A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes
“A Colony in a Nation” is an interesting book on social justice. Emmy Award winning news anchor and New York Times best-selling author Chris Hayes provides the public with an interesting analogy that captures and drives his main premise, the terrifying truth that we as a people have created the Colony within our Nation with the purpose of subduing our fellow citizens. This stimulating 256-page book includes six unnamed chapters, notes and a selected bibliography.
Positives:
1. A well-written, well-researched and succinct book.
2. Hayes makes use of the clever analogy of a colony in a nation to drive home his interesting perspectives on social justice.
3. Many topics revolving around social justice are discussed. “Nearly one out of every four prisoners in the world is an American, though the United States has just 5 percent of the world’s population.”
4. Racism plays a prominent role in this book. “Though Dayvon and I are both Americans, we live in different countries.”
5. Discusses three key things that happened in the 1960s to shape the politics of how and upon whom we enforce law. Find out what they are.
6. The driving forces of politics in America. “This rhetoric and framing would become the template to justify forty years of escalating incarceration: Order is necessary for liberty to flourish. If we do not have order, we can have no other rights.”
7. The most provocative quote in the book, IMHO. “But the terrifying truth is that we as a people have created the Colony through democratic means. We have voted to subdue our fellow citizens; we have rushed to the polls to elect people promising to bar others from enjoying the fruits of liberty. A majority of Americans have put a minority under lock and key.”
8. Interesting historical perspectives. “This great land of ours, this exceptional beacon of liberty, was founded by men who, to borrow a phrase, refused to comply. Who not only resisted lawful orders but rebelled against the government that issued them.”
9. Hayes makes it perfectly clear that in America there are two worlds. “In Ferguson, just about every single black person I spoke to had at least one story (often many) about humiliating traffic stops by Ferguson police officers that had nothing to do with public safety.”
10. A look at enforcement in America. “American society has witnessed a kind of arms race between its citizens and its police, resulting in forces that in many places patrol and occupy rather than police, that straightforwardly view themselves as waging war.”
11. The concept of white fear. One of the best discussed topics of the book. “Despite the fact nonwhite people are disproportionately the victims of crime, the criminal justice system as a whole is disproportionately built on the emotional foundation of white fear.” Bonus quote, “In ways large and small and constant, the Nation exhibits contempt for the lives of its subjects in the Colony and indifference to their value. This is the central component of the white fear that sustains the Colony: the simple inability to recognize, deeply, fully totally, the humanity of those on the other side.”
12. A look at criminology, the concept of “broken windows”. “Despite these caveats, “broken windows” soon became an article of faith among the nation’s law enforcement leaders, chief among them Bill Bratton, who had been hired in 1990 to run the police department of New York’s transit authority.”
13. So is there a broad-based consensus about what “caused” the crime decline? Find out.
14. Hayes periodically makes mention of other great books and highlights their main thesis.
15. The evolution of how to treat drug addicts.
Negatives:
1. Oh so brief, I wanted Hayes to go further in the weeds.
2. No supplementary materials, that is, no charts, diagrams, photos or anything to complement the interesting narrative.
3. Notes are not linked.
4. As is the case of most books of this ilk, the diagnosis is better than the cure. Yes he makes general comments like the reduction of incarceration and the like but doesn’t really provide a thorough analysis of it.
In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Hayes is a gifted communicator and provides some interesting perspectives on what are difficult social topics. The book examines the evolution of our justice system and what’s behind the social divide. Interesting perspectives, memorable and provocative thoughts but all too brief, notes are not linked and doesn’t really go into the solutions of such problems.
Further recommendations: “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “Smuggler’s Nation” by Peter Andreas, “Rise of the Warrior Cop” by Radley Balko, “Evicted” by Mathew Desmond, “Between The World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “White Trash” by Nancy Isenberg, “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, and “Slavery by Another Name“ by Douglas A. Blackmon.
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