The Second

Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America

By: Carol Anderson

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Bloomsbury presents The Second by Carol Anderson, Ph.D., read by Karen Chilton.

From the New York Times bestselling author of White Rage, an unflinching, critical new look at the Second Amendment and how it has been engineered to deny the rights of African Americans since its inception.

In The Second, historian and award-winning, bestselling author of White Rage Carol Anderson powerfully illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable. The Second is neither a “pro-gun” nor an “anti-gun” book; the lens is the citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans.

From the seventeenth century, when it was encoded into law that the enslaved could not own, carry, or use a firearm whatsoever, until today, with measures to expand and curtail gun ownership aimed disproportionately at the African American population, the right to bear arms has been consistently used as a weapon to keep African Americans powerless—revealing that armed or unarmed, Blackness, it would seem, is the threat that must be neutralized and punished.

Throughout American history to the twenty-first century, regardless of the laws, court decisions, and changing political environment, the Second has consistently meant this: That the second a Black person exercises this right, the second they pick up a gun to protect themselves (or the second that they don’t), their life—as surely as Philando Castile’s, Tamir Rice’s, Alton Sterling’s—may be snatched away in that single, fatal second. Through compelling historical narrative merging into the unfolding events of today, Anderson’s penetrating investigation shows that the Second Amendment is not about guns but about anti-Blackness, shedding shocking new light on another dimension of racism in America.©2021 Carol Anderson, PhD (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Phenomenal National Treasure!

Read it and pass it on! This educationally excellent material should be the standard and taught everywhere.

Very Informative Read!

I learned so much from this book. The historical research is outstanding and I have shared it with everyone I know. It’s highly worth the listen.

Loved this book

Well researched - historical outcomes weaved with historical facts - to teach us the truths we learned about the Second are vastly different for blacks and whites. .

#Blackgunsmatter

Essential reading for any self proclaim 2A person that is truly about “liberty”, but more specifically for Black/ AFRIKAN descent persons here in this “Land of the Free”.

The narrator’s delivery and tone is superb, almost to the point of having a conversation or lecture.

Went on ahead & ordered the physical copy as this is essential to have in the library when it comes to this country’s HIS story & getting a firm starting position when it comes to 2A & gun laws in general.

Great companion tool & direction pointer for research in regards to the subject.

Carry on!

Spot on!

The use of the 2nd amendment is often nothing close to the intended purpose. Yet, like most laws, this one is used in the spirit of those that created it wand is successfully used against those it deemed to disarm and disenfranchise. Great listen!