From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation is written by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Published in 2016 by Haymarket Books, the book explores the emergence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and raises questions about and suggestions for future direction of the movement. Taylor contextualizes BLM within a broader history of institutional racism and Black resistance, noting continuities between BLM and earlier movements, as well as significant divergences that suggest the potential for radical transformation of the political economy of the United States. The central aim of Taylor’s discussion is the exploration of why BLM emerged under the tenure of the nation’s first Black president. She answers the question by building an argument that locates Obama within a Black political tradition and a broader political establishment that promulgates myths about American exceptionalism, meritocracy, and equal opportunity in service to the maintenance of capitalism.

This guide refers to the 2016 Haymarket Books edition of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

Plot Summary

In Chapter 1, Taylor examines two interrelated and mutually reinforcing ideas—American exceptionalism and culture of poverty. She articulates how they work together to “explain” the persistence of Black poverty in the United States by deflecting culpability away from systemic causes and absolving the state of culpability for the conditions it created and creates and the responsibility to resolve them. In Chapter 2, she turns her attention to the idea of colorblindness and the role that it plays in deflecting attention away from institutional racism, in addition to providing the pretense for shifting public funds away from social services and welfare programs and into the expansion of the policing state.

Chapter 3 examines the emergence of the Black economic power and political elite following the civil rights era. Taylor articulates the role that the Black elite plays in maintaining the myths of American exceptionalism, meritocracy, and equal opportunity. She explains how the divergence of the Black elite’s interests from those of ordinary Black people resulted in the Black political establishment’s support for policies and practices that have exacerbated Black inequality. In Chapter 4, Taylor examines the role of the police as armed agents of the state. She locates the roots of their antagonistic relationship with the Black community and points out the racist and classist practices that inform their role as enforcers of the interests of the political and economic elite. Chapter 5 looks at the ascendancy and tenure of Barack Obama. The chapter explains the collective Black resignation to his refusal to use his position to address structural racism and inequality and how such resignation prompted the emergence of BLM.

In Chapter 6, Taylor discusses the Ferguson rebellion prompted by Mike Brown’s murder and the raising of BLM to a national profile. The chapter also examines what distinguishes BLM from the civil rights movement and discusses further directions for the movement. Chapter 7 talks about the role of socialism and anticapitalism in Black resistance movements, connecting it to the BLM movement and the potential for multiracial solidarity that could bring about radical transformation of the political economy of the United States.