When They Call You a Terrorist Summary and Analysis

Summary: Introduction–Chapter 4

Patrisse Khan-Cullors begins her memoir with the introduction, “We Are Stardust,” that centers around her feelings in the aftermath of the 2016 election of Donald Trump (born 1946). During this time, she draws strength from a Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) clip sent to her by a friend. The clip describes how humans are made of stardust. Khan-Cullors recounts the difficult and unfair circumstances of her upbringing and the racist systems of the United States, claiming she was “never expected or encouraged to survive.” She rejects any accusations that she or other members of the Black Lives Matter movement are terrorists. Instead, she considers herself a survivor.

The early chapters, beginning with Chapter 1, “Community, Interrupted,” reel back to Patrisse Khan-Cullors’s early childhood. Patrisse is the third of four children living in a poor community in Los Angeles, with a mostly absent father figure and an overworked single mother. From an early age, she learns to fear police, having seen them mistreat her brothers and their friends.

Chapter 2, “Twelve,” centers on experiences during middle school. As a young girl, Patrisse is a gifted student who takes an early interest not only in social justice but also in teaching others. Despite being encouraged in elementary school, she struggles in a mostly white, privileged middle school, feeling conscious of both her race and her poverty. When she is 12, two important events occur. First, she is arrested for possessing marijuana, and second, in Chapter 3, “Bloodlines,” she learns that her biological father is not Alton Cullors but Gabriel Brignac. She fears this new development as something that will separate her from the Cullors family but is assured she will always be family. At first, she is wary of a new man suddenly in her life, but Gabriel’s kindness and warmth win her over, and father and daughter become inseparable. She accompanies Gabriel to his 12-step meetings and is inspired by the emotional vulnerability and personal accountability on display. However, just as suddenly as Gabriel appeared in her life, he is arrested and disappears once again. Patrisse comes to realize that the US prison system is a major industry and that much of America’s corporate wealth is built on slave labor from prisoners like her father.

Already devastated by her father’s imprisonment, she is hit by another blow when she learns in Chapter 4, “Magnitude and Bond,” that her brother Monte has also been sent to prison. Monte is arrested for an alleged burglary, but Patrisse remarks that his true crime is “being alive in a place where war had been declared against us.” While imprisoned, Monte suffers mental health episodes causing him to hear things. These episodes compound his already traumatic prison experience of being stabbed by another prisoner and tortured by the guards. After his release, he still suffers from untreated mental illness, and Patrisse finds it difficult to help him without involving the police.

Analysis: Introduction–Chapter 4

The introduction acts as both a flash-forward to a later scene in Patrisse’s life and a manifesto outlining the book’s central message. Although When They Call You a Terrorist is a personal memoir, it also functions as a didactic text, attempting to explain and defend the author’s philosophy and the political goals of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the introduction, Patrisse Khan-Cullors emphasizes the importance of humans being composed of stellar matter (“stardust”). Because the same elements are in all people as part of their makeup, no one should be treated as lesser. She chooses to begin her book by describing the aftermath of the 2016 election because she says the movement is imperiled by a resurgent white supremacist political movement personified by newly elected President Donald Trump. At this point she is labeled a “terrorist.” Later in the memoir, she will define what terrorism means to her: something that is wielded by those in power to harm the oppressed.

Patrisse Khan-Cullors introduces her family and examines the circumstances of her upbringing not only to provide biographical information but also to emphasize how poverty and cultural deprivation contribute to form the person she has become. Her childhood and education are difficult because her family is poor and, even more, because she is not expected to succeed. Her community lacks a real grocery store, and police move through the area like an occupying army. Black children are scrutinized and punished for using the same drugs white children use with impunity. Chapter 2 shows the seismic impact of learning her true parentage. Through Gabriel Brignac, Patrisse learns the importance of personal accountability, but she will learn on her own the greater importance of communal accountability. Gabriel’s sudden appearance in and equally sudden disappearance from her life show her how fragile and fleeting life can be for Black people in America, especially when they are poor.

Similarly, her brother Monte’s imprisonment and struggle with mental illness demonstrate not only the danger that young Black men face but also the systemic failures of the mental health care system. Although the prison doctors diagnose Monte with schizoaffective disorder, he goes untreated. Patrisse’s difficult but ultimately successful attempts to take care of Monte without involving the police and thus endangering him demonstrate the less violent, more healing-focused alternatives to police violence as a means of solving societal problems. However, such solutions require patience, effort, and compassion.