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Review: Six Days in Cincinnati

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I recently read Afua Hirsch’s book, entitled Brit(ish), where the author talks about growing up black in England. She brilliantly dissects racism in its many shades by comparing her own life experiences to issues that affect the diaspora. What drew me to the book, was seeing the author explain to a mostly white panel, how racism envelopes the lives of people of color. The thing that affected me while watching the roundtable, was how quickly the other panel members, inserted the notion that racism does not exist.

This very insinuation, angered me, like it angered many viewers who saw it, as they do not know that they demonstrated were the microaggressions that encompass racism. The scary thing about racism, is that most of us, don’t have the pleasure of walking in our neighborhoods, no matter the time of the day. Our children don’t have the luxury of playing with toy guns or wearing anything hiding their face, and even then, they are not safe. The fatalities of this epidemic known as racism and the disease known as implicit bias are countless, and one such incident is covered in the protests which took over a city in Six Days in Cincinnati.

We are introduced to the reason for the protests, Timothy Thomas, a young man, who escaped the violence of Chicago, to only be killed in Cincinnati, by the police. Through a series of interviews, the reader is introduced to a city in a war with itself, where, race, class, and violence had taken over the city. By the time Thomas arrives in the city, Cincinnati, had a war on black men, as fourteen black men before him had been killed in 6 years by the police, under sketchy circumstances. By book’s end, Timothy’s mother gets restitution, but eventually moves back to Chicago, and as for the city, progress remains slow, even ten years later.

Overall, an engaging book which reminds the reader the reason Black Lives Matter. In order for all lives to matter, people of color must also be seen as human. The stories told by Dan Mendez Moore are personal, heartbreaking and relevant. The art by Moore serves the story. Altogether, a book, which echoes many of the same sentiments heard around protests not only in America but around the world, we too, are human.

Story: Dan Mendez Moore Art: Dan Mendez Moore
Story: 10 Art: 7.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Six Days in Cincinnati: A Graphic Account of the Riots That Shook the Nation

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In 2001, a young black man named Timothy Thomas was shot by police, and the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati erupted in protest. It was the first major urban uprising since the Rodney King riots a decade previously in LA. Ten years later, Ferguson happened, and Cincinnati was largely forgotten. Until now.

Dan Mendéz Moore was 17 at a time and a budding activist. As an adult, he looks back at this life- and history-changing week, and through interviews with participant, vividly tells the story, in the form of a nonfiction graphic novel (or as we like to call it, comics journalism). This is the first non-academic book about this story. We hope it isn’t the last.

The result is moving, informative, and provides an immediacy and emotional urgency to the story that text alone rarely conveys. Discover this important and relevant piece of history.

You can get the riveting graphic novel Six Days in Cincinnati now from Microcosm Publishing.

 

 

 

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