Crime Is a Symptom of Injustice.

• Date: 01 October 2020
• Author: Whitney, Jake

A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America

By Elliott Currie Metropolitan Books, 288 pages Publication date: September 15,2020

Shortly after Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 23, the national discussion turned once again to police brutality--and the right, once again, tried to justify it.

Variations of "Blake was a criminal!" "He was resisting arrest!" and "More whites are killed by police!" peppered social media. But it was that old standby "When are we going to talk about Black-on-Black crime?" that provoked the most discussion in my own feed.

Tropes like these resound after every high-profile police shooting of an unarmed Black person. The implication with the last one is that if Black lives truly mattered, wed be more concerned with the violence Black people inflict on each other than with police killings. But Elliott Curries new book, A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll...