Get Your Knee Off Our Necks : From Slavery to Black Lives Matter

The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and the ensuing trial of Derek Chauvin for murder a year later has rubbed raw the bloodiest stain on the United States’ history and its world reputation. The nine minutes and 29 seconds during which Chauvin’s knee crushed the spark of life out of Floyd was not unusual in the history of the United States. Before the U.S. Civil War, slaves were routinely beaten to death for disobeying orders or running away, then often lynched. In roughly two centuries, Blacks have achieved nominal freedom. But, as this book’s opening chapter and expert essays that follow indicate, freedom has been conditional based on inequity of wealth, social, and legal discrimination. None of this is new in the United States; what is new is the number of people rising up in protest, a figure in the millions around the world after Floyd’s murder. This book supplies a readable, scholarly account of recent issues in race and racism in the United States that will be useful for general readers, undergraduate students, and their professors. It will be useful in many fields, including Black studies, other ethnic pursuits, United States history, law, criminal justice, intercultural communication, et al. The work contains a powerful historical narrative followed by several important, essays on subjects including George Floyd’s murder, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and many other victims of systematic racism. Contents Introduction 1: “I Can’t Breathe:” Dying While Black in America: Today’s Lynchings and Ending the Heritage of Slavery Quit Harassing Black People “for Petty-Ass Shit” A Family’s Story Blacks and Mass Incarceration Torture by Temperature Prejudice May Wear a Black Robe The Engrained Nature of U.S. Racism Criminalization of Black Peoples George Floyd’s Murder Lights a Fuse Seattle’s “No Cop Co-op” “We All Breathe the Same Air” Demonstrations Grow Worldwide Symbols and Stereotypes Police Killings Continue The Death of Breonna Taylor The Killing of Eligah McClain Naming and Shaming: Images and Words of Racism Come Down Statues Fall in Europe Marches in Portland, Oregon Night After Night, Month After Month Trump Casts Himself on Mount Rushmore Was It a Gun, a Cell Phone, or a Subway Sandwich? The Black Wall Street: The First Bombing of Americans by Americans Police Behavior: Life, Death, and Little Change A Statistical Interlude “Believe Your Eyes: It’s Homicide” The Police Chief Takes the Stand A Demand for Complete Submission Hard-earned Justice References 2: The Perils of Populism, Racism, and Sexism: The Trump Lesson Plan for African Americans and Women Historical Perspective on Populism The Rise of Trump’s Populism Trump Attitude toward African Americans and Women: Populism or Hatred 2.0? When People Show You Who They Are Is This Presidential? Rock-bottom Ratings from Black Women Lesson Learned? Conclusion References 3: Penal Populism: The End of Reason Introduction Punishment, Reason and Anti-reason Explaining the Rise of Penal Populism Legitimacy Deficits and the Rise of Populist Politics “An Abrupt and Ugly End” References 4: White Supremacy and the Politics of Race Introduction Barack Obama’s Election in 2008 Did Not Lift the United States from Its Racist Past Racial Politics in U.S. History Republicans, Democrats, and an Unexpected Political Realignment Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and Street Chaos The Timeline to Barack Obama George W. Bush, 9-11, Obama, and the Centuries-Old Struggle for Racial Equality Racist Rhetoric Against Obama in High Gear The Tea Party and White Extinction Anxiety References 5: The Civil Rights Movement in Urban Microcosm: Omaha, Nebraska Omaha’s Enduring Black Community Eruptions of Racial Violence Segregation Becomes More Severe Following Riots Civil-rights and Economic Issues Spark Tensions after World War II State Senator Ernie Chambers’ Unique Role in Nebraska State Politics Chronology: Omaha’s Black Community Statistical Overview of Omaha’s Black Community and Related Subjects Standing Bear: My Blood Runs Red, Just Like Yours Whiteclay, Nebraska: The Economics of Keeping American Indians Drunk Mosques on the Prairie References 6: Blackfacing, White Shaming, and Yellow Journalism: A Jaundiced View of How Contemporary PC Erodes First Amendment Principles “Blackfacing” and Its Progeny “White Shaming” Yellow Journalism References 7: In the Spirit of Queen Araweelo: An Analysis of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Disruption of Nativism and White Supremacy Cultural and Feminist Context Queen Araweelo Intersectional Feminism Who Is Ilhan Omar? Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Somali Community Why Ilhan Omar Upsets the Status Quo White Supremacy Nativism Double Patriarchy U.S.–Israeli Relations and Policies Islamophobia, Xenophobia and Terrorist Stereotypes In the Spirit of Queen Araweelo References 8: Australia: Tainted Blood—Scientific Racism, Eugenics and Sanctimonious Treatments of Aboriginal Australians: 1869–2008 9: Brazil and Australia: Indigenous Peoples and the Fires This Time Brazil’s Wild Northwest Deforestation Slows, then Accelerates Again Wildfires and Greenhouse Gases Forests to Ashes Carbon Sink to Carbon Source: Scientific Work The Amazon Valley in the World Trade Web Cities Grow as the Rainforest Withers Gold Mining’s Role in Deforestation Bolsonaro in Political Quicksand Deforestation of the Amazon Valley: It Is Not Only Brazil Wildfires Envelop Australia Devastation of Plants and Animals The Politics of Smoke and Fires “A Blast Furnace” and “Firenadoes” Fires Roll Through Villages A Second Time Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Has Been Moved to Current Affairs The Fires Next Time References 10: Though the Heavens Should Fall: The Mansfield Decision (1772) Bibliography Index