Police Brutality and White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions

Written by Etan Thomas

Narrated by Julian Thomas

Featuring original interviews with: Steph Curry, Chuck D, Yamiche Alcindor, Isiah Thomas, Jemele Hill, Craig Hodges, Stan Van Gundy, Mark Cuban, Jake Tapper, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Sue Bird, Kyle Korver, Rick Strom, Cenk Uygur, Tim Wise, Chris Broussard, Breanna Stewart, Rex Chapman, Stephen Jackson, Kori McCoy, Lora Dene King, Chikesia Clemons, Raymond Santana, Alissa Findley, Amber and Ashley Carr, Michelle and Ashley Monterrosa, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., Abioudun Oyewole, Marc Lamont Hill, Officer Carlton Berkley, Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr., Officer Joe Ested, Captain Sonia Pruitt, and Bishop Talbert Swan.

Etan Thomas, an eleven-year NBA veteran and lifelong advocate for social justice, shares his personal experiences with police violence and white supremacy, weaving them together with interviews of athletes, entertainers, media figures, and retired police officers, as well as family members of victims of police brutality.
Thomas explores the origins of white supremacy and how it was interwoven into Christianity, and discusses the continued cultivation of injustice in American society.

Through these unforgettable conversations and insights, Police Brutality and White Supremacy demands accountability for those responsible for, and justice for those impacted by, police violence and terror. It offers practical solutions to work against the promotion of white supremacy in law enforcement, Christianity,
early education, and across the public sphere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705061534

Etan Thomas

ETAN THOMAS, a former eleven-year NBA player, was born in Harlem and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has published multiple books including: We Matter: Athletes and Activism (voted a top ten best activism book of all time by BookAuthority), More than an Athlete, Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge, and Voices of the Future. Thomas received the 2010 National Basketball Players Association Community Contribution Award as well as the 2009 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation Legacy Award—both honoring his advocacy for social justice. He is a senior writer for BasketballNews.com and a regular contributor to the Guardian and The Undefeated. He can frequently be seen on MSNBC as a special correspondent and cohosts a weekly show with Dave Zirin called, The Collision: Where Sports and Politics Collide.

Reviews for Police Brutality and White Supremacy

[foof2you · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is always interesting to hear other points of view on subjects that one is not familiar with other then what one hears on the various media sources these days. Mr. Thomas was able to interview many people and talk with about what can and should be done to stop police brutality. The information in this book needs to be shared with as many people as possible.

[bookwallah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First person accounts presented in an interview format that while easy to read on the surface are actually much harder to digest. The horrors experienced by Black Americans at the hands of police made this book one that I could only read a single chapter at a time with a long pause for self reflection.It has been two years since George Floyd was killed under the knee of a St. Paul Minnesota police officer. At the time my daughter lived a short quarter mile from where the murder and subsequent protests took place. The neighborhood seemed like one where everyone just wanted to get along. St. Paul seemed like a progressive city. If this could happen here it made me realize it could happen anywhere in America.Everyone who is not a person of color (like myself) needs to go through a process of learning about how racism is still very much alive today. This book can provide one venue for starting that process.

[matthew1982_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've read a bunch of books about America's history of state violence against non-white people, and for the most part I keep them on the shelves after I read them for referring back to them later. This is one of the few books I've ever had where it doesn't feel right for me to keep it on a shelf, because it needs to be out being read by someone else who is in a different life situation than I am and will be able to make better use of it than me. This is less of a compilation of history and more of an exhortation for people to go out and make their world better.As the book is a compilation of interviews, it is unsurprisingly conversational and easy to read. This is not to say that it is simple, but rather that concepts like cop gangs relying on their unions and other city officials to avoid accountability for their crimes are described in direct language, instead of academic jargon or the cowardly "both sides"-style descriptions favored by the media. It covers a wide range of both current and somewhat older issues, from unnecessary police violence against Black women today to LAPD officers assaulting Rodney King in the 1990s. Interviewees include nationally famous athletes (the author himself is a well-known former NBA player), TV media figures, former police officers, the families of people murdered or otherwise brutalized by police, and people best known for their skill on Twitter, namely Bishop Talbert Swan and Rex Chapman.Without rewriting the entire book here it is impossible to list all of the issues and concepts discussed in it. Some of the most important are the omnipresence of white supremacy, the near-total impunity of the police when they decide they want to abuse or kill non-white people, the resistance of police departments to change from any direction (including other police officers trying to uphold internal codes of conduct or the law), Black political leaders trying to dictate how their communities react to police violence, Black police chiefs being used as de facto token public faces to make police departments look more tolerant than they are, the inherent racism of the "Make America Great Again" slogan, and the media's habit of accepting police excuses and lies in place of facts without bothering to treat the victims equally. The list goes on much farther, but these are some of the most relevant entries.Perhaps the most valuable part of this book is the fact that it condenses so many important points into something that is so easy to read. This is the main reason why I'm going to find somewhere to donate it rather than keep it on the shelf - it needs to be out somewhere else instead of on my shelf.

[jim53_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Former NBAer Thomas presents a collection of interviews on numerous related topics; beyond the title, he comments on the whitewashing of education and of the news, the difficulty in establishing accountability for police officers, the challenges of allyship, and more. He emphasizes the long-term effects of police slayings, speaking with relatives of several black men and women killed by police. His interviewees include other hoopsters, both black and white, along with ministers, former police, and others. Thomas's book is an accessible, understandable summary of current thought and individual experiences related to policing and race in America.

[jessiadams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a collection of interviews between Etan Thomas and a collection of journalists, athletes, and normal people who became activists against police brutality and white supremacy. You can hear the opinions of those right up front in the cases of Rodney King, The Central Park 5, George Floyd, and many others, straight from their mouths. This is not a book you’re going to be able to power through. I found myself sitting with each individual interview for a day or two to process my feelings and adjust my world view from what I thought I understood. A very thought provoking book that everyone should read. Highly recommend for anyone who finds themselves having trouble understanding black peoples’ perspective on the faults in our justice system. It’s written so that you feel present in the conversation between Etan Thomas and these racial justice advocates and can easily understand their perspective. I would never call this book “light”, as I said before I struggled emotionally and had to take time to process in between interviews, because the subject matter is difficult and emotional. However, I would say this book is extremely accessible and readable and will most likely find itself on the shelves of many teachers and college professors who want to educate on racial justice. I can’t say enough about how important it is that this book should be widely read.

[dgrachel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The stories and information in this book is so important and I appreciate the truly own voices nature. The first hand accounts are powerful and heartbreaking, and I liked the way Etan Thomas opened the chapters with a prose story from his own life. I wish the interviews had been told as prose stories. Instead, they are presented as truly interviews:

Etan-question/commentary

Interviewee-answer

This magazine-interview style does not work for me. It is choppy and feels forced and awkward. Reading an interview is not like watching one on TV. This is a completely personal preference, and does not diminish the messaging, but I would have been more receptive and would have taken away more from the stories, if the format had been different.