... after finishing Elliott Currie’s A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America a smart, timely, deeply disturbing and essential book by a veteran scholar and leading expert on the criminal legal system, I realized that the details of every precious life harmed or lost this summer reveal a bigger truth about the nation ... Currie’s book is the first comprehensive study to present a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed research — a study of studies — showing how anti-Black racism in the form of state and private violence upholds 'an essentially exploitative and discriminatory social order.'
Sometimes the books delivering the most chilling message can be the most hopeful. These are the authors who are clear-eyed about the problem they are addressing while also refusing to throw their hands up in despair. They want to both level with the reader and provide real-world answers. It's a difficult balancing act, but one that authors like Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Currie pull off ... an infuriatingly necessary read ... While Currie shares the depth of Du Bois' concern, he does not indulge in polemics. An academic sociologist and criminologist who serves up tranches of data to support his points, Currie lets numbers, rather than rhetoric, do the work. And what his numbers show is a crisis with no signs of abating. Especially as long as the country turns a blind eye to it.
A deep exploration of why Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by violence and what can be done about it ... Criminologist Currie documents our 'national failure' to take action and address the root causes of the violence in Black communities ... Currie’s book paints a heartbreaking picture, but it also makes an urgent case for bold measures to turn the tide in Black communities. A damning examination of violence in Black America and a call for intervention that is long overdue.
Criminologist Currie (The Roots of Danger) laments the lack of attention paid to disproportionately high rates of violent death and injury among African Americans in this disturbing evidence-based account ... Though sincere and persuasive in his efforts to document and explain the challenges faced by urban Black Americans, Currie’s suggestions for reform, including stricter gun control and a rethinking of incarceration, are well-worn. Still, this is an informative and well-intentioned overview of an ongoing crisis in America.
