Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond

Description

A New York Times bestseller “[Nobody] examines the interlocking mechanisms
that systematically disadvantage ‘those marked as poor, black, brown,
immigrant, queer, or trans’—those, in Hill’s words, who are Nobodies…A
worthy and necessary addition to the contemporary canon of civil rights
literature.” —The New York Times “An impassioned analysis of headline-making
cases…Timely, controversial, and bound to stir already heated discussion.”
—Kirkus Reviews “A thought-provoking and important analysis of oppression,
recommended for those seeking clarity on current events.” —Library Journal
Unarmed citizens shot by police. Drinking water turned to poison. Mass
incarcerations. We’ve heard the individual stories. Now a leading public
intellectual and acclaimed journalist offers a powerful, paradigm-shifting
analysis of America’s current state of emergency, finding in these events a
larger and more troubling truth about race, class, and what it means to be
“Nobody.” Protests in Ferguson, Missouri and across the United States
following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a
passionate display of age-old racial frustrations. They unveiled a public
chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and
intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full
freedom and prosperity. In Nobody, scholar and journalist Marc Lamont Hill
presents a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of race and class by
examining a growing crisis in America: the existence of a group of citizens
who are made vulnerable, exploitable and disposable through the machinery of
unregulated capitalism, public policy, and social practice. These are the
people considered “Nobody” in contemporary America. Through on-the-ground
reporting and careful research, Hill shows how this Nobody class has emerged
over time and how forces in America have worked to preserve and exploit it in
ways that are both humiliating and harmful. To make his case, Hill carefully
reconsiders the details of tragic events like the deaths of Michael Brown,
Sandra Bland, and Freddie Gray, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He
delves deeply into a host of alarming trends including mass incarceration,
overly aggressive policing, broken court systems, shrinking job markets, and
the privatization of public resources, showing time and time again the ways
the current system is designed to worsen the plight of the vulnerable. Timely
and eloquent, Nobody is a keen observation of the challenges and
contradictions of American democracy, a must-read for anyone wanting to better
understand the race and class issues that continue to leave their mark on our
country today. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (July 26, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501124943
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 45
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #1,182,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #896 in Government Social Policy #1,197 in Sociology of Class #4,196 in Discrimination & Racism
• #896 in Government Social Policy
• #1,197 in Sociology of Class