American Whitelash

The rise of white supremacist violence is one of the most important stories in American life today. In American Whitelash, Wesley Lowery guides the reader through the social, psychological, and historical realities that animate this violence. It is both a brilliant and unsettling examination of a part of America that many Americans would prefer to look away from. This book reminds us that we cannot look away. American Whitelash is an essential text, one that further demonstrates why Lowery is one of our country's most important and gifted journalists. -- Clint Smith, author of How the Word is Passed Lowery's book is electric, because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart.... Lowery's book is valuable for many reasons. He circles slowly and warily around the question of why, during Obama's presidency, so little has happened to improve on the racial front. -- New York Times on They Can't Kill Us All A searing, affecting, sharply written treatise on one of the most important crises the United States faces today. -- Harper's Bazaar on They Can't Kill Us All The most eloquent passages in They Can't Kill Us All come when Lowery reveals the emotional cost paid by those who write the first draft of history, especially when the writers are journalists of color.... Lowery's strength lies in the breadth of his reporting and the depth of his introspection.... Lowery is still in his twenties, but already he's earned his spot among a small cadre of journalists of color. -- Chicago Tribune Lowery provides an anthropological examination of the movement.... The result is a vivid timeline of the movement from its origins to present day.... They Can't Kill Us All is a documentary on the awakening of young black Americans--no, all Americans--to the systematic injustices that weren't erased with the election of President Obama.... Lowery's clear-eyed reporting is exceeded only by his thoughtful, sharp sentences. He allows pain to seep into the prose, not hiding the anguish of a black man reporting on so much black death while pointing out connections that can't be ignored.... [Lowery] is one of the best on the national beat. -- San Francisco Chronicle The best journalism serves as the 'first draft of history, ' but every so often a reporter gets to write the second draft as well. Wesley Lowery has provided a crucial dispatch from a particularly American frontline. Ferguson, Charleston, Baltimore and Cleveland are more than flashpoints in current affairs, they are the theaters in which our longstanding battles for racial equality have taken place. They Can't Kill Us All is a valuable field report on the status of American democracy itself. -- Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker, and professor of journalism, Columbia Journalism School [An] anthropological examination of the movement.... [and] a vivid timeline of the movement from its origins to present day.... They Can't Kill Us All is a documentary on the awakening of young black Americans--no, all Americans--to the systematic injustices that weren't erased with the election of President Obama.... Lowery's clear-eyed reporting is exceeded only by his thoughtful, sharp sentences. He allows pain to seep into the prose, not hiding the anguish of a black man reporting on so much black death while pointing out connections that can't be ignored.... [Lowery] is one of the best on the national beat. -- San Francisco Chronicle