The Devil you Know : : a Black Power Manifesto

Locations
Call Number: 323.119 Bl, Black Studies 323.119 Bl, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Race & Ethnicity / Blow, Charles M.
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	323.119 Bl	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Black Studies 323.119 Bl	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Race & Ethnicity / Blow, Charles M.	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Race & Ethnicity / Blow, Charles M.	4-week checkout	On Shelf

The New York Times columnist presents a rallying call to action that challenges popular myths about race and urges Black Americans to unite against white supremacy.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Too many unanswered questions to consider the main thesis submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 31, 2021, 10:07pm Blow is very clear that he doesn’t care what White people think about his thesis, which is that young Black people should move from Great Migration destination cities back to the South in order to have numerical majorities to win back Senate seats and gain political power. OK, fine. But Mr. Blow, your book is available in stores and libraries, which means that it’s actually out in the world for anyone to read and remark on, so while you certain don’t need to care what I think, I do get to share my opinion.

I have no idea whether the core of Blow’s idea is a good one or not (i.e. whether it is the moral obligation of young Black people to move back to the states their families historically come from in order to create political power for the Black community), but I do think that he misses SO many relevant parts of the argument/discussion that it’s impossible to look at his question.

First, Blow bases his political argument solely on the Senate and completely ignores the House. While obviously it takes both chambers to pass legislation, this myopic view of the Legislative branch that ignores the effects of gerrymandering and disenfranchisement leaves me stunned. Second, he mentions late in the book that 6 million Black people live in majority Black communities… and then does not discuss anything about what those communities have achieved politically. If he is going to argue that some huge portion of the US population should move to achieve political goals, I believe he should tell us what achievements people in similar (even if smaller) communities have already achieved. If he can’t do that… if those communities aren’t achieving the kind of goals he is arguing for… then the answer is voter enfranchisement, greater civic engagement, and community organizing on local scales. Basically, show us proof of concept in places where these communities already exist, or use resources in different ways.

Blow spends a good portion of the book arguing for the Black connection to the South, and laying out the case that there is more racism in the North than people think there is. He says that he will never excuse the South, but (essentially) ‘really, have you seen how bad the North is’ (there’s a set of this around page 60)? And yet for all his examples of Black people being targeted (individually or by policy) in the North, he conveniently never names Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting in Georgia (but we get an interview with Tamir Rice’s mother (Cleveland) and hear about Eric Garner (NYC), George Floyd (MN), and many more who are all conveniently not in the South). He said at one point that during the Great Migration, Black people moved North because the South had individual racism, but not embedded systems like the North now does, pointing out police violence. Police violence is real, critical, and must be stopped, but what does he think literacy tests and poll taxes were? What were the police but system-endorsed violence? What were lynchings? Bull Connor and the Klan weren’t individuals; they were the system run amok.

Blow ignores that the US will soon be a majority minority country (particularly in younger age brackets). He ignores the changes in voting trends in the last two elections in ages and race and how that is already changing the country (look at Democratic Party representation). He ignores the devastating role that the Republican Party is having on voting rights at Federal, state, and local levels, and that gerrymandering has had for decades. Instead he wants to uproot people who have homes, leave behind the old and young (a complaint he had about the Great Migration), and bring them South where there are not currently jobs for as many as he would encourage. He disparages hope, ignoring the fact that hope is what galvanized the Modern Civil Rights Movement and kept (and keeps!) activists getting up each morning. Hope isn’t blind faith in an unseen future. Hope is the belief that if we do the work, we’ll build it together. I cannot imagine how he misses that. The Living Legacy Project has Civil Rights leaders (former and current) who Blow needs to talk to.

Charles Blow doesn’t care what I think. He’s crystal clear about that. That’s fine. But I hope somebody is asking him some hard questions about his idea, because this book feels like a think-piece column gone wrong.