The Condemnation of Blackness

In the new preface written for his 2019 edition, Muhammad writes: “The Condemnation of Blackness is not an easy book. Nor should it be. It explores a past that like our present is complicated. Simple history lessons are often simple lies” (xiii). Why do you believe Muhammad added these comments to a 2019 edition? What social and political contexts might he have been referencing? How does this quote connect the history of Black criminality to today?

One of the primary themes of The Condemnation of Blackness is the role the color line played in the urban North of the 19th and 20th centuries. Do you see the color line at work in any way in today’s America? If so, how might Muhammad’s research inform our understanding of a contemporary color line?

What role did identity play in the different bodies of research conducted on race through the 19th and 20th centuries? How did researchers’ identities influence how they approached their subjects? Further, in what ways did their identities influence how their work was regarded by others?

Did Muhammad’s focus on the North change or challenge your understanding of the relationship between race and region in American history? If so, how? What is the significance of Muhammad’s efforts to emphasize the urban North in the broader history of racism and Black American experiences?

What place does statistics have in the history of Black criminality? Does this history change how you might read/see crime statistics today?

Throughout his text, Muhammad reflects upon how some Black scholars, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, occasionally reinforced ideas of Black criminality. Did this aspect of the history of Black criminality surprise you? What is the importance of Muhammad’s analysis of the role Black scholars played in reinforcing ideas of Black criminality?

In Chapters 4 and 5, Muhammad focuses his analysis of race, crime, and urban life on 20th-century Philadelphia. What was the function of this focus? What purpose did these chapters serve in proving his overall thesis? Was this strategy in proving his thesis successful?

At the end of Chapter 6, Muhammad makes a point to mention the fact that the new universal criminal data system implemented in 1930 is still used in the United States today. What are the implications involved in Muhammad’s emphasis on the continued use of this statistical system?