Lois 's Reviews > The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

This was history related to my hometown of Detroit, Michigan, that I had no idea even existed. I devoured this book it was so educational and easily digested. With the exception of the opening in which all of the government players and basic history is told as a resource for the story. I think it probably functions better in print than in audiobook format. Otherwise, this was surprisingly engrossing. 

I'm about a decade younger than the author of this book, and I was also born & raised in Detroit. Though I attended Detroit Public Schools and am proud of the quality education I received. 

I had no idea about any of the history covered  in this about attempts by Detroit officials to bus Black Detroit kids out to suburban schools and equalize the educational experience for all Michigan students. I think this author and I were from similar families and born in a similar time. While we agree that the school disparities are unfair and in violation Brown vs. Board of Education. I think on a national level, we need to level the playing field in public schools so that children in poor areas receive the same resources as kids in wealthier school districts. I prefer that to bussing Black kids to white schools.

I want Black teachers and administrators for Black students. Desegregation destroyed Black schools and disenfranchised Black teachers. That created a boom in the school to prison pipeline. White students do better with Black teachers, but Black students do worse with white teachers. Teaching in the US is dominated by white women, and they statistically are substandard teachers for Black students. Suburban Metro Detroit schools are hostile to Detroit kids and, by default, Black kids. Why would we want to bus our kids to that environment? Let's bring suburban resources to inner city schools instead.

While the author and I have different solutions to this problem, we both very much agree this is a horribly unjust and, by default racist way to handle school resources. I was also totally unaware of the efforts to bring the Brown school desegregation decision to the North. What a lofty goal. I'm personally grateful I wasn't bused to a suburban school. School integration was a brutally traumatic event for most Black students. None the less the disparity between school districts is  criminally negligent on the governments part.

This important nonfiction history book is wonderfully narrated by one of my favorite  narrators, Janina Edwards. Ms. Edwards brings a lightness to the heavy parts of this history that is much appreciated by me as the reader. Her voice also has a stoic quality that really works with the history being covered in this.  

This is phenomenally researched, fascinating, and extremely timely. As the US outlaws DEI programs and guts voting rights programs, we find ourselves and our nation headed back to formal, possibly legal, segregation. 

Thank you to Michelle Adams, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.