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Reviewed: Jun 28, 2010
CASSANDRA'S CURSE: A Black Life in a Police State by Eugene Stovall is fiction, but there is so much truth to how the police and the government treat those in the Black community. In reality, Cassandra's Curse refers to the sister of Paris, who fell in love with Helen of Troy and caused Troy's downfall. The god, Apollo, wants Cassandra to bear his child but she won't. As a result, he gives her the ability to see into the future although no one will believe what she sees. Stovall realizes some things he says won't be believed by some people. During the 1950s in Los Angeles, the Black people who were previously doing well, are suddenly very poor and needy. Gang activity begins and the mayor of Los Angeles accuses the communists of causing the problems, rather than contribute it to the lack of funds needed to survive. As a result, the federal government sends in the CIA, who institutes COINTELPRO, which engages in many unpleasant activities in the Black neighborhoods. They make false arrests, cook up testimony against the accused, lie on people and generally destroy the Black community.
It doesn't stop there, many ugly things happen in Viet Nam after so many men are drafted. Vietnamese are killed for no reason and drugs are abundant. Many soldiers are involved in the black market and some have to figure out how to get their ill-gotten gains home without being caught.
Eugene Stovall has written a fiction book that tells the truth about the police state that governs Black communities. He discusses how some presidents of the United States were involved and how the cocaine was dumped into the poor neighborhoods, along with crack and information on how to make it. The government was using funds from the sale of drugs to the underprivileged to support the Contras, sometimes to the detriment of the citizens of the country. He also mentions how the Republicans worked with the Iranians who were holding Americans hostage, urging them to hold off on letting them go until after the elections, assuring Jimmy Carter would not be reelected. It is a marvelous book, well worth reading and taking to heart what Stovall has to say about the police state in the Black community. I highly recommend this book.
Reviewed by alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers
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Alice Holman is an avid reader, a writer and a community activist. She lives in Galveston, Texas with her husband Ray.
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