Summary

Chapter Two opens with a scene in Ferguson in which a group of black residents chanted at heavily armed police officers from their own front yard. The officers ordered the residents to leave the area before tear gassing them, drawing a stunned and angry reaction from the residents. Hayes then discusses the conventional wisdom that we should do what cops tell us to do. For black families, this is essential, practical advice passed to children. It underpins the common response that had someone merely complied with a police order, they would not be killed or otherwise mistreated. This, however, contradicts the traditionally rebellious national identity of a country created out of violent resistance to orders from English law officers. Hayes expands on this idea by noting that the revolutionary phrase “no taxation without representation” can be misleading to modern Americans. In colonial times, taxes...