America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

America on Fire has been praised for the way it challenges common narratives around the fight for racial justice in America. Early on in the book, Hinton takes issue with the term “riot,” which has historically been used to describe the violent rebellions that have broken out when Black people fought back against injustice and oppression. Hinton argues that “riot” is a word loaded with connotations of criminality and mindless violence, but in reality the Black rebellions of the post-Civil Rights era have been anything but mindless. She argues that these rebellions were meaningful political protests that were not only legitimate but often necessary to making positive steps toward true equality. She also points out the hypocrisy, as violent mobs of white supremacists who targeted Black individuals and communities are often not referred to as “rioters,” when arguably the term would suit such cases much better.

Thanks to narratives perpetuated by politicians, law enforcement, and the media, Black people have frequently been blamed for the violence enacted against them. When rebellions have broken out, often the narrative frames Black Americans as the instigators: from a teenager throwing a rock at a police officer to a Black man refusing to quietly comply with law enforcement. However, Hinton points to the police themselves as the cause of rebellion, even if they did not make the first attack. Since police officers were much more invasive in Black neighborhoods and enforced rules on Black people that they were willing to let slide with white people, their presence was seen as a threat in itself. The violence was an inevitable product of the distrust that existed between police officers and Black Americans, and it also only served to deepen that distrust on both sides.

Hinton uses detailed research to humanize both the victims and perpetrators of violence throughout the book, whether Black or white, and to examine the motives that drove Black rebellions from the period following Martin Luther King Jr.’s death to the present day. She pushes back on many common talking points that are still heard in rhetoric around civil rights protests and police reform, such as the idea of the individual “bad apple” cop or the argument that Black people murdered by police brought it on themselves by not being compliant enough. Her sympathetic but honest discussion of Black rebellions throughout the decades shows the horror and tragedy of these incidents, while also arguing for why, in many cases, they were both inevitable and necessary for change.