when they call you a terrorist, by Patrisse Cullors, one of the three founders of the Black Lives Matter (BML) movement. Writer Asha Bandele helped Cullors and I'm guessing that she is is probably the creator of some of the edgy, neatly-put-together prose. Part One, All the bones I could find, is Patrisse Cullors's early life story. Part Two, Black Lives Matter, while still highly personal, focusses more on how the BLM movement came to be. Read it allPerhaps when you pick up the book, (if this post persuades you to read it) you'll be tempted to skip the early chapters and hurry on to the Black Lives Matter story. But please don't. Please read Part One because it is pivotal to understanding why Cullors is what she is and does what she does. If you are white and not short of a square meal, you won't be able to read the Patrisse story without flinching many times at the impoverishment, injustice and cruelty. If your are coloured or black, I imagine that you'll say, "Yeah, that's what its like." Scared behind the gateCullors talks in Chapter 1 about where she lives when she is 6-9 years old: 'in one of ten Section 8 apartments in a two-story tan-colored building where the paint is peeling and where there is a gate that does not close properly and an intercom system that never works properly.' So here is a central theme of the book – living with the uncouth prejudicial behaviour of the police. No expansive homes, no careerTwo more defining early paragraphs set the scene. Cullors starts by contrasting the next door suburb. MoreFamilial discovery and turmoil; school and its colour challenges; sexual definition and its consequences; abandonment of religious affiliation and subsequent theological and philosophic search – ("I set out to find God to find my spirit, to find myself"): all these bewilderments are vigorously, pungently, frankly and powerfully narrated through the rest of Part 1. Towards Black Lives MatterPart Two, Black Lives Matter (BML), opens with Chapter 8, Zero Dark Thirty: The Remix. It's dark all right – very dark. This narrative, a trigger for the formation of BLM, details what one commentator has called the 'brutalisation' by the police, of Monte, Patrisse's elder brother who suffers from schizoaffective disorder. And it is appalling. I read it and felt ill. Arrest for something he didn't do; 23 hours a day in isolation; beatings; no family contact, and so on. Read it if you wish. Ethnic killings and relationship changesKillings of black people and Patrisse's own love journey carry the rest of the book forward. Trayvon Martin was killed by a community appointed security officer. Two years later Michael Brown was shot by the police in Ferguson. The anger over these sorts of incidents caused black rage and brought together people like Cullors, Garza and Tometei who had leadership and persuasive skills. At the same time Cullors tells us very openly about the closing of her long time love relationship with cisgender male Mark Anthony Johnson and the beginning of a new affection with Future (genderqueer, pronouns they/theirs/them; given name Janaya Khan) the co-founder of BLM Toronto. Staying in the fightTowards the end of her story, in Chapter 16, When They Call You A Terrorist, Cullors says: An eyeopenerI only came to know about BLM after the death of George Floyd – a happening that post-dates this book. (Click here for the Wikipedia article.) That's when we began seeing pictures of sports team members dropping on one knee as symbols of support. That's when outrage began to go global. I wondered where the impetus came from, so when, just recently, I came across this book in a library list I decided to download it and read it. I'm glad I did. I hope you will read it too. Patrisse Cullors is impressive and she is not a terrorist. □ John McInnes Friday 26 March 2021 Book details: When They Call You A Terrorist: digital edition; Cannogate Books, Edinburgh eISBN 978 1 78689 304 8 – as pictured left above ##########
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