Overview

This powerful book on racism in the United States argues that a threatening narrative originating in slavery continues to link Black people to inferiority, dangerousness, and crime, causing them to be presumed guilty by society and U.S. legal systems. Why are Black people stopped, arrested, and shot by police at such a high rate? Why are they portrayed in the media as gangbangers and urban thugs? D. Marvin Jones writes that the problem of race lies in the way Blackness has been inextricably knotted together in our culture with presumptions. In the era of segregation this was a presumption of inferiority, but in our era, it is primarily a presumption of dangerousness or criminality. In chapters on slavery, urban spaces, the drug war, media portrayals, and white spaces, he shows how the presumption of guilt continues to shape the treatment of Black people in the United States. Arguing that this presumption is not simply a matter of hate on the part of individuals, but instead a social process linked to a widely shared racial ideology, The Presumption points out the continuation of racial caste in the United States as a crisis for democracy and provides a blueprint for a kind of second Reconstruction.

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9781440867712

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Written by one of the nation’s foremost scholars on civil rights issues

There is an old saying that “the eye cannot see what the mind does not comprehend.” In The Presumption, Professor Jones helps even those with the most skeptical vision recognize through historical documentation, persuasive reasoning, and powerful examples how Black identity has been criminalized—both historically, during slavery and the Jim Crow period, and today—in police practices, media biases, and social interaction. Perceptive, thoughtful, and timely, The Presumption should be required reading for anyone concerned about reducing racial discrimination in America today. * Michael Higginbotham, Laurence M. Katz Professor of Law, University of Baltimore, USA, and author of Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America * The Presumption, from renowned Professor D. Marvin Jones, is a must-read for anyone who is trying to understand the mass incarceration of Black men. He adroitly lays out how the presumption of the dangerousness or criminality of Black men is rooted in America’s history of racial oppression. It has functioned in narratives and images to normalize police policies and practices that have long produced over-policing of Black men. While one would expect that that presumption would function when Black men are accused of a crime, Professor Jones also shows how it works when Black men are the victims—thereby attenuating the ability of the justice system to conceptualize them as victims of criminal activity as well. * Kevin Brown, Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law Emeritus, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University Bloomington, USA * Presumptions of guilt, dangerousness, and menace have haunted the black community since America was founded. These inhumane assumptions continue to infect every aspect of American justice, causing untold suffering, marginalization, and death. No one understands this toxicity better than Professor Donald M. Jones. In a work like no other, Professor Jones dives deeply into the psychological, historical, and legal elements of these deadly presumptions. The analysis is brilliant, original, sober, and clear. Lawyers, law students, academics, journalists, activists, college students, and anyone concerned about injustice will benefit from the work of the preeminent expert on this subject, Professor Donald M. Jones. * Tom Mesereau, Mesereau Law Group *

Author Information

D. Marvin Jones is professor of law at the University of Miami, USA.

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