Busboys and Poets Books Presents THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE with Kristen Henning
Date and Time
Oct 24, 2021 6:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
Oct 24, 2021 6:00 pm
Takoma
THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE: HOW AMERICA CRIMINALIZES BLACK YOUTH examines how white America criminalizes Black youth and how this racism goes deeper than the flawed justice and policing system interfering in these children’s lives, but also hinders their very social development. Black teens aren’t given the opportunity to explore and experiment similar to their white peers, all while being traumatized again and again by white society. This happens not only through the obvious example of police brutality, but also through the very presence of police in schools. This event is free and open to all, accessible through our Facebook and Youtube pages (@busboysandpoets).
Please RSVP if you are joining us in person or are interested in purchasing a signed book with shipping (limited to those tuning in via livestream)Â
Doors open to the Nicolas Guillen room at Busboys and Poets Takoma at 5:45 PM on October 24th. The program itself will begin at 6 PM with an introduction from Busboys and Poets Books Director of Operations, Lori Barrientos Sanchez, before we get right into it with Kristin and Rep. Jaime to hear more about THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE and how the United States actively criminalizes Black youth. There will be time for Q&A with the audience before the end of the program, as well as the opportunity to purchase a copy of THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE for Kristin to sign the night of!Â
THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE: HOW AMERICA CRIMINALIZES BLACK YOUTH is a brilliant analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse. Drawing upon twenty-five years of experience repÂresenting Black youth in Washington, D.C.'s juveÂnile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America's irrational, manufactured fears of these young peoÂple and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. Henning explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police, and she details the long-term consequences of racÂism that they experience at the hands of the police and their vigilante surrogates. She makes clear that unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, experiment with sex and drugs, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White AmerÂica and are denied healthy adolescent development. She examines the criminalization of Black adolesÂcent play and sexuality, and of Black fashion, hair, and music. She laments the effects of police presence in schools and the depth of police-induced trauma in Black adolescents. Especially in the wake of the recent unpreceÂdented and worldwide outrage at racial injustice and inequality, THE RAGE OF INNOCENCE is an essential book for our moment.
Kristin Henning is a nationally recognized trainer and consultant on the intersection of race, adolescence, and policing. She is the Blume Professor of Law and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at the Georgetown University Law Center. From 1998 to 2001 she was the lead attorney of the Juvenile Unit at the Public Defender Service for the District of ColumÂbia. Awards she has received include the 2021 LeaderÂship Prize from the Juvenile Law Center and the 2013 Robert E. Shepherd Jr. Award for Excellence in Juvenile Defense from the National Juvenile Defender Center.
Congressman Jamie Raskin is the U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. He previously served as the Lead House Manager in the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, which ended with a 57-43 vote to convict the president for inciting a violent insurrection against the government to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. This summer, he was appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. He is currently serving his third term on the Judiciary, House Oversight and House Administration Committees and is serving his second term on the Rules Committee. Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland and a professor of constitutional law for more than a quarter-century at American University Washington College of Law. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He has authored several books, including We the Students and the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People.
