Book Reviewed: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Cullors and Asha Bandele

BLM: How does this revolution ends? In this memoir that largely reflects on the experience of Patrice Cullors narrates her traumatic battles with poverty, police brutality, incarceration, her brother’s mental illness, her father’s drug addiction and his homelessness. She explains how it is like to be growing up as a Black woman in America. Teamed up with Asha Bandele, the author of the best-selling memoir, The Prisoner's Wife, is known in the literary world for her writing and social activism. The story of Black Lives Matter (BLM) is combined with love and bouts of pain. The most touching part of her life is about her father which is best described in Chapter 7, entitled “All the Bones We Could Find.” She recalls, “My father was part of a generation of Black men who spent a lifetime watching hope and dreams shoved just out of their reach until it seemed normal. She considers him to be spiritual who demonstrated to her as how Black life mattered. She struggles to understand and connect with him even though he spent more time away in prison than with her. It is equally gripping to read the misfortunes of her brother Monte and his bouts with mental illness, police brutality and his time in prison. Throughout her brother’s incarcerations, Cullors never failed to show him of love and humanity. The author details about the injustices done to the Black population in great length citing specific cases and how it empowered the Black movement. Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It gained national prominence in 2014, after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. But the idea was conceived in 2013 when the jury in Florida found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter experienced a steady growth, but during a BLM protest in Dallas in July 2016, five white police officers were slain by a BLM supporter named Micah Xavier Johnson. President Obama spoke sympathetically about the Black movement which infuriated the law enforcing officers. During the trial of Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the death George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the political pressure and the level of anarchy was so high in this country that officer Chauvin never had a chance for not guilty verdict. BLM, ANTIFA and the rest of the anarchists were in full attack mode to direct their anger against the jury and their family members had they found officer not guilty. No politician or the media would have dared to criticize BLM if such an event had occurred. If Black community could accept O.J. Simpson verdict, why not that of George Zimmerman? There were 12,000 demonstrations and 633 related riots that followed George Floyd’s death. Most BLM supporters and members of ANTIFA are confirmed Marxists, and they want to dismantle American way of life. Along with like-minded activists, they make savvy use of social media to spread their gospel of total and complete socialism and defund-police activism. The acts of riots and brazen robberies in many cities in Northwest indicates how much muscle BLM and ANTIFA has. The BLM, regarded as a steward of a revolution took over $90 million in donation in 2020 alone, and Patrisse Cullors bought four high-end homes for $3.2 million in 2021. In Feb 2022, a Black activist named Quintez Brown charged with the attempted murder of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg in a Louisville, Kentucky was bailed out after the bond amount of $100,000 was posted by BLM. As we understand more about BLM as an organization, I wonder if everything Cullors say about police actions is true or some it could be hearsay? Despite all the reservations I have about BLM movement, I like this book, it is beautifully written, and Cullors’ personal life will have lasting impact on human compassion and emotions that challenges us in everyday life.