Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

They Called Us Enemy by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei

11 reviews

agnela's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

 An informative graphic novel focusing on Japanese American citizen experiences after Japanese attacked Hawaii. Cruelty, racism, prejudice... And yet somehow it spreads hope and knowledge, it asks us to never forget, do not allow past mistakes be repeated.
I'm not American, we talked a lot about what happened in Europe in the early 20th century, so little of us would have any knowledge that the same that happened in soviet Russia or Hitler ruled Germany happened in America. We need to spread the word, we need to know the facts, the histories, we need to hold each other accountable. And yet we allow the same things to happen today. How despicable 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Xenophobia

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, Grief, and Forced institutionalization

magpienicky's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Racism

Moderate: Violence, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, War, and Deportation

Minor: Child death and Death

pacifickat's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

"Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other, [...] that my liberty depends on you being free, too;[...] that history can't be a sword to justify injustice or shield against progress, [...] but must he a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past."
- Pres. Barack Obama, They Called Us Enemy p. 203

This book should be a national treasure. One of the best historical memoirs I have ever read.  The messages it contains are even more vital and pressing today than ever before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death, Bullying, Grief, Hate crime, War, Deportation, and Gaslighting

Minor: Police brutality and Violence

Incarceration, racial injustice, generational trauma

markwillnevercry's review against another edition

informative sad fast-paced

4.5

I wanted to read this graphic novel for a while, but never had time or could not get it and as with many things that you wait for a while to read - you start to suspect that it will be not as good as you want it to be. However, this was good. I did, however, take a pretty long time that this was the story by George Takei, but that is just because I do not read author names. This was really well written and was very informative. The US sucks.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Pregnancy, Confinement, Bullying, Police brutality, War, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Deportation

warlockdorian's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Death, Xenophobia, Bullying, Confinement, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

What a powerful memoir. And so ineffably disturbing, that our country has done such horrible things to its citizens as to incarcerate them simply for having a visible heritage. There weren’t any internment camps for Germans or Italians during WWII, just Japanese - because “they” looked different from “us.”

George Takei is a treasure, clever, funny, worldly, sympathetic. This book should be required reading for all Americans of all ages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Bullying, Confinement, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Violence

ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, War, Confinement, Violence, and Gun violence

laurenw's review

dark informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Police brutality

wear_sun_screen's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

George Takei tells the story of his family's imprisonment, along with that of many other Japanese Americans, during the second World War. He tells of the bittersweetness of his memories of the time, having been a child whose parents did everything they could to shield him and his siblings from the painful parts. He tells of the deep unfairness and injustice they endured as Americans being treated like enemy aliens.

My personal favorite part was seeing how George came to understand the decisions his parents made during that time. Life experience showed him that choices he had thought of as foolish and cowardly were for the good of their family. I'm glad to have learned about this lesser known piece of history through George's eyes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

invaderlinz's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Hate crime, Grief, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death