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A Colony in a Nation

Chris Hayes

4.20 · Rating details · 5,761 ratings · 800 reviews

New York Times Bestseller

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

"An essential and groundbreaking text in the effort to understand how American criminal justice went so badly awry." —Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me

In A Colony in a Nation, New York Times best-selling author and Emmy Award–winning news anchor Chris Hayes upends the national convers

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published March 21st 2017 by W. W. Norton Company

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Feb 03, 2017 Bill Kerwin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-c-amer, politics

If you are concerned about criminal justice and policing in America, if you have been enlightened by Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, or moved by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, then Christopher Hayes’ A Colony in a Nation is a book that may both strengthen your knowledge and widen your perspective.

Chris Hayes, the most compassionate and perceptive of MSNBC hosts—not forgetting my first love, Ms. Maddow—is the ideal author for such a book. He is a white man in his late 30’s who
If you are concerned about criminal justice and policing in America, if you have been enlightened by Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, or moved by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, then Christopher Hayes’ A Colony in a Nation is a book that may both strengthen your knowledge and widen your perspective.

Chris Hayes, the most compassionate and perceptive of MSNBC hosts—not forgetting my first love, Ms. Maddow—is the ideal author for such a book. He is a white man in his late 30’s who long ago learned to “check his privilege,” who for years—first as a writer and editor for The Nation, later as the host of Up and All In—has listened to what people of color have to say about their experience of America. He spent many nights in Ferguson and Baltimore taking in the atmosphere, talking with people on the streets, but never forgetting the great gulf of history and privilege that separates him from their world. In addition, he has constructed an ingenious metaphor—a “colony within a nation”—to describe the status of urban neighborhoods within the United States, a metaphor which I think will be useful for all Americans, but especially resonant for the privileged and patriotic American who still--in spite of our founders’ flaws—identifies strongly with the revolutionary aims of the early days of the republic.

One of the most effective—and most likable—aspects of Hayes’ book is the way he uses his own experiences to illuminate the plight of black people in America, without ever seeming proprietary or presumptive. For example, he tells about the one time—in his student days—when he was genuinely terrified of the police: he suddenly realized, going through a security check at the Republican National Convention, that, located in a side pocket of his travel bag, shoved into an eyeglass case, was thirty bucks worth of weed. (Mercifully things worked out alright, but it was a close call.) He contrasts this story with another close call experienced by political activist Dayton Love, who Hayes met on the streets of Baltimore. Love, on his way home from a high school debate tournament, was stopped by police because of a nearby purse-snatching and shown to a hesitant witness for identification, when he suddenly remembered he had an ATM slip in his pocket that provided him with an alibi. Hayes remarks:

Fair to say that Dayton and I, in our ways, both dodged a bullet, but the similarities ended there. I actually did something wrong: I was carrying an illegal drug. I wasn’t quick enough on my feet to defuse the situation, and even if I had been arrested and booked, it almost certainly would have worked out fine in the end. The stakes felt very high, but they were actually pretty low.

Dayton, on the other hand, had done nothing wrong. Unlike me, he was quick enough on his feet to successfully defuse the situation. And while for me the stakes were in reality rather low, for him they weren’t. Everything really could have changed in that moment for the worse. Out of those two brushes with the law, we both ended up with the same outcome: a clean record and a sigh of relief. But it took vastly different degrees of effort and ingenuity to get there.

Chris tells us other stories about himself too: as a student at Brown (where they called the campus police “Four Point Nines” because they really weren’t quite “Five-ohs”), as a journalist with an infra-red 9 millimeter pistol being tested by a police reality simulator, as both a young boy (before “broken windows” policing) being mugged on the street of NYC and as a man in NYC (after “broken windows” policing) benefiting from the new order and the cleanliness yet uneasy with the method that claims to have produced them, to name a few. All his anecdotes are brief and illuminating, used at the service of his arguments, not his ego.

Among the many thoughts about crime and policing advanced in this book—from how “white fear” produces a rage for order, to the militarization of modern policing—perhaps the most original and memorable is Hayes idea of “a colony in a nation.” The plight of black people in America resembles that of the colonists in the days before the revolutionary war, suppressed by an indifferent colonial government that cares more for order than for law, more for revenue than for justice. And what all Americans must not forget is that someday we all may be treated like “the colonists”:

...American criminal justice isn’t one system with racial disparities but two distinct regimes. One (that Nation) is the kind of policing regime you expect in a democracy; the other is the kind you expect in an occupied land...Maintaining the division between the Colony and the Nation is treacherous precisely because the constant threats that the tools honed in the colony will be wielded in the Nation; that tyranny and violence tolerated at the periphery will ultimately infiltrate the core. American police shoot an alarmingly high and disproportionate number of black people. But they also shoot a shockingly high number of white people.

Our American constitution is strong, but democracy itself can be fragile. And the tools of tyranny, once selectively practiced, can always be universally implemented. If we refuse to acknowledge that all Americans are citizens, as worthy of full civil rights as ourselves, then one day—depending upon whom our president may be—we could all wake up to find ourselves "colonists in a nation." ...more

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Mar 13, 2018 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Like Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy (which I recently read and heartily recommend), in A Colony in a Nation, Chris Hayes highlights how the American experience you live depends on which America you live in. Hayes' breaks down the differing experience of whites and blacks with crime and punishment (as well as opportunity) to the paradigm of colony and nation. The analysis of politicians' self-serving rhetoric in their call for law and order is looked at from both a historical and contemporary persp ...more

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May 21, 2017 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

A cry for social justice and a sobering look at our unfair and unequal criminal justice system. Chris Hayes more than adequently pinpoints exactly where and how our justice system has been anything but just for many. The statistics presented and the individual cases were cause for alarm, the rate at which we incarcerate people in this country, staggering. On the ground in Ferguson, during the protests after the killing of Michael Brown, he describes what happened during a before, things not show ...more

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Mar 23, 2017 Esil rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

A Colony in a Nation made for excellent reading. As the blurb describes, Chris Hayes contends that the US “is fractured in two: the Colony and the Nation. In the Nation, we venerate the law. In the Colony, we obsess over order; fear trumps civil rights; and aggressive policing resembles occupation.” Hayes, who is white, draws from his own experience growing up in New York, from many interviews and his experiences as a journalist, and from historical and political sources. His argument is compell ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Christy rated it really liked it

"One of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin

I thought of this quote as I finished Hayes, and that the problem probably gets down to pain. However, I’m still confused if it’s mostly through hateful anger (or “White Rage”, as Carol Anderson reminds us of who’s anger is mostly the problem) or paranoid fear (“White fear”, as Hayes emphasizes). White fear is part of the overall “fear of th ...more

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Jan 18, 2017 Karen rated it it was amazing

A COLONY IN A NATION BY CHRISTOPHER L HAYES

I am so glad I read this book. It is relevant and an important to the current events happening today in our Democracy. I feel like the author raises important issues. I think it makes and illuminates how there is still racial inequalities in certain states. I feel like every police officer and cruiser should be mandated by federal law to have a camera on their body and on their cars. They should be made to have dashboard cameras. Police brutality is on ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 Trish rated it liked it

Shelves: legal, race, political-science, true-crime, government, journalism, nonfiction, america

Hayes focuses directly on a subject about which I am likewise vitally interested: the ‘colony within a nation’ (the way blacks are treated in our majority white nation). Nixon spoke of this colony in his 1968 convention speech: “To those who say law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply: Our goal is justice for every American.” The present administration also made an eerie call for law and order during DJT's inauguration, though since Bannon was sidelined, there is les Hayes focuses directly on a subject about which I am likewise vitally interested: the ‘colony within a nation’ (the way blacks are treated in our majority white nation). Nixon spoke of this colony in his 1968 convention speech: “To those who say law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply: Our goal is justice for every American.” The present administration also made an eerie call for law and order during DJT's inauguration, though since Bannon was sidelined, there is less of it.

Hayes reminds me of a bright college student, bursting with new learning and excited to share what he’s read. That’s what I like about him, but it is also what I distrust about him. He’ll bring up something genuinely interesting and important, like incarceration in the United States, cite a couple authors who have recently written about the phenomenon, and then proceed to opinion without a full back-and-forth on the issue. His argument is relatively complete and points to unformed solutions…I mean, I agree with the guy mostly, but somehow it feels disingenuous, like a middle-of-the-night hearing. Let’s get it all out there. This book feels like an hors d’oeuvre.

It makes a difference, I think, that Hayes is the son of a Jesuit-turned activist and grew up living his father’s principles in the Bronx. He saw some things and live-learned how to be ethical and examine the roots of one’s own behaviors. It shows now. He’s willing to wade into some gnarly social issues like policing and look closely at them, taking a look at himself, his class, his color, his cohort at the same time. The times he was caught with marijuana are illustrative. These incidents play a part in his surprise conclusions: that maybe basically benign campus policing is the kind of policing we should look at: more focus on safety and less on order.

When discussing the spike in the incident of crime in NYC in the 1980s to early 1990s he doesn’t credit its turnaround to anything the government did. He talks about the beginning of community policing based on the “broken windows” theory posited originally by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in the 1982 Atlantic essay “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” but argues that the decrease in crime rates are inexplicable, and not due to increasing rates of incarceration. “In 2016 Gallup found American’s fears of crime hit a fifteen year high, even as crime itself was near historic lows.” The present administration is not allaying fears of crime, but stoking white fear.

“White fear emanates from knowing that white privilege exists and the anxiety that it might end. No matter how many white people tell pollsters that ‘today discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks’ (60 percent of the white working class in one poll). we know that this story of anti white bias is not true. But we do know that having it ‘better’ isn’t permanent, that it could collapse. We know equality might someday come, and it might mean giving up one’s birthright or, more terrifyingly, having it taken away. That perhaps our destiny is indeed a more equal society, but one where equality means equal misery, a social order where all the plagues of the ‘ghetto’ escape past its borders and infect the population at large.”

What the f is a birthright? Don't we all have one? Things are going to change, but no one is going to take anything away from you. When you stop demonizing a race of people, you take away the source of fear—for them, and for you. You gain something. Black people in your neighborhood doesn’t necessarily mean more crime comes with them. Conversely, it may mean less crime all ‘round. The stressors may disappear with the move.

Hayes takes a page directly from Bryan Stevenson (Equal Justice Initiative, and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption) when he argues that we cannot focus on the criminality of what people do if we hope to make rehabilitation a goal. “Human beings are not defined by the worst thing they ever did” is a statement both men use.

“What kind of justice system would exist in a setting in which each member of society were actually valued as a full human with tremendous potential, even if he or she committed a crime, or hurt someone, or broke the community’s norms were held accountable?…What would a criminal justice system for the elite look like?”

Hayes answers this with an anecdote about getting caught smoking weed at Brown. He goes on to say “the cause of our current state of affairs lies in tasking police with preserving order rather than with ensuring safety.” Perhaps if the police took care of safety, community members could take care of order? Hayes ends saying he doesn’t want to feel afraid like he did as a kid in NYC, but thinks injustice towards some in our society is a wrong that cannot stand. I’m with him on that. ...more

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May 30, 2020 Erin rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, 2020-non-fic, true-crime, best-non-fiction, may-2020

4.5 Stars

I've had this book since the week it came out but I was afraid to read it. I knew it would piss me off and ruin my mood. All week this book had been on my mind.

On Monday May 25 George Floyd was murdered in cold blood by 4 Minneapolis police officers. I would like to say that watching this man be slowly murdered by people who claim to "Serve and Protect" was shocking but I can't. I wasn't shocked or surprised. Saddest of all I wasn't even mad.

I was exhausted.
I was tired down to my bon ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Jessica Sullivan rated it it was amazing

To say that America is divided is nothing new, but Chris Hayes brings such a fresh new perspective to this reality. In this aptly titled book he suggests that there are actually two entirely distinct Americas: the Colony and the Nation. As he explains it:

"If you live in the Nation, the criminal justice system functions like your laptop’s operating system, quietly humming in the background, doing what it needs to do to allow you to be your most efficient, functional self. In the Colony, the syst ...more

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Apr 25, 2017 Conor Ahern rated it liked it

Shelves: new-york, non-fiction

This is a short book, and it sports some plaudits on its back cover from some serious heavyweights. So I guess I was expecting to be wowed a bit. I'm not sure it got me there, but there were some interesting points, however briefly they were explored.

The book uses the heuristic of The Colony (inhabited by racial minorities, most of whom are Black, and the poor, most of whom are minorities) and The Nation (where the rest of us live) to expose the "Two Americas" that we inhabit. The Colony receiv This is a short book, and it sports some plaudits on its back cover from some serious heavyweights. So I guess I was expecting to be wowed a bit. I'm not sure it got me there, but there were some interesting points, however briefly they were explored.

The book uses the heuristic of The Colony (inhabited by racial minorities, most of whom are Black, and the poor, most of whom are minorities) and The Nation (where the rest of us live) to expose the "Two Americas" that we inhabit. The Colony receives order (submitting to the police state or risking death, even absent Constitutional authority) in return for giving profit (in Fergusson-type scenarios where fines for petty crimes subsidize the rich and white) to the Nation. None of this is a particularly fresh take, nor is this topic much enhanced by being interlarded with stories of Hayes' white-boy privilege, the only thing that really sets this book apart from the works of other, earlier (mostly Black) authors and social critics.

So for most of the book, my assessment was "So what?" But Hayes redeems himself slightly toward the end. He explores some interesting ideas about American's love for retribution (compared with our European counterparts' more humane approaches) being rooted in our election of prosecutors and (ironically) our lesser tolerance for aristocracy (the idea being that Europeans began to think that more clement "aristocratic justice" should eventually be extended to all, while we in the colonies started with a perhaps admirable tradition of treating all malefactors to the stocks, even if the days of throwing the book at the rich with equal frequency are long past us). He also touches on the role of guns in maintaining racial hierarchies, and highlights America's incarceration mania by mentioning that if America were all white, we'd still have the 16th highest incarceration rate in the world, a simply staggering statistic given how suffused our society is with the doctrine of white supremacy.

The problem is that he never really explores these interesting points! And why not? He only made it to 220 pages! Did he need to make a deadline or something? ...more

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Mar 27, 2017 Stacy Bearse rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction

I know of Chris Hayes through his television show, and had high hopes for his new book. Hope quickly morphed into disappointment as I plowed through his rambling narrative on racism and the justice system. He randomly touches on hot-button issues - police as warriors, incarceration rates, policing as a profit center, American clusters of self-perpetuating poverty, racial profiling, etc. - but never really makes a point. A 200-page book that tackles such a complex subject must be written like a h ...more

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May 01, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, e-book, 2017, history, politics

A Colony in a Nation by Christopher L. Hayes is a 2017 W.W. Norton Company publication.

This is a very thought provoking book which blends politics, sociology, race relations, and history to explain how America ended up having a ‘Colony in a Nation’.

This book delves into the justice system's flaws, the police mentality, profiling, violence, and ‘for profit’ policing, among other things.

‘Depending on who you are, the sight of an officer can produce either a warm sense of safety and contentment ...more

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Jun 20, 2017 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-of-2017, journalism, sociology-issues, politics-policy, social-justice-commentary, us-twentieth-century, ebook, cloud-library, race-racism-antiracism

Still processing this one, and will be for sometime. I'm amazed by Hayes' deft analysis of situations, both modern and historical.

Some ponderings and take-aways:

- Law AND order as two separate entities in policing practice. These words are said together and thus rendered the same in many minds, my own included. Hayes makes a clear distinction and why that matters.
- This model of colony and nation was so "on", once painted in the historical context of the American Revolution.
- Humiliation and sh ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

In a Christian Science Monitor book review Nick Romeo, notes:

The title comes from a phrase that Richard Nixon used in a 1968 speech at the Republican National Convention. “Black Americans,” he said, “do not want more government programs which perpetuate dependency. They don’t want to be a colony in a nation.” Hayes argues that in the half-century since Nixon’s speech, white America has subjugated a colony of the unfree within its own borders.

The idea that the criminal justice system is divided ...more

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Dec 23, 2016 Ang rated it it was amazing

This was an amazing read. It's horrifying and depressing, but also enlightening and necessary. I know this will stick with me for a long time (I finished it late last night, and this morning, I've woken up thinking about it), and the questions it raises are so apt for a Chicagoan. Any American, of course, but as a Chicagoan it really hits home.

I almost feel like I need to read this again, just to really take it all in.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. ...more

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Jun 05, 2018 Meike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, 2018-read, usa

What a fantastic exploration into white fear and its consequences for policing and the prison system in the US! It is a well-known fact by now that America imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country (except the Seychelles), and Hayes ventures to explain this phenomenon by making a compelling case for the argument that "American criminal justice isn't one system with massive racial disparities but two distinct regimes. One (the Nation) is the kind of policing regime you What a fantastic exploration into white fear and its consequences for policing and the prison system in the US! It is a well-known fact by now that America imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country (except the Seychelles), and Hayes ventures to explain this phenomenon by making a compelling case for the argument that "American criminal justice isn't one system with massive racial disparities but two distinct regimes. One (the Nation) is the kind of policing regime you expect in a democracy; the other (the Colony) is the kind you expect in an occupied land."

To support this thesis, Hayes goes back to the historic development of criminal justice in the US (also compared to Europe), the role of money, the fetishim of order, the war on drugs, the instrumentalization of "fighting crime" and "fighting terrorism" for other purposes, irrational beliefs, humiliation as a weapon, the rather pathetic degree of training that American police officers receive before starting their jobs, and the effect of the American obsession with guns: "If the people are armed enough to threaten the state's control, then the state's monopoly on violence is in question, and it therefore often acts less like it's enforcing the law than putting down an insurrection.

I really liked how Hayes - a privileged white news anchor who attended an Ivy League School - brings himself and his own experiences into the story: While describing his own behavior in certain instances and speculating how it would have been perceived if he was a black man, he makes some great points; in his job as a reporter, he also witnessed some crucial events in recent history himself. Hayes is very empathic and self-critical while trying to figure out what went wrong and how the criminal justice system can be fixed. "White fear emanates from knowing that white privilege exists and the anxiety that it might end", he writes, and later: "We directly, materially, personally benefit from the status quo, no matter what awful costs it imposes on those in the Colony."

In an afterword, he discusses this insight in the context of the...äääähhh...phenomenon that we now have to call the American president: Trump induces fear to heighten his power, he instrumentalizes the law to unjustly oppress the Colony in the name of "order", but he negates that the law applies to himself, those close to him and those who share his views - the law is not the great equalizer it is supposed to be, it becomes a means to preserve power and white privilege.

"White fear is a potent force in American politics, but it is not unconquerable. Citizens like you and me collectively determine how much power it has" Hayes writes in the closing paragraph. "The borders between the Colony and the Nation are ours to redraw or, should we be audacious enough, annihilate altogether."

A great book, highly recommended. ...more

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Dec 31, 2017 Louise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: law, social-commentary, us-policy

Chris Hayes develops the thesis that the US has evolved such that some live in a nation and others a colony. If you live in the nation, you receive the full protection of the Bill of Rights. If you live in the colony, your rights have been eroded such that they are similar to those living under King George being vulnerable to search and seizure, detainment without charge, excessive bail, etc

He develops this thesis not only from data and interviews, but also, most graphically, from his personal e ...more

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Nov 29, 2017 Elle (ellexamines) rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, y-2017releases, genre-experiments, x-buylist, z-2017reads, x-audiobook, y-notowned, 4-star

Well, considering I hate nonfiction, that was unexpected. A Colony in a Nation is some of the best nonfiction I've read this year. While it's quite short, this book's exploration of racism is lovely, well-analyzed, and super important. The audiobook does a perfect job conveying the righteous anger this book is written with, while not taking away from the fact that Hayes has a great point here. Would highly recommend for the takedown of white supremacy and fantastic writing. ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017

Intensely readable and definitely worth your time. Hayes' thesis, that we don't have one criminal justice system with massive disparities but actually two distinct systems, which operate very differently, opens up some very interesting lines of inquiry. A thoughtful new take on a longstanding problem. Recommended. ...more

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Jul 16, 2017 Lissa rated it did not like it

Shelves: history, non-fiction, politics, african-american-history, ebook, inequality, american-history, sexist-crap, audiobook, prison

Well, colour me disappointed after reading this book. I was fully prepared to love it. I was fully prepared for it to make me think, to expand my horizons, to enrich my life. Instead, it gave me a headache.

I was first introduced to Chris Hayes when he would fill in for Rachel Maddow on her program (back when I still had cable and watched the news every night). This was, of course, before he had his own program, which I believe is right around Maddow's time slot (either directly before or directl ...more

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Jun 01, 2017 Barbara (The Bibliophage) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, politics-and-the-world, 2017, history, social-justice, resistlist

More reviews at TheBibliophage.com.

Chris Hayes believes that the United States has a Colony living in the borders of a Nation, which is another way of saying that some of us are treated markedly different than others. This is essentially a book about policing and imprisonment practices in the U.S. It draws from the heritage of books like The New Jim Crow and Ghettoside.

Hayes has a strong way with words, and experiences beyond his work at MSNBC to draw from. He grew up in the northwest part of t More reviews at TheBibliophage.com.

Chris Hayes believes that the United States has a Colony living in the borders of a Nation, which is another way of saying that some of us are treated markedly different than others. This is essentially a book about policing and imprisonment practices in the U.S. It draws from the heritage of books like The New Jim Crow and Ghettoside.

Hayes has a strong way with words, and experiences beyond his work at MSNBC to draw from. He grew up in the northwest part of the Bronx, and is the son of a community organizer. His studies took him into the world of nonprofits, as well as journalists. Plus in my humble estimation, he's a thinker. And of course, he has on the ground reporting background from West Baltimore and Ferguson.

Learning more about the politics of policing and mass incarceration has given me insight into the phenomenon called white rage, which pundits say has been a driving factor in the 2016 electoral results. In fact, I highlighted fully 9% of the book. The limit from the publisher is 10%! Here are a few passages that struck me.

"America imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country, free or unfree, anywhere in the world, except the tiny archipelago of Seychelles." ebook pg. 22

Hayes takes the statistics of mass incarceration and places them in new contexts that will hopefully make his readers think twice.

"And really who—black or white—can be against order? Who can stand against tranquility? Part of the genius of the rhetoric of law and order is that as a principle (rather than a practice), it can be sold as the ultimate call for equality: We all deserve the law. We all deserve order. All lives matter." ebook pg. 29

This passage refers to the beginnings of "law and order" policing as a variation on the message of Jim Crow laws, which was started during Richard Nixon's campaign for President. Hayes walks us through the various rhetoric and practical uses of law and order through the decades. While the topic has the potential to be a bit dry, it's not. It's thought-provoking and sometimes even jaw-dropping.

Hayes compares and contrasts the methods of the United States and various European countries. No matter how depressing, this wasn't news to me. What's more eye-opening is the comparison of policing in the urban ghettos with that on the typical four-year college campus.

The former population is primarily black and brown, with the latter being primarily white. And when the same drug-related infractions are committed, the policies and punishments are polar opposites. When an entire weekend on a college campus (the Nation) is wild bacchanalia we call it a home football game. The community tolerates the college kids, and typically arrests are few. When three days of crazy behavior ensues in an urban area (the Colony) we call it rioting. The news media arrives, the SWAT teams throw tear gas, and jails start to overflow. Quite a comparison between the Colony and the Nation.

Essentially Hayes spends 250 pages brilliantly calling out politicians, police forces, and to a smaller extent prosecutors on the racial differences in application of the law. Having just finished Michelle Alexander's book, this was the perfect update on the last few years' events. Highly recommend both books! ...more

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Oct 15, 2017 Alisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, law-injustice

Using the framework of the politics and mechanics of colonization, Chris Hayes offers a thoughtful examination of how the law and order rhetoric and policies in America today perpetuate racial and class inequality. Thought provoking and enlightening. Very well written, he is reasoned in his analysis, knows his history and has done his research. He is an educated guy, but writes without the academic hubris that sometimes comes with writers of a topic like this. He throws in a few personal experie ...more

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Mar 29, 2017 Kelly rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Reading this book is—I imagine—like having a slightly coked-up Chris Hayes sitting next to you on a bar stool. He makes some good points, but they’re all shoehorned into a binary model (Colony v. Nation) which is far too reductive to be useful in any meaningful sense. Basically, the whole book is a personal meditation on the racial politics of policing; not unlike the commentary delivered nightly by Chris Hayes and others on MSNBC. I like Hayes, which is the only reason I read the book. That’s p ...more

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Jun 15, 2020 Grace rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, 2020, antiracist-lit

Please read this book. I gained so much knowledge and awareness from this one book alone. Racism is alive, and has been for a very long time it was just ignored by many white people. In this book Chris Hayes covers all the way from the war on crime, police brutality, playing to white fear, and more. The blatant difference in sentencing, treatment, etc between white and black citizens is completely outraging. Understanding law and order, and many other dynamics made this a very knowledgeable read ...more

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Apr 14, 2017 Gail rated it really liked it

“In the Nation, there is law; in the Colony, there is only a concern with order. In the Nation, you have rights; in the Colony, you have commands. In the Nation, you are innocent until proven guilty; in the Colony, you are born guilty.”—Chris Hayes

If you saw Ava Duvernay's Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, most of what you'll read in MSNBC reporter Chris Hayes' new (slim) book will be familiar—infuriating— material. In summary? It's DISGUSTING the ways this country has turned criminalization int ...more

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Apr 02, 2017 Erin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-read, nonfiction

This is an incredibly thought-provoking read. Chris Hayes provides a take on criminal justice I hadn't quite thought about before; it's compelling, especially for the white person trying to critically examine the role white people have played (and still do play) in contributing to social injustice. I highly recommend this to anyone interested these topics. ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, race

On p. 210 of his excellent and insightful A Colony in a Nation, Chris Hayes asks the following series of questions that underlie arguments he makes throughout the book:

Imagine a person commits a crime, perhaps even a violent crime, against you. Is this person a human being? A neighbor, a fellow citizen? What do we as a society owe that person? Could he be someone you know and love in the throes of addiction? Or is he a member of a group you'll never encounter again? What dignity is due the pe

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Nov 10, 2019 Nev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, nonfiction

3.5 - I thought this book made some good points and it was an interesting way to look at policing in the US. The idea of the Colony in the Nation does provide an easy way to conceptualize the differences between lower income, predominantly black areas (Colony) and higher income mostly white areas (Nation). In the Nation you hardly ever see police, but when you do they’re there to protect you, but in the Colony police are omnipresent and can pose a great danger to the inhabitants.

I agree with a ...more

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Jul 07, 2018 Jeanine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was transformative for me. I have known, more so lately, that our country suffers from deep-rooted, systemic racism. But while I knew it was here (and has been here since our very beginning), I didn’t really understand WHY. What is giving it staying power?

This book, for me, laid it all out there. It gave the whys, and the hows.

This book is essential reading for every American, especially those who don’t think racism is a modern-day problem. Racism might not look the same as it did in ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Sahitya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics-feminism-religion, 4-star, 2020-read, non-fiction

This was a very interesting take on specifically how the criminal justice system works differently for the white majority and the Black people, and Chris manages to draw a line between policing in historical times (right from the days of slavery) to contemporaneous practices, and how this historical context plays into who gets branded a criminal and who gets multiple chances for redemption. The author also gives a critique of how much politicians use the rhetoric of law and order to drive up big ...more

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“White fear emanates from knowing that white privilege exists and the anxiety that it might end.” — 20 likes

“There are fundamentally two ways you can experience the police in America: as the people you call when there's a problem, the nice man in uniform who pats a toddler's head and has an easy smile for the old lady as she buys her coffee. For others, the police are the people who are called on them. They are the ominous knock on the door, the sudden flashlight in the face, the barked orders. Depending on who you are, the sight of an officer can produce either a warm sense of safety and contentment or a plummeting feeling of terror.” — 7 likes

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