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Carregando... A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black Americade Elliott Currie
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"In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more years of life from black men than cancer, stroke, and diabetes combined. Even black women are more affected by violence than white men, despite its usual gender patterns. These disparities translate into starkly divergent experiences of life and death for whites and blacks in the United States. Yet aside from occasional flare-ups of violence that periodically hit the headlines, the problem has largely receded into the background of public discussion and has nearly disappeared as a target of public policy. The country has been understandably outraged by the recent spate of police shootings of black Americans. But as acclaimed criminologist Elliott Currie points out, the far more widespread problem of "everyday" violent death and injury in black communities has received much less sustained attention or concern. Yet both kinds of violence reflect the same underlying condition: the continuing marginality and structural disadvantage of many black communities in America today. Our unwillingness to confront those conditions helps to perpetuate a level of preventable trauma and needless suffering that has no counterpart anywhere in the developed world. Compelling and accessible, drawing on a rich array of both classic and contemporary research, A Peculiar Indifference describes the dimensions and consequences of this enduring emergency, explores its causes, and offers an urgent plea for long-overdue social action to end it"-- Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)305.800973Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Ethnic and national groups ; racism, multiculturalism General Biography And History North America United StatesClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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The first part of the book is both the most important for grasping the situation as well as the part that could make some reader's eyes glaze over. It is rich in statistics. Please work through this material, in fact, go slowly. Currie does a wonderful job of explaining what the statistics mean and what they don't mean. He addresses what is glossed over in some studies and what might be needed in future research. He makes this material as interesting as is humanly possible. He works to contextualize the research for us as well as make comparisons so we can better visualize just how significant the disparities are. One thing I would have liked would have been a few actual visuals, but not too many or a reader might be tempted to skim the visuals and miss out on all the nuances.
The research that Currie covers is largely quantitative early on and more qualitative after that foundation has been laid. That is why I think going through the book slowly will pay great dividends. Restating some of the figures to yourself, imagining what those numbers represent, reading the qualitative work carefully and reading with a sense of empathy for not only our fellow citizens but our fellow human beings.
The recommendations he offers to remedy the disparity follow logically from the research. Much of what he says has been said before, but not followed through on. Correcting centuries of mistreatment isn't going to be easy or happen over night, but with a concerted and honest effort it won't take nearly as long as many think. Those who use that excuse, who point to small gains (that sometimes aren't even gains but lateral moves) and say it is a slow process, are the ones who aren't truly invested in making the country better or helping their fellow citizens, they're mostly concerned with maintaining their privilege and unwarranted advantage.
I highly recommend this to anyone who cares about making the world a better place, who want to work toward correcting the centuries of racial discrimination and terrorism, and who want more facts and better ideas to support their arguments and start change rolling.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )