Charles Blow's own declaration of radical thought — for Black Americans to reconsider their Great Migration North and imagine new possibilities of Black political might ... Blow's main point is this: Racism is everywhere — it's just about what kind of racism you can live with. And for Blow, Southern racism is preferable to its Northern cousin. In cogent arguments bound together by his customary incandescent prose, Blow explores how the white backlash towards the Great Migration that never really ended has created a situation where racism in these Northern 'destination cities' of the Great Migration makes life untenable for Black Americans. Through research undertaken by Project Implicit, Blow found there is no difference between anti-Black bias in the North and the South. There are only the ideas that people will admit to out loud. In other words, writes Blow, 'white people outside the South say the right words but many possess the same bigotry.' ... Weaving together deeply thought out analysis and in-depth sociological and historical research, Blow details how, as Black folks migrated North, 'white people in Chicago found a way to formalize and ensure segregation: restrictive covenants' that made Black people unable to lease, buy, or even use property in certain areas of the city ... It is also important to note the space Blow gives here to Black women social justice leaders who are often ignored, spending time with the mothers of the murdered black children — Samaria Rice, Sybrina Fulton; honoring the work of the great Shirley Chisolm; honoring the work Stacey Abrams. Indeed Abrams' work, like Belafonte's call to action, is an impetus of sorts for Blow's book ... Blow does not call himself an activist and does not admit to any political aspiration; since starting his first newspaper in high school he has thought of himself as a newspaperman through and through. His job, writes Blow, is this: 'I bear witness. I interpret the world. I record history in real time.' But for Blow, Belafonte's call still comes through loud and clear. Imagining free Black futures requires radical thought.

The distinguished New York Times columnist offers a daring but utterly sensible plan to advance Black civil rights ... Valuable as a thought experiment alone but also an 'actual plan' for effecting lasting political change.

His is a familiar argument, revitalized by the South’s recent political developments ... But Blow instead builds upon the political thought of the freethinking white hippies who moved to Vermont in the early 1970s with the intent of transforming the state’s conservative electoral politics. They succeeded, he says; young Black people today should follow their blueprint ... The weakness in Blow’s plan is that it requires faith in a political system that has consistently failed Black Americans at nearly every turn ... Stories like this fuel the book’s searing account of police violence, systemic racial disparities and social unrest in cities like New York, Minneapolis and Portland. This is where Blow is at his best ... As a historian, I wish he had spent more time exploring the nuances of the Black migration framework the book hinges upon ... A strength of The Devil You Know is its affirmation of Black Americans as a formidable political bloc with whom the nation must reckon. The book is a helpful introduction for those seeking to make sense of fractious political debates about race and voting.

Blow describes his idea as 'big' and 'audacious' and 'grand' and 'revolutionary' and many additional adjectives making clear his pride and confidence. Yet this is not a fully developed proposal — more like a rough thought experiment stretched into book form. He says the reverse migration should be intentional and strategic, but the strategy is only partially laid out, reflecting a simplified interpretation of history, one in which counterfactuals are taken as given and sheer numbers are assumed to overpower politics, power and entrenched prejudice ... As intriguing as the proposal itself is why Blow feels compelled to make it. He describes some of the recent protests surrounding racial justice as mere 'cabin fever racial consciousness' flowing from exhaustion with the pandemic, a performative activism that will not yield lasting changes. He similarly dismisses much of contemporary Black intellectual life, lamenting that too many African American thinkers deliver 'beautiful meditations' and 'blistering orations' that accomplish little beyond ingratiating them to self-flagellating White audiences eager to be reminded how irredeemable they are ... I wish Blow had specified his contemporary disagreements, because it would have forced him to grapple with them more forcefully in a moment when battles over identity and racial redress are proliferating, whether on the streets, on social media or in publishing houses ... reminds that America’s mobility has not always meant progress, that alongside the allure of movement are the tears and disappointments that keep us moving, always seeking a new place where we can and must belong.

New York Times columnist Blow proposes a radical path toward Black empowerment in this impassioned call for 'as many Black descendants of the Great Migration as possible' to return to the South 'with moral and political intentionality.' This mass resettlement, Blow argues, would allow African Americans to 'colonize and control the states they would have controlled if they had not fled them.' He paints a devastating picture of how white liberals have failed to match rhetorical support for Blacks with action, and buttresses his political arguments with painful personal experiences of racism ... But Blow doesn’t discuss potential challenges to his plan, including the likelihood of increased gerrymandering and voter suppression by Republican lawmakers to blunt the impact of such a demographic shift, nor does he offer much support for his belief that the Republican Party would be forced 'to court not the Negrophobe, but the Negro' in order to win the presidency or control the Senate. Though Blow’s provocative call for action contains much food for thought, readers will wish for a more realistic way forward.

While the account evades some of the tougher questions on economic development and the dismantling of entrenched voter suppression, Blow does provide a compelling argument on how a second migration back to the South could prove a way forward for Black America ... Blow, who has followed his own advice and moved to the South, will find a readership in like-minded individuals who are seeing his argument play out in Georgia.

The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto renders an unflinching diagnosis of the ravages of white supremacy and a rousing prescription for Black Americans to eliminate its harms ... Building on the vivid, clear prose and bold arguments that are his stock in trade, The Devil You Know is a fast and persuasive piece of political rhetoric and rough American history ... [Blow's] narrative is compelling. His prescriptions are big and worthy of consideration. Some of the connective tissue — Blow’s presentation of history and some analysis of the political moment — don’t always have the necessary nuance. That is in part by design.This is daring work, accessible and easily digested by a wide audience. It is therefore relatively brief at 240 pages including footnotes. It’s argumentation.