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Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
Published in October of 2015.
The idea of looking for ideological bridges might seem absurd in the early days of the Trump administration. Nobody seems to be in the mood for common ground.
Higher ed people, however, should be practitioners of the long-view. Our time horizons are long. Unlike the members of other social, political, and economic institutions (save perhaps organized religion) - we pride ourselves in thinking in terms of decades (if not centuries).
So this current moment of bad feeling will pass. The arrow of progress will continue to point forward.
I’m enough of a traditional academic to believe that one of the best ways to come together is to read, and discuss, a book.
Admittedly, I’ll respond “read a book” to almost any question that you might pose. But in this case, the book I’m recommending is truly wonderful.
How many books can you name that might change the minds - and influence the behaviors - of both liberals and conservatives alike?
How many nonfiction books on social problems and policy recommendation have you read that would be palatable across the ideological spectrum?
Ghettoside is just such a book.
I’m sure that you have heard about Ghettoside. Maybe caught Jill Leovy’s appearance on the Daily Show.
The book made everyone’s 2015 best book list. Every accolade that Ghettoside received is well-deserved.
Start reading this book and you will be unable to look (or listen) away. It is that good.
Where Ghettoside can be an ideological bridge - and I believe even a bridge to the good people of the Trump administration - is in Leovy’s central thesis. She believes that the most effective way to lower crime is to catch the criminals.
If a city (or a nation) wants to lower its murder rate - than it has to catch and convict more murderers.
Ghettoside is a rare book that is profoundly progressive on issues of race and poverty, while simultaneously unflinching in its arguments for more resources and status for law enforcement.
Leovy, a crime reporter for the LATimes, starts Ghettoside with a description of the epidemic of black-on-black homicide. African American men age 15-34 are 10 times more likely than whites of the same age group to be murdered. Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men. Leovy’s calls the prevalence of death by homicide in Los Angeles a plague. She cites one government study that reports that the chances of being murdered for African American men as being as high as one in thirty-five.
While not discounting the impact of generational poverty, economic isolation, and structural racism - Leovy argues that the main reason for persistently high inner city African American murder rates can be traced back to a legal system that is incapable of catching and punishing most killers.
In the absence of a state monopoly on violence, citizens take the business of policing (and retribution) into their own hands.
Leovy tells this story both through statistics and through the case of a single family’s experience with homicide. The victim is the son of a Los Angeles homicide detective. The hero of the story is the father of the victim, and the detective (who is both white and Republican) who makes it his life’s work to bring the killers of young black men to justice.
Through embedding herself in the daily life and rhythms of a homicide division, Leovy is able to illuminate the inner workings of both a murder investigation, and the daily struggles of the residents of inner-city Los Angeles.
If we could get liberals and conservatives agreeing on the need for more resources the police to solve crime - we might find ourselves agreeing about other things.
Can you imagine those of us on different sides of the political divide actually taking a break from not listening to each other, and instead spending a few hours reading and discussing a book?
What are you reading?
