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In The New York Times Book Review, Khalil Gibran Muhammad reviews Michael Javen Fortner’s “Black Silent Majority: The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of Punishment.” Mr. Muhammad writes:
In the end, it is undoubtedly true that black people dislike criminal behavior. But to say, as Fortner does, that working- and middle-class black folks “renounced racial ties and denounced previously held progressive beliefs” in the 1960s because of crime victimization overstates the case and oversimplifies black life. Black people despair and hope, crave vengeance and forgive, seek security and justice — sometimes all at once and almost always beyond the reach of the bulk of evidence, consisting of news stories and survey results, presented here. Given a real choice between a war on poverty and a war on drugs, most would have chosen better economic policy over militarized policing. Instead the only choice was fewer cops and fewer prisons or more cops and more prisons.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Muhammad talks about “Black Silent Majority”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Hanna Rosin discusses David Brock’s “Killing the Messenger: The Right-Wing Plot to Derail Hillary and Hijack Your Government”; feedback from readers; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.