Summary of Kristin Henning's The Rage of Innocence

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Kristin Henning's The Rage of Innocence in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Henning explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police, and she details the long-term consequences of rac­ism that they experience at the hands of the police and their vigilante surrogates. She makes clear that unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, experiment with sex and drugs, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White Amer­ica and are denied healthy adolescent development. She examines the criminalization of Black adoles­cent play and sexuality, and of Black fashion, hair, and music. She limns the effects of police presence in schools and the depth of police-induced trauma in Black adolescents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669341376

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Kristin Henning's The Rage of Innocence

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

A teenage boy in Washington, D. C. , named Eric was arrested after a school security guard found a Molotov cocktail he had made in his book bag.

#2

The school’s reaction to Eric was completely disproportionate to the situation, and the boy’s attorney was able to have the charges against him dismissed under a special law in D. C. that allows a judge to throw out a juvenile case if it is in the interest of justice.

#3

Adolescence is a time when young people begin to figure out who they are and what they want out of life. For Black youth, that often means figuring out who they don’t want to be.

#4

The author wants to share her outrage about what happened to Eric, but she also wants to share the stories of many other Black teenagers whose adolescences were interrupted by police encounters.

#5

The author, who is Black, first worked as a juvenile court lawyer in Durham, North Carolina, and then in Washington, D. C. She was shocked and outraged by the way the American justice system treated Black children.

#6

We live in a society that is afraid of Black children.

#7

The George Floyd case showed the world that even when Black youth do exceptionally violent things, they are still treated like children.

#8

Policing and incarceration of Black America stems from the way the police target and abuse Black children. It has become normalized, and thus, accepted.

#9

This book is for everyone who wants to improve the lives of Black children in America, and for everyone who is willing to reduce the presence of police in the lives of Black youth.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The author, a Washington, D. C. , public defender, represented only four White clients in her 25-year career.

#2

The author learned that kids of all races and classes can be reckless and impulsive. Yet, in the eyes of the law, kids who are perceived as threats are treated with much harsher treatment than actual threats.

#3

The author had four White clients, three of whom were juveniles. She watched their cases from 2016 to 2018,