"In writing a book about Minneapolis, Justin Ellis has really written a book about America''s favorite lie--that good intentions lead to justice. Ellis is a rigorous historian and a visceral storyteller, and he has produced something essential: a reckoning with a city that wanted to be a safe haven for all and built a foundation that made this impossible." -Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians "In this penetrating and moving debut, journalist Ellis examines past and present African American life in his hometown of Minneapolis.Ellis''s affecting research into his own family''s history forms the book''s emotional core, as he traces multiple generations who ''thrived in spite of the continued failures of the state.'' The result is a searing account of Black survival in a city built on broken promises, and a damning view of liberalism as willing to pick and choose when equality is a virtue." --Publishers Weekly "An urgent critique of "polite" racism that demands attention." -- Kirkus "Ellis grapples with the quiet history of white supremacy in so-called nice Minneapolis in this highly recommended book for readers interested in social justice." --Library Journal "In a sobering blend of family memoir and urban exposé, journalist Ellis reveals the contradiction between Minnesota''s reputation for niceness and its consistent acceptance of anti-Black racism, culminating in the murder of George Floyd.
Juxtaposing more than a hundred years of de facto segregation, police violence, and unfulfilled promises and the experiences of his own relatives, he examines the toll of polite racism on a family and a community . with relentless precision." --Booklist (starred) "Minnesotans have always liked to think of themselves as nice folks--but how far does that take you in a society built to benefit only some of the people living in it? Justin Ellis deftly situates the state''s paradoxical history of outwardly progressive politics and quietly regressive policies within the epoch-making tumult of the past six years, as the Twin Cities became ground zero for America''s great "post-racial" reckoning in the wake of George Floyd''s murder and then, just a few years later, became a test case for how a city might resist an overtly authoritarian federal takeover." --Literary Hub , "Ten Great Nonfiction Titles to Read in June" "Ellis'' passionate, elegantly written dive into the history of Minneapolis uncovers a place that''s widely considered liberal, where people say they want to do the right thing but where they repeatedly fall short." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "[Ellis] tells a huge story, including his family''s history moving between the Black districts of Minneapolis, his strong female relatives, and the long stop-and-start efforts to integrate Black neighborhoods . And he does all this in just 350 pages with the intimacy of a writer who has lived these experiences as a Black man. Ellis offers statistical proof of how Black citizens paid the price for progress . but the text never feels like a lecture as he weaves in the tender story of his hours sitting with this mother as she shares memories while undergoing cancer treatments.
" --Pioneer Press "This is an emotional, cultural, historical, and racial history of a city that cuts through what it wants to be and reveals it for what it truly is. It''s devastating, but also so smart, insightful, and absolutely brilliant. I can''t recommend it enough. -Lyz Lenz, Literary Hub , " 40 Great New Books You May Have Missed" " Minneapolis has long been a stronghold of progressivism: slavery was banned there upon Minnesota''s statehood, and it was an early adopter of public housing. But, as Ellis demonstrates in this survey of the city''s racial history, liberal policy achievements tend to obscure more insidious forms of exclusion. A Minneapolis native, Ellis returns to his home after the murder of George Floyd. His resulting exploration tracks the ways in which Black residents were effectively segregated, through racial covenants and redlining, and overpoliced. Though Ellis''s long view of the city is tinged with cynicism, its response to last winter''s ICE invasion creates, he contends, an opening for hope.
" --New Yorker, "Briefly Noted".