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Reviews
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie
ralowe's review
4.0
andrea ritchie's *invisible no more: police violence against black women and women of color* is an amazing must-read, one of the best things i've come across in the wake of ferguson about policing and gender. ritchie excels at portraying how police terror impacts black people, while also drawing from an unusually broad range of cases involving indigenous, asian, arab and latinx people. ritchie also tracks how police terrorize people regardless of age, regardless of pregnancy. ritchie shows how the police disproportionately target those based on gender non-conformity, ability, or whether one might be engaged (or thought to be) in sex work, substance use and/or undocumented. ritchie shows us how the police exploit vulnerability, for example those in domestic violence situations. with all this, *invisible no more*"У"Уdespite opening with an intention to avoid needlessly sensationalizing horrific police actions"У"Уis nevertheless unflinchingly graphic. at least to me. i mean, i get it. it can become repetitive. ritchie, being a lawyer, naturally understands visibility as evidence. to refute this, of course, feels awkward in our current moment of the trump legitimation crisis (similar to how being an anarchist against the state feels amid the neoliberal nearly complete destruction of the public sphere). what's important is ritchie's act of naming these people, of respecting their personhood. the complex sense of thoroughness and detail here emerges from the organizing work ritchie is a part of. *invisible no more* only stumbles on abolition/reform slippage, an issue in the anti-police movement at large. on page xv of the foreword mariame kaba declares her own commitment to abolition, by proxy casting ritchie's book as abolitionist; however ritchie observes numerous reform campaigns without directly exploring what is lost when we treat reform and abolition as identical: this is a conversation that needs to happen, will eventually happen: just not here. this also bears on what's puzzling about how an analysis that holds race, class, gender, ability, age and much more in an overlapping political convergence focussed on challenging power does not lead to anarchism? but at the same time: would i really choose to act as my own attorney and deliver an anarchist courtroom rant to the judge in lieu of hoping to retain the author for my defense? and: these real-world compromises should have nothing to do with the text. in the text we live our dreams. in the text i tell the judge off and make clear the ethical line. in the text we are pure analysis. the presence of kaba's foreword shows how closely reform and abolition work together and must continue to. the conversation about reform/abolition slippage would threaten delicate coalitions, i understand. still"_ ritchie observes how her work has been absorbed into the current anti-police movement's approach to gender. ritchie's massive significance is very much in evidence (see what i did there) in this text, and is a model for how the movement can move forward doing its best to make sure no one is left behind.
mandreads213's review
4.0
This book tells a heartbreaking story of what Black people experience in their everyday lives through police violence. This book is extremely powerful and I had to put it down few times due to being overwhelmed with emotions.
jessijoyb's review
This book does a wonderful job of presenting a very difficult topic. The illustrations are effectively written in a manner that does not hide the seriousness and trauma but also does not gratuitously dwell on difficult images. Ritchie provides not only examples of police violence but presents a concise and compelling history of its motives and uses. Although this book is difficult to get through because of the subject matter, it needs to be read.
persnickety_9's review
4.0
This book is so, so important. It sheds a light on a very ignored/forgotten topic. Really exemplifies the phrase “we’re not free until we’re ALL free.”
ofbooksandtrees's review against another edition
5.0
Read October 2023
To quote Angela Davis's introduction:
"This book dares us not to turn away. It challenges us to acknowledge the human dimension of this violence, which should not be effaced in abstract statistical accounts."
A difficult but powerful book. One I had to take my time with, read in between other books as it is A LOT. Especially the chapter Policing Motherhood hit me hard (which I kinda wasn't expecting as I'm not a mom, nor do I want to be.)
Richie did a great job at highlighting all the different intersections of race, gender & sexual orientation, class, and disability. For me personally at times it did lean maybe a bit too academic, but not to the point of inaccessibility.
To quote Angela Davis's introduction:
"This book dares us not to turn away. It challenges us to acknowledge the human dimension of this violence, which should not be effaced in abstract statistical accounts."
A difficult but powerful book. One I had to take my time with, read in between other books as it is A LOT. Especially the chapter Policing Motherhood hit me hard (which I kinda wasn't expecting as I'm not a mom, nor do I want to be.)
Richie did a great job at highlighting all the different intersections of race, gender & sexual orientation, class, and disability. For me personally at times it did lean maybe a bit too academic, but not to the point of inaccessibility.
candelibri's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Should be required reading
nat_montego's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Death, and Genocide
blaisef's review
Too academic, felt like it was a string of statistics listed together.