I was looking forward to reading this book after reading This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed earlier this year. (As an aside, I highly recommend this book if you want to completely rethink your ideas about the civil rights movement, violence and self defence). I finished We Refuse about a week ago so its not as fresh, but as my website progresses hopefully these book reviews will be done more quickly and a little more comprehensive!!

Carter-Jackson set out with the intention to highlight the stories of black women in particular, whose stories in using force, guns and violence is often overlooked in an already understudied historical area. I appreciated the whistle stop history of the Haitian revolution and slave revolts, and the lesser known Black revolution in Guadeloupe which turned out to be unsuccessful. Some really unbelievable historical accounts of armed revolutionary organisation amongst Black slave populations, stories of bravery and valiance.

I most appreciated historical accounts and was less interested in the personal interpretations of themes offered later in the book. Chapters 2 - 4 painted a picture of the everyday reality living as a Black person in America in the South, before and during the Civil rights/freedom movement of the 1950's-60's. The horrific stories of white violence without impunity, injustice with the law and court system (see: 1958 Monroe "Kissing Case") tied with fascinating stories uncovered of resistance, refusal and bravery by Black women with guns.

I was left wanting Carter-Jackson to highlight modern American imperialism, and I feel she missed great natural opportunities to do so in the course of her book. For example, the author mentions several times family members who served in the US military with pride, without any mention at all about the military industrial complex which inflicts death, terror, subjugation, manipulation and destruction to millions of people all over the global south. It would be interesting to briefly highlight the conflicts in the 21st century between systematic subjugation of Black Americans "at home" while also being a part of a highly sophisticated killing apparatus of the US military.

The "Joy" chapter contains meanderings about Black twitter I didn't really care about (given my continual denial of the importance of social media today). In the course of this chapter the author gave fleeting mention of how "shopping" is an example of black joy... as if American overconsumption isn't accelerating and driving our total extinction. Is shopping joyful for underpaid garment workers? Is it joyful for black people working in Amazon warehouses? Is it joyful for Black Congolese children mining coltan for our electronic devices? Is it joyful for black people underpaid in retail standing on their feet for hours with no retirement or health insurance? The lack of analysis here soured some otherwise fantastic historical research.

Most memorable quote: While describing the climate of white violence and terror in North Carolina faced by Mabel and Robert F. Williams circa the 1950's, where Black residents were lynched, attacked and terrorised, Carter-Jackson offers the following anecdote:

"The Klan enjoyed tormenting Black people whenever they could outnumber and isolate them. On one occasion, nightriders caught a Black woman on an isolated street corner and made her dance at gunpoint. Tormenting Black people, particularly on the weekends, was how white supremacists had fun."

The pure humiliation of this anecdote has stuck with me. It reminds me of interpersonal abuse; it is said there is always some element of enjoyment for the abuser, whether its the power dynamic, humiliating a loved one or feeling superior to another. I often see the class reductionist argument that racists in the white supremacist death cult just need to be appealed to with the right messaging, or the oversimplified narrative that if "poor, working class whites" had their material needs met, racism would cease to exist. This anecdote is a painful reminder that this class reductionist argument does not account for the sheer amount of enjoyment that is derived from humiliating, degrading and abusing Black people.

This book is essential to anyone who would like a re-education on the concept of nonviolence, the historical reality of white racism in America, wonderful historical examples of Black people refusing to back down. I would recommend reading This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed by Charles E Cobb beforehand as a more essential historical text on black self defence and resistance.

Rating: 4 stars