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Allow Me to Retort
Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guys Guide to the Constitution | Elie Mystal
20 posts | 12 read | 19 to read
The MSNBC commentator and legal editor of The Nation turns his razor-sharp wit and legal acumen on our founding document and finds it to be . . . well, awfully white Mystal possesses a vocabulary and penchant for stringing words together that makes other writers envious. He can bring you to your knees with the power of the written word. Donna McGill, Lawcrossing.com According to commentator and lawyer Elie Mystal, Republicans are wrong when they tell you the First Amendment allows religious fundamentalists to discriminate against gay people who like cake. Theyre wrong when they tell you the Second Amendment protects the right to own a private arsenal. Theyre wrong when they say the death penalty isnt cruel or unusual punishment, and theyre wrong when they tell you we have no legal remedies for the scourge of police violence against people of color. In fact, Mystal argues, Republicans are wrong about the law almost all of the time, and now, instead of talking about this on cable news, Mystal explains why in his first book. Allow Me to Retort is an easily digestible argument primer, offered so that people can tell the Republicans in their own lives why they are wrong. Mystal brings his trademark humor, snark, and legal expertise to topics as crucial to our politics as gerrymandering and voter suppression, and explains why legal concepts such as the right to privacy and substantive due process are constantly under attack from the very worst judges conservatives can pack onto the courts. You dont need to be a legal scholar to grasp how stop-and-frisk is an unconstitutional policy of racial discrimination. You just need to read Mystals book to understand that the Fourteenth Amendment once made the white supremacist policies adopted by the modern Republican Party illegaland it can do so again if we let it.
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TracyReadsBooks
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#12BooksOf2022

Feb was heavy on ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads including Children of the Fox, The Undocumented Americans, A Brief History of Earth, What Strange Paradise & the tagged book, Allow Me Retort. Leave it to Mystal to write a wildly entertaining, informative, &, above all, accessible book about the US Constitution, warts & all. This book had me all fired up when I read it & it‘s one of my most frequently recommended books of the year.

@Andrew65

Andrew65 Sounds a good and must read. 1y
mcctrish As a Canadian I know way too much about the US ( thx to books, movies, tv, news, etc) and never enough to actually understand 🤣🤣 I‘m going to see if I can get this on audio 1y
31 likes2 comments
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b.elschie
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Pickpick

Let me tell you, this books makes you laugh and angry at the same time. I learned so many new things and court cases. It was well written and full of wanting to educate. #nonfiction #politics

KT1432 I still need to read this!! Also welcome to Litsy!! 🥳🥳 @LitsyWelcomeWagon 🤗 1y
b.elschie @lele1432 It is SO GOOD. I cannot explain in words how well written this was, just know that it is also really funny what he says while describing different rights. Also thank you! :) 1y
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b.elschie

“We live in the most violent industrialized nation on earth because too many dudes can't admit they still need a night light.“

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Nathan_Opland-Dobs
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Pickpick

💯

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RebL
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I love this book. It‘s smart, informative, funny & reminds me of my dad. The whole time I read it, I wished my dad were alive to read it. He would have devoured it. My son is next on the list, so 💕

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BookishShelly
Pickpick

I never thought I'd willingly pick up a book about the US Constitution, but I did and liked it. I follow Elie Mystal on Twitter and he's great both places at making some things about like constitutional law interesting and understandable with an appropriate seasoning of swears.

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SW-T
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Pickpick

It was down-to-earth, educational, enlightening and in light of events over the past few years, interesting to see how the constitution has been interpreted in comparison to what it actually says. Like how he shows the text, and the original reading and changes in legal rulings over time to what we have now. Definitely worth the read.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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May #readingroundup

Not included the 3 books I bailed on this month

Making progress on the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction Long List with Sorrow &Bliss; Popisho; The Paper Palace; The Sentence
Fell pretty heavy into graphic novels this month
My favorite reads - Allow Me To Retort; Heartstopper 2&3; Home Fire

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Off to a late start but SO is out of town, it is raining and a long weekend so excited to dig into some books
Goals-
Finish:
Allow Me To Retort
The Sentence
Even Though I Knew The End

Stretch goal -
Read Sea of Tranquility

#20in4 #readathon @Andrew65

Andrew65 Good luck, great to have you with us 😊 2y
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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New nails and reading a book that is really only for the American left 😂
I am loving it and learning a lot about constitutional law.

tokorowilliamwallace Nice, some constitutional law. 2y
Chelsea.Poole Oh book is intriguing and nails are niceeee! 2y
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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This is not a book for centerists or right leaners. But I am digging the down to earth language.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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"Canceling trash people is not a constitutional crisis".

I am supposed to be finishing a different library book but with a fist chapter title like this how can you not drop everything else?

Cup made for me by my cousin ?

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Blaire
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It‘s been forever since I‘ve posted…reading this for my office book club and definitely recommend as an easy read to understand the constitution and how it‘s principles and interpretation have impacted Black people. Written with humour and in a way you don‘t need to be a lawyer to get (even tho I am a lawyer).

Cathythoughts It is ages sinse you posted ! I was only wondering about you the other day. Hi 👋🏻, I hope all is well. 2y
Blaire @Cathythoughts I was thinking of you too…it‘s one of the things that prompted me to get back on litsy. I am doing well. Hope you are too. Hopefully I‘ll start being more active on here again. 2y
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TiminCalifornia
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Late here with the March report. I missed both bookspin and doublespin reads but read four! books not originally on my list. All of March reading was good with the tagged book my favorite of the month.

No bingos though - on any of my boards!

#nonfiction2022
#bookspinbingo
#LGBTQBookBingo #LGBTQ2022
#2022ReadingBracket

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! Great month!! 2y
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TiminCalifornia
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Pickpick

Must #audiobook this for the full impact. More excellent, interesting and dare I say, exciting than expected and being a long time follower of Mystal as a blogger, my expectations were high. It was through Mystal that I probably had my first “a-ha” moment as a white person on how different the black experience is from the white experience in this country. And the deep reasons why.

At the very least, read the epilogue.

Good humor. Language.

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TiminCalifornia
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1. Greenland by David Santos Donaldson

2. William Gibson

3. Allow Me to Retort by Elie Mystal. I‘ve followed this writer for years online in blogs and magazine articles. Brings such great humor to sensitive racial topics (and to everyday observations). His voice really opened my eyes to how systematic racism works. Offers workable solutions. Not easy ones, but workable.

#SundayFunday

BookmarkTavern William Gibson is a great choice! Thanks for posting! 2y
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TracyReadsBooks
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25 books and countless comics (I❤️YOU SAGA!!!) later, February is in the books (ha!). These were my top 5 (if I really, really, really had to pick) but I also really loved Jenny Lawson‘s Broken (in the best possible way). Also, a special shout out to the forthcoming Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon which had an epic description of my out-of-the-way neighborhood so accurate the author had to have visited. That was a fun surprise. Lots of great reading!

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TracyReadsBooks
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Pickpick

Did a book on politics & the constitution just jump to the top of my best books of the year? Yeah, it‘s right up there. And yeah, unputdownable is no exaggeration. Mystal writes with such knowledge, clarity, & humor I was reading passages aloud to my husband all day long. The book offers his argument for “what the constitution is, versus what it should be and must be for us to live in a just society.” We have some work to do. Highly recommended.

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TracyReadsBooks
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#WeekendReading

I‘m in the middle of three very different books, enjoying each very much, and hope to make progress on all three this weekend.

📖 The Captive is billed as rural noir and is definitely atmospheric

📖 Booth is about the family of John Wilkes Booth and it‘s Fowler, so yeah, it‘s really good

📖 Allow Me to Retort is fascinating & maddening & informative &, oddly enough for a book about the constitution, unputdownable

@Andrew65

KristiAhlers I‘m currently reading Gleam the third book in a series that I‘m shockingly enjoying as I wasn‘t sure I would. And later this afternoon after we shovel the driveway of 2 inches of sleet and 2 inches of snow I‘m heading to the bookstore to get The Paris Apartment! Book happiness will be mine soon! 2y
Andrew65 Have a great weekend. 2y
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