Black evidence : a history and a warning / Candis Watts Smith.
| Author/creator | Smith, Candis Watts author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2026] |
| Copyright Date | ©2026 |
| Description | 306 pages : illustration (black and white) ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Exclude -- Terrorize -- Gaslight -- Medicalize -- Adultify -- Ways of listening : Include ; Amplify ; Acknowledge ; Repair. |
| Summary | "Black evidence describes the centuries-old tactics used to deny Black truth. Black people were not allowed to testify in court, were lynched to intimidate them, determined to not feel much pain so they could be experimented on, and schoolchildren adultified and arrested for misbehavior. These are some of the ways the US squashed Black participation economically and legally. Professor Candis Watts-Smith exposes how Black people are distrusted to accurately describe social and personal experiences, as well as to address the original sins of the United States: slavery, Jim Crow, and structural racism. Smith tells of Black Californians barred from testifying so could not get justice to Rachel Jeantel, who spoke to Trayvon Martin as he was killed and whose testimony was dismissed as illiterate in the George Zimmerman trial. A newer version was the reinterpretation of the video in the Rodney King case to make him guilty for his own police beating. Candis Watts Smith shows how the sins of the past continue in the present and the cure is to believe Black people, to listen to their voices and their evidence and amplify them"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Summary | "A fierce exposé of the resistance to believing Black people and its devastating effects throughout American history. From Reconstruction to Redemption, from the enactment of landmark civil rights legislation to the execution of the Southern strategy, from 2020's multiracial protests to the swift elimination of policies etching out a more inclusive society, Americans regularly experience periods of racial reckoning followed by walloping retrenchment. In Black Evidence, political scientist Candis Watts Smith shows that this pattern is the result of an American habit: denying the truths about our society that Black people experience and remember. Smith then delivers a warning: the effects of this habit ripple out, dulling our ability to identify the signs of authoritarianism and heightening our tolerance for cruelty. Still, she shows how these same truths offer models to overcome our repeated predicament. Through a curation of critical moments across four centuries, Smith invites us to review the evidence that has been obscured, distorted, and denied. She rigorously investigates the practices that turn Black witnesses into liars in the court room, Black patients into superbodies that don't feel pain in health care settings, Black people into subhumans in scientific experiments, and Black children into superpredators. She reveals what happens when Black voices are subject to exclusion--their communities are terrorized, their memories are refuted, and their resistance is pathologized. Written with compassion and tempered optimism, Black Evidence prescribes a cure and encourages readers to practice the skills needed to build a truly multiracial democracy: confront our past, acknowledge the damage of inequality in our present, and listen to the voices of those who experience the problems we wish to solve for an equitable future." -- Provided by vendor. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Genre/form | History |
| Genre/form | Informational works |
| Genre/form | Informational works. |
| Genre/form | Documents d'information. |
| LCCN | 2025054147 |
| ISBN | 9781324036272 |
| ISBN | 1324036273 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | (electronic book) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | Order on Demand Title | Order On Demand | ✔ Available | Click to order this title |