Allow me to Retort : : a Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution

Locations
Call Number: 342.73 My, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Mystal, Elie, Black Studies 342.73 My
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	342.73 My	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Mystal, Elie	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Black Studies 342.73 My	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Mystal, Elie	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024

Introduction -- Canceling trash people is not a constitutional crisis -- Bigotry is illegal even if you've been ordered to by Jesus -- Everything you know about the Second Amendment is wrong -- Stop frisking me -- Attack dogs are not reasonable -- Illegitimate use of force should be illegal -- Stopping police brutality -- It says what it says -- The taking of black land -- A jury of your white peers -- It's not unusual to be cruel -- The most important part -- Conservative kryptonite -- Reverse racism is not a thing -- The rule that may or may not exist -- The abortion chapter -- You know this thing can be amended, right? -- The right to vote shall be abridged all the damn time -- What if your vote actually didn't matter? -- Abolish the Electoral College -- The final battle.
"According to commentator and lawyer Elie Mystal, Republicans are wrong when they tell you the First Amendment allows religious fundamentalists to discriminate against gay people who like cake. They're wrong when they tell you the Second Amendment protects the right to own a private arsenal. They're wrong when they say the death penalty isn't cruel or unusual punishment, and they're wrong when they tell you we have no legal remedies for the scourge of police violence against people of color. In fact, Mystal argues, Republicans are wrong about the law almost all of the time, and now, instead of talking about this on cable news, Mystal explains why in his first book"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A screed. submitted by GJBarnett2 on March 18, 2022, 6:02pm First page: “Our Constitution is … designed to create … enduring white male dominance … hastily edited … to allow for what basis political rights white men could be convinced to share.” … [t]he Constitution is actually trash… actual monsters who were trying to protect their rights to rape the humans they held in bondage.” Thens it gets nasty. Spare yourself the rest. Hardly surprising to realize the author is one of MSNBC's shining stars.

Worth your time submitted by srlorand on August 11, 2022, 6:50pm If you're looking for a refreshing antidote to uncritical adulation of the US Constitution, start here. Many of us learned in school about one of the injustices written into it, the Three-fifths Compromise. The author, a former lawyer, uses colorful and blunt language (which may offend some readers) for his lively, incisive, expert analysis. You may be shocked by some of the assertions in the introduction, but history justifies every bit of anger the author expresses, particularly over how amendments that should have guaranteed civil and human rights to all have in practice been defanged.
You might expect a detailed examination of most of the amendments constituting the Bill of Rights, as well as the critically important post–Civil War amendments 13, 14, and 15, and the history of their interpretation and application (or lack thereof) to be a slow, dense, difficult read, but it's not. This book is a page-turner -- and will occasionally even make you laugh. Twelve pages of notes support the author's arguments, despite the lack of footnote numbers.
Highly recommended.