My brother Moochie : regaining dignity in the face of crime, poverty, and racism in the American South

Title:

Author:

Bailey, Issac J., author.

Personal Author:

Bailey, Issac J., author.

ISBN:

9781590518601

Physical Description:

288 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

At the age of nine, Issac J. Bailey saw his hero, his eldest brother, taken away in handcuffs, not to return from prison for thirty-two years. Bailey tells the story of their relationship and of his experience living in a family suffering from guilt and shame. Drawing on sociological research as well as his expertise as a journalist, he seeks to answer the crucial question of why Moochie and many other young black men--including half of the ten boys in his own family--end up in the criminal justice system.

Personal Subject:

Bailey, Issac J.

Subject Term:

African American families -- Biography.

African American men -- Family relationships -- Biography.

African American prisoners -- Biography.

Crime -- Sociological aspects.

Criminal justice, Administration of.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Hull Street	Book	306.85 B154	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	306.85 B154	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	306.85 B154	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A wide-ranging yet intensely intimate view of crime and incarceration in the United States, and the devastating effects they have on those who commit crimes, their loved ones, their victims, and society as a whole. It also offers hope for families caught in the incarceration trap: though the Bailey family's lows have included prison and bearing the responsibility for multiple deaths, their highs have included Harvard University, the White House, and a renewed sense of pride and understanding that presents a path forward.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A journalist comes to terms with the murder his beloved older brother committed, and a family tries to find some sort of redemption.Bailey refuses to make things easy for either his readers or himself; he avoids pat analysis of the scourge of racism and never settles for simple answers. He implicates himself from the start, confessing that he had felt like murdering his wife and that he was enraged beyond reason at his teenage son, fearing that he would mature into the stereotype of a black thug so feared by society. The author admits that he resisted dating one woman to whom he was otherwise attracted because she was too dark and that he went to a predominantly white college rather than a historically black one even as he resented the entitlement and privilege surrounding him. If racism is partly responsible for the fate of men like Moochie, it could have just as easily been him. Instead, he has been left with what has been diagnosed as PTSD from his brother's incarceration as well as a stutter that he has spent a lifetime trying to overcome. It is difficult to wrench these particulars into a conventional fable or morality tale, and the author doesn't try. Instead, he wrestles with confusion and the contradiction of "how to love a murderer without excusing the murder." Moochie had been a father figure to his younger brother, protecting their mother against the brutalities of the older man who had taken her as his child bride. He murdered a white man brutally and senselessly and has been sentenced to life in prison, where his attitudes on race have hardened. His brother became a journalist, writing about poverty and crime and racism for a predominantly white readership. At first, he wanted to deny Moochie's guilt and prove his innocence, but then he had to make some sort of peace with what Moochie did and try to rise above it.There's a catharsis for all by the end but no smooth path or easy arrival. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.