Review: when they call you a terrorist

when they call you a terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
Published: January 16, 2018
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 272
Goodreads Review

I didn’t know what to expect going into this read, but what I received far surpassed my expectations. I went into thinking it was going to be a memoir detailing how she started the Black Lives Matter movement, but what she did was lay a beautiful foundation of her life experiences, her family’s challenges and her education that helped to shape and thwart her into being one of the founders of this amazing movement. Honestly, she was destined to create it, because everything that had happened to her prior and all of her work was preparing her for BLM.

I was surprised to learn that women were the founders of the movement and how the movement is not just about black lives, but black LGBTQ lives as well. That, for some reason, always seems to get buried by many of the other activists along with men seeming to take the forefront. This novel, however, sets the record straight.

This is a profound and necessary read. I believe that it should be required reading in any Black/African American Studies program, as well as a Women’s Studies. The lasting impression I left with was it seems we (women) are always starting the movements. Interesting.