Taylor opens the Introduction with an excerpt from Martin Luther King’s 1969 essay, “A Testament of Hope,” where he notes that Black rebellion forces America to face its systemic flaws and prompts change for American society. Taylor underscores his point by asserting that the reality of Black experience exposes the meaningless of the American Dream rhetoric, and she finds continuity between King’s words and the 2014-2015 mass protests against police brutality. She intends to place the 21st century police violence within the larger context of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. In addition, she will discuss how stereotypes about Black people, “colorblind” and “postracial” rhetoric, and the ascendancy of the Black political elite, contribute to the perpetuation of police brutality and the impunity with which law enforcement functions. Furthermore, she argues that police brutality is a part of a larger attack on America’s poor and working-class communities, so the focus on police violence raises larger questions about the nature of American society.

Taylor illustrates the role that class stratification plays in the issue of police violence when she calls attention to the way that the presence of a Black political and economic elite reinforces the myth of the American Dream and its ideas of

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now