Heather Ann Thompson

#fearandfury #berniegoetz #darrellcabey

Wow...this amazing night—this chance to talk about Blood in the Water—seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at once. And this year will be the 50th Anniversary of the Attica Uprising. I so hope that the vaccine is everywhere, including in prisons, by September 2021 for a million reasons, but also so that this historic event can be commemorated in person, together, at the many events that currently are planned to honor it.

#fearandfury #darrellcabey #berniegoetz #deathwishvigilante #newrelease

#fearandfury #darrellcabey #berniegoetz

Why does white rage have a grip on our criminal legal system and national media? Sound on to hear thoughts from historian and author Heather Ann Thompson who spoke with ACLU SoCal’s Criminal Justice and Police Practices Director Summer Lacey on the ALOUD stage at the Los Angeles Central Library.

THIS WEDNESDAY! March 11th, 6:30pm, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public History. Heather Ann Thompson on the legacy of Bernie Goetz in conversation with Chenjerai Kumanyika In 1984, a white New Yorker named Bernie Goetz shot four Black teenagers on a subway train, igniting one of the most explosive public debates in modern New York history. Hailed by some as a hero and condemned by others as a vigilante, Goetz became a flashpoint for national anxieties about crime, race, fear, and who is entitled to safety in public space. In her new book Fear and Fury: Bernie Goetz, the Reagan ‘80s, and the Rebirth of White Rage, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Heather Ann Thompson revisits this moment not as an isolated incident, but as a turning point in American political culture, one that helped normalize vigilantism and laid groundwork for the rise of hate crimes in the decades that followed. Drawing on newly uncovered sources and deep historical context, Thompson traces how Goetz’s shooting of Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur reshaped public discourse, media narratives, and policy, revealing how fear was weaponized and racialized in ways that continue to shape our politics today. The story becomes a lens through which to understand mass incarceration, “tough on crime” governance, and the enduring consequences of framing violence as self-defense. Thompson will be in conversation with journalist, scholar, and co-host of Uncivil and Empire City, Chenjerai Kumanyika. Together, they will explore how the Goetz case reverberates through contemporary debates about policing, public safety, and racial justice, and what it can teach us about the stories we tell and are told, in moments of crisis. Heather Ann Thompson photo credit: © Lisa Spindler Studio

#Flashback to Feb 19 and the live event at @freelibrary for a book talk on #FearandFury by @historianheather . Heather Ann Thompson identifies interesting parallels between the Reagan 80s, the #BernieGoetz shooting and today. The talk will be posted on the @freelibraryfdn Author Events page on YouTube.