Why Didn’t We Riot?: A Black Man in Trumpland

In this impassioned if uneven essay collection, South Carolina journalist Bailey (My Brother Moochie) examines racial inequality and injustice in America from the perspective of a Black man living in a place “where white people overwhelmingly support Trump in spite of—or maybe because of—his open bigotry and racism.” Bailey castigates white conservatives and liberals for expecting African Americans to be “forever-forgiving victims, no matter the circumstances,” and suggests that efforts by the Black community to build “racial reconciliation bridges” have backfired, leading to symbolic gestures, but little substantive change. In the book’s strongest pieces, Bailey reports on harrowing examples of police brutality and racial injustice from his home state, including the paralyzing by “heavily armed” police officers of a Black man suspected of selling “two small quantities of marijuana,” and false witness testimony, police deception, and “unethical” prosecutorial conduct in the case of another African-American man serving 15 years for armed robbery. Other essays raise troubling issues, such as higher rates of chronic disease among African Americans and the impact of internalized racism, yet they lack focus. Still, this a bracing and timely survey of why Black Americans are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” (Oct.)