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Kaepernick Publishing to Release 'Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future without Policing & Prisons' In October

[image error] Cover Art by Emory Douglas

 

KAEPERNICK PUBLISHING’S FIRST BOOK ARGUES FOR A WORLD BEYOND POLICING & PRISONS

NEW YORK, N.Y. – May 11, 2021 – Kaepernick Publishing is proud to announce that it will release its first title, Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future without Policing & Prisons, on October 12, 2021. Abolition for the People will be available in print, e-book, and audio formats.

Initially published in partnership with Medium as a digital collection in October 2020, Abolition for the People – the book – includes a number of new and expanded essays, a reader’s guide, a new introduction, powerful in-text data visualizations, and cover art designed by the legendary Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. 

Edited by activist and Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Abolition for the People is a manifesto calling for a world beyond policing and prisons. The collection includes over 30 essays representing a broad array of voices and experiences, including political prisoners, grassroots and formerly incarcerated community organizers, scholars, and family members of those killed by the anti-Black terrorism of policing and prisons. 

Blending rigorous analysis with first-person narratives, Abolition for the People definitively makes the case that the only political future worth building is one without and beyond policing and prisons. 

Colin Kaepernick, founder of Kaepernick Publishing and editor of the collection, stated, “We’re honored to build on decades of organizing and writing against policing and prisons and hope that this book will serve as an introduction to abolitionist concepts, histories, and practices. Readers won’t find all the answers here, but we believe they will find useful and provocative questions – questions that can open up radical possibilities for a future where our communities can thrive.”

Contributors include Angela Y. Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mariame Kaba, Robin D.G. Kelley, Bree Newsome Bass, Kiese Laymon, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Gwendolyn Woods (mother of the late Mario Woods), Derecka Purnell, Dean Spade, Dylan Rodriguez, Ruha Benjamin, and many more.

Abolition for the People is being produced in partnership with Melcher Media, with distribution by Two Rivers Distribution, an Ingram Brand.

ABOUT KAEPERNICK PUBLISHING, LLC:

Kaepernick Publishing, LLC, was founded in 2019 to elevate a new generation of writers with diverse views and voices through the creation of powerful titles that can build a better and more just world. www.KaepernickPublishing.com. 

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KAEPERNICK PUBLISHING MEDIA CONTACT:

Ben Meiselas
Director of Communications
Press@KaepernickPublishing.com 

Tony Ng
Director of Marketing
Press@KaepernickPublishing.com 

 

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'Chauvin Is Guilty and Our Work Is Still Cut Out for Us' by Ben Jealous

Chauvin Is Guilty and Our Work Is Still Cut Out for Us

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

Though time has passed since Derek Chauvin’s conviction in the murder of George Floyd. But the images from that moment are seared in our memories forever: the murderer, led away in handcuffs. The Floyd family, Philonise Floyd speaking through tears, at the microphones after the verdict. The crowds outside the courthouse erupting in cheers when the verdict was read.

Our gratitude for this measure of accountability is soul-deep. And now we ask ourselves, will things really be different this time? The answer is that they can be, if we seize this moment.

Washington has sent encouraging signs that it is serious about addressing police violence and systemic racism. Congress should pass the imperfect but important George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The Justice Department is forging ahead with investigations of police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, and the shooting of Anthony Brown in North Carolina.

We have work to do in our own neighborhoods, too.

Policing is a local function, controlled by city, county and state governments. These governments answer directly to us, the citizens. And there is a lot we can do to insist on change.

One of the most inspiring examples today is in Ithaca, New York, a college town led by a dynamic young Black mayor. There, Mayor Svante Myrick and the city council approved a plan to do away with their traditional police department and replace it with a new Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety, in which some personnel would carry weapons – and, importantly, some would not. 

Instead, unarmed social workers would respond to the many calls in which an armed response is unnecessary and even dangerous. The new department will have a civilian supervisor. It will focus on de-escalating situations in which people are at risk, and restoring trust among the city’s communities of color, homeless residents, LGBTQ residents and residents with disabilities.

The plan came together with input from local residents as well as city and county officials. It is the kind of innovative thinking we want in communities across the nation, and the energy around the Chauvin trial helped get it over the finish line. 

We all can harness that energy where we live. Our year of speaking out and taking to the streets will serve us well; we can organize, and demonstrate, and show up in the places where local lawmakers meet to do their work. We can contact our local representatives directly; they might live next door or down the street.  

And while the task of changing thousands of police departments, one by one, seems huge, think of this: more than half of Black Americans live in 25 metropolitan areas. We can get serious about saving Black lives by starting in those metro areas. And we can build a movement that inspires others to act.

 

One of the most emotional moments after George Floyd’s murder last year came when his daughter Gianna, then six, said, “Daddy changed the world.” If we want her to be right in the long run, we can do our part to make her words come true. And each of us can start right here at home.     

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Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

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