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement - a cry to "see" me as a somebody, not a nobody.
He names Michael Eric Dyson as an important mentor and I see it in his writing. These men are important scholars and voices in the 21st century and must be read.
He names Michael Eric Dyson as an important mentor and I see it in his writing. These men are important scholars and voices in the 21st century and must be read.
July 11, 2017
"The sense that we all occupy the same community has been eroded, and in its place we witness the gross exaltation of the individual, the discrediting of social welfare as nothing more than a 'nanny state,' the 'privatization of risk,' and a message that if you are living on the underside of the American economy, it is no one's fault but your own."
June 30, 2020
A recollection of some of the atrocities that have to the "Nobodies" mostly black, many poor. Just the first of my reading on this issue.
July 15, 2023
Eye.Opening. This book took a while to read. It had so much information in it that I felt I couldn’t do it justice if I didn’t take time to digest almost every mind-blowing paragraph. In that same respect, it was very wordy and challenging to read at times. But I was determined this book was a necessary social/civil justice read and I’m glad I stuck with it.
January 4, 2025
This book was fantastic. I think it is a very accessible way for people to begin learning about America's history. He weaves the past and present together to show the historical and judicial ways we ended up in these situations. It was a fairly short book for such a complicated topic, but I think that was a good thing to get people who may not otherwise read a book like this to pick it up.
January 21, 2025
I hung on every word. At first I thought this book was "just" about prominent police brutality cases, but it grew to a tapestry of injustice reaching further than I could have imagined. One of the most educational and radicalizing books I have ever read. The only bad thing I have to say about this book is it is so incredibly bleak and sad.
March 24, 2019
As a naive, white female, I just looked at the headlines of all the injustice in the America I call home. This book opened my eyes to so many details the headlines, purposefully, left out. Everyone in America, White especially, should absolutely read.
February 10, 2017
An important primer on the ways that America has marginalised huge portions of its population through government and private institutions that perpetuate inequality. Difficult but essential reading.
October 6, 2017
Making the case for intersectionality!
October 19, 2019
Powerful, clear, and should be taught in all American History classrooms. Published just before the "election" of the orange guy, I'd be very interested in an update addressing changes since then.
January 11, 2020
A must read. Great book
June 15, 2020
None of Our problems have been fixed. We just keep rolling over the same old ground.
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