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When They Call You a Terrorist

A Black Lives Matter Memoir

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When They Call You a Terrorist

Written by: Patrisse Cullors, asha bandele, Angela Davis - foreword
Narrated by: Angela Davis - foreword, Angela Davis, Patrisse Cullors
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About this listen

"Narrating her own work, Patrisse Khan-Cullors shares the salient moments of her life that led her to become a founder of Black Lives Matter...pain, frustration, and joy [emblazon] each word she utters." (AudioFile Magazine)

This program is read by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and includes a bonus conversation.

The emotional and powerful story of one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter and how the movement was born. When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele is the essential audiobook for every conscientious American.

From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic audiobook memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors’ story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love.

Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.

More praise for When They Call You a Terrorist:

"This remarkable book reveals what inspired Patrisse's visionary and courageous activism and forces us to face the consequence of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation. This book is a must-read for all of us." (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow)

"When They Call You a Terrorist...help[s] readers understand what it means to be a black woman in the United States today." (New York Times Book Review)

©2018 Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele (P)2018 Macmillan Audio
Freedom & Security Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences United States Thought-Provoking
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What the critics say

"Steeped in humanity and powerful prose....This is an eye-opening and eloquent coming-of-age story from one of the leaders in the new generation of social activists." (Publishers Weekly)

"With great candor about her complex personal life, Khan-Cullors has created a memoir as compelling as a page-turning novel." (Booklist)

What listeners say about When They Call You a Terrorist

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Important read

Listening to the author tell her own story is moving. The racism experienced by Black people in America needs to be faced. The system is set up to criminalize black bodies. It’s horrific. The book is beautiful as much as it is gut wrenching.
Freedom for all from violence and oppression.

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Very educational

Memoirs of one of the three women who founded #BlackLivesMatter, with a focus on growing up in what was essentially a police occupied part of LA during the War on Drugs. She spent a lot of time talking about police interaction with her and her family, especially her brother who had mental health problems and was in and out of jail most of his life instead of getting treatment. The second part was more about her highschool years, and her growing activism as a community organiser and then as one of the founders of BLM, with a lot of attention to the facts, statistics and theory behind her political views.

It's a pretty solid piece of polemic in that regard, that starts out with a quote by Assata Shakur and an intro by Angela Davis, in case you're wondering what political ground on which we've landed. A lot of it felt very tied in with the history of the Black Panther Party that I read last year, and this seemed to me a guns-free continuation of the work they were trying to do.

What probably interested me a little more was the way that Khan-Cullors works at integrating her political beliefs into her family life, and the way she's struggled to understand how her family (especially the repeated incarceration and deaths of her male relatives) has been shaped by politics. She talks a lot about the difficulty of maintaining relationships when struggling with family problems and the pressure of being an activist, she talks about how to raise a kid in this world, she talks about being queer and dating men, and what marriage means. Honestly, she seems really smart, and really cool, and the kind of person you'd want to hang out with.

Would highly recommend for contemporary history. I was definitely pretty fuzzy on the details when it came to the origins of BLM, and this lays it out nicely.

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This book is a must-read! #Audible1

I'm so glad this book is available in audio, and I'm so glad and grateful to the author for reading it themself! It's a wonderfully courageous, honest telling with sharp, astute political analysis. But also an analysis that links the personal and the political. And it's a deeply engaging listen! I couldn't turn it off, and listened to the whole thing in one night. Khan-Cullors is a great story-teller, and the stories they select to tell are both highly personable and get their point across like an arrow to the heart! So, as said above, this book is a must-read/listen for anyone seeking a deeper engagement with the politics of race and class. Though, I would also recommend it for those new to those areas, as Khan-Cullors writes in a very clear, highly accessible, down-to-Earth way. Definitely a book to keep coming back to!

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