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corrigan 's review for:

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
2.75
dark sad tense medium-paced

The problem with this book is the author himself. Throughout the story, it became clear that ultimately he thinks that the justice system works super well and there's just a few cases where things go wrong. And while, as he puts it, that he started to have doubts about Smith does show that he was interested in having an open mind and finding the facts, I think it very much came across as "well, who could really blame them for thinking it was him? It wasn't racism, he just fit the profile." The interview at the end of the audiobook really drives this home, where he refers to Smith as "the black guy," uses the term "reverse racism," and talks about how beautiful the legal system is and how a very small portion of people might be innocent who go to jail for crimes, which he says kind of dismissively. Like, oh well, that's gonna happen, but what can ya do? Really rubbed me the wrong way and felt like in writing this book he went from actually understanding systemic racism as it had been taught to him by his family, and came out the other side thinking its actually not that big a problem.