A review by wellreadsinger
We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility by Marc Lamont Hill

informative reflective

5.0

Four years after the 2020 uprisings, four years since COVID-19 further exposed the ruling elite’s priorities, and four years later after its publication, We Still Here continues to amplify what radical thinkers have been trying to tell us for awhile now. Racist institutions and systems cannot be reformed. What the people need is a radical approach to structural transformation that attacks the root of our issues; not put a temporary band-aid on them until the next pandemic, police killing, or justified genocide.

Marc Lamont Hill concisely breaks down how deeply racism is imbedded in our country while answering the question “How did we get here?”. We Still Here is what I would consider a stepping stone to understanding race beyond surface level and an entry point into abolitionist visions for the future. The majority of the text is/was focused on the state of the US during the pandemic, but Hill gives the reader the essential tools to apply what they comprehend here in a national context for further research. Despite being a short book, there is quite a bit unpacked here. Marc opens the door for someone who may just be beginning to understand how systemic racism and violence has defined this country since it’s inception, while simultaneously giving them a peek at the possibilities of transformative change through an intersectional lens. 

With this being written prior to the public’s knowledge of the misappropriation of donations from BLM organization founders, the section where Hill speaks highly of them is arguably the only aspect of the book that did not age well. Overall, I consider this to be a great starting pointing for those needing a gateway into better understanding of racism’s violent nature and the ways it manifested itself in 2020.