
Becoming Abolitionists
Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom
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Narrated by:
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Karen Chilton
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By:
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Derecka Purnell
About this listen
For more than a century, activists in the United States have tried to reform the police. From community policing initiatives to increasing diversity, none of it has stopped the police from killing about three people a day. Millions of people continue to protest police violence because these “solutions” do not match the problem: The police cannot be reformed.
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing.
Purnell details how multiracial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson, Missouri, to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings.
Here, Purnell argues that police cannot be reformed and invites listeners to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.
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A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman ( Sweet Valley High) of color ( The Help) while also taking listeners on a ride through culture of the last few years ( Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown).
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"I am a mess of contradictions" - RG
- By Cynthia on 12-27-15
By: Roxane Gay
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Except for Palestine
- The Limits of Progressive Politics
- By: Marc Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In this major work of daring criticism and analysis, scholar and political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Israel-Palestine expert Mitchell Plitnick spotlight how holding fast to one-sided and unwaveringly pro-Israel policies reflects the truth-bending grip of authoritarianism on both Israel and the United States.
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Excellent Look Into Right Now
- By n.o. on 10-28-23
By: Marc Lamont Hill, and others
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Mutual Aid
- Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
- By: Dean Spade
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.
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abridge this for audio format
- By Jeff M. on 02-17-22
By: Dean Spade
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We Do This ‘Til We Free Us
- Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
- By: Mariame Kaba
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.
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content is great, but audiobook is unlistenable
- By Lesley Bredell on 03-22-22
By: Mariame Kaba
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Unapologetic
- A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements
- By: Charlene Carruthers
- Narrated by: Charlene Carruthers
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. This audiobook provides a vision for how social justice movements can become sharper and more effective through principled struggle, healing justice, and leadership development.
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I learned a lot
- By Mickey on 10-28-18
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Abolition. Feminism. Now.
- The Abolitionist Papers
- By: Gina Dent, Angela Y. Davis, Beth Richie, and others
- Narrated by: Gina Dent
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As a politic and a practice, abolition increasingly shapes our political moment - halting the construction of new jails and propelling movements to divest from policing. Yet erased from this landscape are not only the central histories of feminist - usually queer, anti-capitalist, grassroots, and women of color - organizing that continue to cultivate abolition but a recognition of a stark reality: Abolition is our best response to endemic forms of state and interpersonal gender and sexual violence.
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Direct
- By P. Donaldson on 12-30-24
By: Gina Dent, and others
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The Wretched of the Earth
- By: Frantz Fanon
- Narrated by: Aaron Goodson
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1961, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth offers a powerful exploration of race, colonialism, and the psychological impact of oppression. This seminal text has inspired generations of revolutionaries and activists, influencing movements from decolonization struggles in the Global South to Black Lives Matter. As a cornerstone of civil rights, anti-colonialism, and Black consciousness studies, Fanon's most celebrated work stands alongside such essential texts as Edward Said's Orientalism and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
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Happy Ending
- By Dr. Sabrina Shannon on 04-04-25
By: Frantz Fanon
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The People's Hospital
- Hope and Peril in American Medicine
- By: Ricardo Nuila MD
- Narrated by: Ricardo Nuila MD
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Where does one go without health insurance, when turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors? In The People’s Hospital, physician Ricardo Nuila’s stunning debut, we follow the lives of five uninsured Houstonians as their struggle for survival leads them to a hospital where insurance comes second to genuine care.
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Ben Taub Nurse
- By Patricia Gonzales on 05-11-23
By: Ricardo Nuila MD
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Ace
- What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
- By: Angela Chen
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, about romance and consent, and the pressures of society? This accessible examination of asexuality shows that the issues that aces face - confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships - are the same conflicts that nearly all of us will experience.
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Thank you, Angela!
- By akaMike on 10-10-20
By: Angela Chen
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Revolutionary Suicide
- By: Huey P. Newton, Fredrika Newton - introduction
- Narrated by: C.T. Hayes, Fredrika Newton
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Tracing the birth of a revolutionary, Huey P. Newton's famous and oft-quoted autobiography is as much a manifesto as a portrait of the inner circle of America's Black Panther Party. From Newton's impoverished childhood on the streets of Oakland to his adolescence and struggles with the system, from his role in the Black Panthers to his solitary confinement in the Alameda County Jail, Revolutionary Suicide is unrepentant and thought-provoking in its portrayal of inspired radicalism.
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Excellent read!
- By Orlando S. on 04-22-25
By: Huey P. Newton, and others
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Black Marxism
- The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Third Edition
- By: Cedric J. Robinson, Robin D.G. Kelley - foreword, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard - preface, and others
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
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In this ambitious work, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand Black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of Black people and Black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism, Robinson argues, must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on Western continents, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this.
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"Racial Capitalism"
- By Don Morris on 09-02-22
By: Cedric J. Robinson, and others
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No More Police
- A Case for Abolition
- By: Mariame Kaba, Andrea J. Ritchie, Kandace Montgomery - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In this powerful call to action, New York Times bestselling author Mariame Kaba and attorney and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie detail why policing doesn't stop violence, instead perpetuating widespread harm; outline the many failures of contemporary police reforms; and explore demands to defund police, divest from policing, and invest in community resources to create greater safety through a Black feminist lens. No More Police makes a compelling case for a world where the tools required to prevent, interrupt, and transform violence in all its forms are abundant.
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A Must Read
- By Nikki Johnson on 01-02-23
By: Mariame Kaba, and others
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Golden Gulag
- Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California
- By: Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- Narrated by: Machelle Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1980, the number of people in US prisons has increased more than 450 percent. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world". Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces conjoined to produce the prison boom.
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Started off great but devolved into case study
- By normal person on 10-16-21
What listeners say about Becoming Abolitionists
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- Casey Johnson
- 07-03-22
Karen Chilton and Derecka Purnell
A fantastic reading of an exceptionally powerful book. I’ve heard a number of books read by Chilton and she remains engaging, and illustrative. Learned a lot of nuance from Purnell and hope there’s more to come from her work. Absolutely recommend
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- Anonymous User
- 04-05-24
Everyone should be reading this book
So much valuable information. Beautifully written and compiled into educational chapters that built upon each other. I am an abolitionist!
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- normal person
- 11-24-21
masterful work
What an incredible book. Absolutely a must read for anyone serious about better understanding police abolition
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2 people found this helpful
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- Morgan E
- 03-28-23
Wonderful Framing and Narrative
This book has been incredibly helpful in shaping my understanding of what abolitionist politics is all about. Dereka Purcell is candid in her reservations and invites readers to join her on a journey into addressing the modern day issues we keep encountering.
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- C.O.
- 12-17-21
highly recommended
great book for the newbies who want communities to operate without the cops. this book does a great job of connecting capitalism, ableism, patriarchy, etc to the need to eradicate current systems of oppression and reinvent them in new "people first" ways.
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- TR
- 10-11-21
An EXCEPTIONAL contribution
This is a wonderful coming of age story of one of the most astute thinkers of our generation!!! Brava!!!
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- Shantiananda
- 12-30-24
Thorough and engrossing
Part memoir, part social history, this book helped me understand abolitionist theory and practice so much more deeply than before. I am
Not sure I’m yet at the point where I can call myself an abolitionist unequivocally, but I’m certainly growing in that direction. I’ll be recommending it to all my therapist colleagues because I think our field would greatly benefit from incorporating abitionist perspectives.
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- Mies
- 12-14-21
Unexpected!
I was delightfully surprised that this book was as much about personal growth and the importance of political education as it was about abolitionist ideas. It is a hopeful story that does so much to challenge history, perception, and norms; truly imaginative! The reader is also a great listen.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-15-22
So possible! We’ll-written and full of hope
Thank you so much for this book Ms. Purnell. As I sit here a day after a mass shooting in Buffalo targeting a black community at a grocery store, I wonder why we want to continue this way. Your words are powerful and vision so possible. Thank you for your courage and truth in writing this.
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- Aderyn
- 03-10-24
Dream big
White supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy enforced by a police state are not sustainable for humans or the planet to thrive. The author gives us hope for the future by illustrating what life made through an abolitionist framework could be. 
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