The Condemnation of Blackness

For a very select audience

This book isn’t exactly what i was expecting. It’s not really designed for a broad audience. The book provides an incredibly detailed (perhaps excruciating) history of how black crime statistics in the US were interpreted. It starts with the 1890 census and slowly works forward about 50 years (although the main focus is on 1890-1920). The book sticks very carefully to reviewing the history of thought in sociology and criminology. If you are writing a PhD thesis in either of these topics, the book will be interesting to you. But I would not recommend to a broader audience. The simple point - high rates of black incarceration reflect racist society, NOT that black people are inherently or culturally more prone to commit crime does not need all this detail. There is also a very large chunk of the book that focuses on the different help given to black southern immigrants vs European immigrants in Philadelphia. It’s a great case study, but it’s extremely dry and really goes into more details than most people could possibly want. The author rarely speaks actively and only occasionally draws together the lessons from his work. It is instead a carful retelling of an impressive set of primary sources. I don’t disagree with the books analysis but it just didn’t feel like I was reading a book for a broad non-academic audience.

The narrator is clear but didn’t help bring the book to life. A fairly dry monotone added to my frustration. Given the dispassionate language with which the book is written, it’s not obvious he had much opportunity to do more.

So in conclusion, it’s an impressive piece of work on an important topic. Just ask yourself if this is the kind of book you are after.

35 people found this helpful

This is a great book .

It was very informative and I really enjoyed it. It is definitely a worthwhile read

4 people found this helpful

Shocking & Informative!

This was a great study from Gibran Muhammad. I loved the amount of information and study done here. This is a book that should be taught in schools, and vital for understanding the lives of blacks in America.

1 person found this helpful

Great Read

Very informative and detailed historical account of the racist sentiments of the dominant white American society from Emancipation through The Reconstruction period. This book makes a clear correlation between media publications take on race relations then and now with published writtings and incidents involving excessive force from the police, as well as organizations within the black community working to correct some of the public perception of what was deemed by opponents of black progress as 'Black Crime'.

1 person found this helpful

a little dry but indispensable

I'll admit I struggled to get through a few chapters about a third of the way in but overall I think they were necessary in order to highlight the importance of, and give context to, the last half of the book.

Beautifully Written

Everyone needs to read this book, in fact, this book should be a required text and taught in schools.