In this engaging account, Duke political science professor Smith frames the African American experience through the intriguing lens of evidence. The United States has, she writes, an entrenched “policy, principle, and practice of delegitimizing Black testimony,” even when verbal, textual, or even technological evidence proves otherwise. This process, she maintains, has evolved over four centuries, from the rise of racial slavery in the 17th century to the racial reckoning of 2020 and its backlash. “The mere presence of Black folks reminds us of many inconvenient truths,” she writes. The author contends that correcting this entrenched ignorance will push the nation onto a better path, arguing that “a sustained system of white supremacy depends on the tacit agreement that Black people cannot be believed.” In six chapters, she illuminates how a persistent refusal to engage with Black evidence has resulted in violence, forced labor, economic precarity, an unjust legal system, a racist medical establishment, and startling health disparities across racial lines. Her strongest chapter, “Adultify,” demonstrates how Black children have not been treated as children and have therefore been subjected to violence, punishment, and other inappropriate forms of abuse. The author also chronicles the brave participation of children in the Black freedom struggle and highlights the violent price of their resistance, shedding contextual light on the “talk” that many Black parents have with their children. Importantly, Smith grapples with the aftermath of 2020, including the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT). DEI and CRT efforts, she asserts, were minimally invasive and flimsy when they were first implemented; politicians and legislators thus “pounced with a vengeance,” dismantling initiatives that “quickly became conservative bogeymen.”
