Summary: Chapters 9–12

In Chapter 9, “No Ordinary Love,” Patrisse meets Mark Anthony at a screening of a Spike Lee movie, where she is touched by the sight of Mark Anthony openly crying after the film’s end. Mark Anthony and Patrisse begin a relationship that is founded first on friendship before gradually becoming more physically intimate but not based in sex. Mark Anthony drifts away from Patrisse for a while, later confessing that he was afraid she could “see parts of [him] others could not.” They reconcile and later explore their spirituality together. They break up again but years later reunite, marrying in 2010.

During the same time, in Chapter 10, “Dignity and Power. Now,” Patrisse learns of not only the real extent of her brother Monte’s mistreatment by the police during his first arrest but also how frequently police and prison staff torture Black men. In 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) files a lawsuit against the LA County Sheriff’s department for torturing inmates. Patrisse does her part in exposing the injustices through a performance art piece that documents some of the abuses and crimes police carry out against Black men. Although the performance is a success, Patrisse feels she could do more to help.

Chapter 11, “Black Lives Matter,” focuses on the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida and the impact of both the event and the trial. The murder, as well as the refusal by the local police to arrest or charge the killer, galvanizes Patrisse and other activists like her across the country. Politicians mostly ignore the problem, and Patrisse questions, “Where were these representatives when white guys shot us down?” Around the same time, Richie, a friend and coworker of Patrisse’s, is arrested for armed robbery and given a 10-year sentence, despite harming no one. At first, Patrisse feels only helpless anger. However, protests soon begin around America, and Patrisse uses her skills as an organizer to help plan some of them. The movement morphs into a national struggle for justice, one that eventually coalesces into the Black Lives Matter movement. Patrisse comes up with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and together with her friends Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi creates the foundation for the movement.

In Chapter 12, “Raid,” Patrisse is living in an artist village called St. Elmo’s in 2013 when she is the victim of a highly militarized police raid. Without a warrant, the police descend on the village, claiming to be in pursuit of a fugitive. The experience is traumatizing to Patrisse, reminding her of the danger she faces not only as an activist but as a Black woman living in America. Sometime later during another raid, the police try to arrest Mark Anthony because he supposedly fits the description of a man they are after, but Patrisse and her community manage to get the police to back down and release him.

Analysis: Chapters 9–12

Patrisse Khan-Cullors’s complicated, circuitous relationship with Mark Anthony is a microcosm of many of her relationships with the men in her life. For various reasons, these men drift in and out, often from circumstances beyond their control. In Mark Anthony’s case, they first part because of his fear of vulnerability. In these chapters, Patrisse highlights how even emotionally vulnerable men like Mark Anthony or her friend and coworker Richie can fall victim to the expectations of traditional masculinity by closing themselves off and refusing the assistance of women. These incidents demonstrate the powerful hold of patriarchy on sensitive or even feminist men.

The stories of Monte, Richie, and Trayvon Martin in these chapters all illustrate the unfair and biased legal system under which Black people live. Early in her life, Patrisse is a helpless spectator to her brothers’ mistreatment by police and as a teenager suffers the absence of her father and brother as each are imprisoned. These experiences inspire Patrisse to fight back against injustice. When Trayvon Martin is murdered, she channels her grief into productive actions like organizing protests. Patrisse goes to great lengths to show the unfair treatment of Black citizens versus their white or non-Black counterparts. For instance, whereas Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman was not charged, despite obvious guilt and an extensive history of violent and antisocial behavior before the murder, for Black men like Monte or Richie, making a single mistake or even being in the wrong place at the wrong time could lead to ruthless punishment from law enforcement.

The raid on St. Elmo’s Village is one of the most harrowing moments in the memoir as well as the time Patrisse experiences police terrorism firsthand. Through most of her life, she sees only the effects of institutional violence on loved ones, but the raid brings these dangers closer and makes them more vivid to her. The raid also makes her realize she has been naive in not taking more precautions against police victimization. When in a separate raid Mark Anthony is nearly arrested on mistaken identity, she questions whether white Americans ever have to fear such abuses from police. The argument underlying this question is simple: two legal systems exist in America, depending on the color of one’s skin. Thus, the central purpose of Black Lives Matter is to advocate for dignity and for the legal system to treat Black Americans with the same respect it affords to white Americans.