Mother Jones - May 01, 2018

MAY  JUNE 2018 | MOTHER JONES 13

“A must-read book for all of us at this moment in history.”

ELIZABETH GILBERT

“Sally Kohn has really done it this time. Brilliant.”

SARAH SILVERMAN

“A testament to the power of understanding others deeply.”

DERAY MCKESSON

ALGONQUIN BOOKS

Available wherever books and e-books are sold.

http://www.sallykohn.com @sallykohn @sallykohn facebook.com/sallykohn • #h eOppositeOfHate

A

t a moment when we are facing an epidemic of animosity,

CNN commentator Sally Kohn presents a powerful look at

the cultural and evolutionary roots of hate and shows us how we

can overcome it. Inspiring and courageous, h e Opposite of Hate

will change the way you look at yourself and our world.

“A stunning debut by a truly gifted writer—

an eye-opening read for both liberals and

conservatives—and it could not come at

a better time.” —ADAM GRANT

yard worker. “Mississippi had perfected
soul-crushing poverty wrapped in gentil-
ity,” she would later write in her memoir
and self-help book, Minority Leader.
When Abrams was in high school, her
family moved to Atlanta so her parents
could attend divinity school to become
Methodist ministers. After graduating
as her class valedictorian, she went to
Spelman College, the premier histori-
cally black college for women.
At Spelman, she struggled to find her
footing among the school’s “daughters of
accomplishment.” Then, in April 1992,
when she was a sophomore, the Rodney
King verdict sparked violent protests in
black communities across the country,
including Atlanta’s West End, home to
Spelman, Morehouse, and two other
historically black colleges. As the Atlanta
police moved in with tear gas against the
students and residents of nearby public
housing projects, Abrams grew furious at
the media’s characterization of the young
people in the streets as “angry vandals,
rather than complex human beings who
had seen in a single verdict an indictment
of our humanity,” as she later wrote. She
began calling up local TV stations to com-
plain about their coverage. When they
kept hanging up on her, she enlisted her
dormmates to make calls.
A local TV producer took notice and
invited her to participate in a town hall
meeting with Maynard Jackson, Atlan-
ta’s first black mayor. At the event, Jack-
son criticized the young people he said
had wreaked havoc on the city. Abrams
asked Jackson what he had done for dis-
possessed youth—a question that chal-
lenged the mayor but also impressed him.
A few months later, Abrams began work
as a research assistant for the mayor’s
oice of youth services.
Abrams would earn a master’s degree
from the University of Texas and a law
degree from Yale before returning to
Atlanta as a tax attorney. In 2003, at just
29 years old, she was appointed Atlanta’s
deputy city attorney. She was elected to
the state Assembly in 2006 and became
Georgia’s House minority leader in
2010—the first African American to do so.
Abrams is tapping into a moment
when Democrats are finally realizing
how much they owe to the black women
who have long been intensely loyal to