State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built

by Tamika D. Mallory, others (Read by), Angela Y. Davis (Foreword by), Linda Sarsour (Read by), Cardi B (Foreword by)

Overview

From Tamika D. Mallory, trailblazing social justice leader, movement strategist, globally recognized civil rights activist, and cofounder of the historic Women’s March on Washington and Until Freedom comes an unflinching history of American systemic racism, a first-hand view of what makes for effective activism today, and a vision for lasting, positive change.

In the wake of the recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, the nation has erupted in a series of protests. Now, civil rights activist Tamika Mallory traces the path of history that has brought the United States to this tense and complex time of activism and resistance. With clear, concise language and eye-opening examples from our nation’s past, Tamika Mallory examines the people and policies that have created the country’s militarized and racially biased systems of criminal justice, social services, and economic policy. Based on her personal experience of working to promote equality, Mallory also offers accessible and inspirational guidance that shows how to effectively fight for positive change in a country that has never seen a wider gap between its wealthy and its poor, its empowered and its marginalized, or its citizenry and its ruling class of police and politicians.

Steeped in history and informed by in-depth investigative research and on-the-ground reporting, State of Emergency is a fresh take on racial justice and an urgent call to action.

An Atria Book. Atria Books has a great book for every listener.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797123998
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Tamika D. Mallory is a trailblazing social justice leader, movement strategist, and globally recognized civil rights activist. Mallory is an expert in the areas of gun violence prevention, criminal justice reform, and grassroots organizing.

Others, as in, not you

Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine. She is the author of several books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is the subject of the acclaimed documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Linda Sarsour is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, community organizer, and mother of three. She is a Palestinian-Muslim-American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and the cofounder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPower Change. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading force of activists, artists, youths, and formerly incarcerated individuals committed to criminal justice reform through direct action and policy advocacy.

Sarsour served as national cochair of the largest single day protest in US history, the Women’s March on Washington. She has been named amongst 500 of the most influential Muslims in the world. She has won numerous awards including Champion of Change from the Obama Administration, one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders and featured as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She is a frequent media commentator on issues impacting Muslim communities, Middle East affairs, and criminal justice reform and most recognized for her transformative intersectional organizing work and movement building.

Table of Contents

Foreword Cardi B xi

Angela Y. Davis xv

Prologue Tamika D. Mallory xxiii

Section 1 How We Got Here

1 Our Moment 1

2 Legacy of an Activist 11

3 Justice is Not a Comfortable Fight 33

4 The Rules 41

Section 2 Where We Are

5 The U.S. vs. Black America 59

6 The Roots of Rebellion 85

7 Say All Their Names 97

8 No Way Out 105

Section 3 Where We're Going

9 Defund the Police 119

10 Harnessing the Power of Our Voice 131

11 Other Strategies for Change 147

12 Equal Justice Under the Law 175

13 Cannot Stand 183

14 Vote and Build 189

15 The Fight Is Not Yet Won 205

Acknowledgments 217

Notes 221

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

03/29/2021

Women’s March cofounder Mallory debuts with an impassioned look at racial injustice in America. Though Mallory was raised by activist parents in a Harlem public housing project, it wasn’t until the murder of her son’s father in 2001 that she began “to connect the dots between the violence in my community and the violence of the system around that community.” She explains how institutional racism and poverty can lead to involvement with drugs and guns (“tools of self-destruction are put in the hands of young Black men more often than any schoolbooks”), and sketches the history of “systemic oppression” in the U.S. from the slave era to the “war on drugs.” (“It’s often speculated,” she writes, that the CIA funded Nicaragua’s Contra rebels with proceeds from the sale of crack cocaine in Black neighborhoods.) Mallory also discusses the Central Park Five case and the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and advises readers on what to bring to a protest and how to “speak with your wallet.” Shifting between outrage, hope, and resolute determination, this call to action will resonate with readers already fighting for racial justice, as well as those looking to join the movement. Agent: Marc Gerald, Europa Content. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An urgent call for racial justice that demands attention, discussion, and action.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Mallory gives readers the tools they need to fight injustice and find a pathway towards true freedom."
— Marie Claire

“Shifting between outrage, hope, and resolute determination, this call to action will resonate with readers already fighting for racial justice, as well as those looking to join the movement.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Mallory provides a history of racism in the U.S. as well as equity-centered pathways forward.”
— Ms. Magazine

From the Publisher

★ 2021-03-09
Activist and organizer Mallory sounds an alarm against complacency now that a new administration is in the White House.

American history has been full of terrible moments for Black people, but one of particularly pressing importance happened recently. “To wake up on January 6, 2021,” writes the author, “to see a noose hanging in front of the United States Capitol while domestic terrorists breached the complex where our congressional leaders met to legislate, was paralyzing.” Paralyzing but not unexpected: Mallory’s next thought was, “Wow, they finally did it.” The Trump administration, whose leader fomented the revolt, is gone, but the enemies of Black progress remain. Against that, writes the author, “it is not enough to be nonracist.” Black activists and their White allies—who are welcome if they are “careful not to try to own the fight”—must commit to being anti-racist, to constantly combat racism and its exponents. Mallory delivers a series of rules that one wishes were ironic: “Don’t talk back,” reads one, since the consequence is that “You will be deemed dangerous,” while another counsels not to wear a hoodie. Because “my undiluted Blackness is worth fighting for,” the author urges a well-organized movement of resistance that involves, among other tenets, stopping to record every encounter of Black persons and the police, taking down names and badge numbers and filing complaints. Despite her well-thought-through program, which concludes with the rule “Be unapologetic about your Blackness until they respect it,” Mallory calls herself a contributor to and not a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement (she also co-founded the Women’s March on Washington), a movement whose necessity remains self-evident even with the new Biden-Harris presidency: “They must turn over the soil in order to grow a new political landscape for us all.” This is the first book from the Black Privilege imprint, led by radio and TV personality Charlamagne Tha God.

An urgent call for racial justice that demands attention, discussion, and action.

Kirkus Reviews