Black Grief/White Grievance

Political scientist Juliet Hooker has written one of the sharper analytical books about American racial politics in recent memory. Her central argument — that Black Americans are expected to grieve with civic dignity while white Americans have been shielded from political loss by supremacy, and that this asymmetry shapes everything from Reconstruction through Black Lives Matter — is carefully traced through specific historical cases, not just asserted. Emmett Till's open casket, the weaponization of white victimhood, the Obama and Trump eras: each is examined with rigor. The book won multiple academic awards in 2023, and the recognition is warranted. The caveat is that the academic prose is dense, the subject matter is heavy and politically charged, and readers should go in prepared for both. Not a light read — an important one.