America on Fire

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From a leading historian comes a groundbreaking narrative that reshapes our understanding of policing and unrest in the post-civil rights era. The local protests in spring 2020, ignited by the killing of George Floyd, evolved into a massive movement demanding an end to police brutality and systemic oppression of Black individuals and people of color. While many viewed these protests as unprecedented, the historian Elizabeth Hinton reveals that the events of 2020 had clear historical precedents. The decades following the civil rights movement are often seen as a story of progress; however, Hinton uncovers a different narrative, tracing the persistence of structural racism and urban riots from Detroit in 1967 to Los Angeles in 1992. She argues that the term "riot" is a racist trope, masking what are better understood as rebellions against an unequal and violent system. These rebellions, fueled by poverty and police violence, emerged prominently after President Lyndon Johnson's 'War on Crime' in 1968, which sent militarized police into Black neighborhoods. Hinton's research reveals a hidden geography of violence in smaller cities across America. The critical lesson remains: police violence leads to community unrest, yet policymakers often respond with further criminalization rather than addressing socioeconomic issues. This work presents a new framework for understanding ongoing strife, emphasizing that without systemic change ro