As tensions in Ferguson linger in the wake of Michael Brown's death, here is a roundup of relevant literature and coverage from the blogsophere.
In Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans, Soya Jung at Race Files comments on the normalizing of black death in America and the ills of the model minority myth.
Tear Gas 101 from War Resisters League. Learn about its variations, the ways in which states deploy it, and why it has the potential to be lethal. Michelle Goldberg reminds us of its abortifacient characteristics.
In light of Ferguson and Gaza protestors pledging solidarity and resistance, head over to the Black on Palestine tumblr to read statements from various political delegations. Andrew Ryder looks at the application of disciplinary power in both struggles. Lenni Brenner and Matthew Quest's Black Liberation and Palestine Solidarity chronicles African American liberation movements and their response to Israeli and American imperialism, from Malcolm X to the recent controversy surrounding Alice Walker and the Anti-Defamation League.
Dani McClain at The Nation on why Ferguson and the death of black youth is an issue of reproductive justice.
Democracy Now discusses Dred Scott, buried just miles away from Ferguson, and the significance of one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in US history.
Hanqing Chen at ProPublica curates investigative pieces about federal funding and the militarization of US police forces. In 2011, The Atlantic examined how the war on terror transformed local police. For a deeper interrogation of this issue, Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces is a must-read.
Social media at the moment is filled with naysayers and distorted statistics. Revisit Colorlines and their graphical representation of 5 Myths About Crime in Black America––and the Statistical Truths. The Center for American Progress compiles 10 startling facts about people of color and the US criminal justice system. This comprehensive 2008 paper from the American Behavioral Scientist (.pdf) traces the racialization of crime and punishment in the US and the political economy of prisons.
The Los Angeles Times offers this brief reading list of works related to race, the police, and civil action in the US. Of particular interest is James Hirsch's examination of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, and historian Brenda Stevenson's 2013 book on the death of Latasha Harlins, a killing that set the stage for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Image via Fusion.net