The Black and the Blue
A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America¿s Law Enforcement

Quotes

"A black cop's frank look at tensions between police, communities of color.... The Black and the Blue is an affirmation of the critical need for criminal justice reform, all the more urgent because it comes from an insider who respects his profession yet is willing to reveal its flaws."
—USA Today

"The Black and the Blue is an important contribution to a growing body of work about minority police officers. Horace's authority as an experienced officer, as well as his obvious integrity and courage, provides the book with a gravitas."
—The Washington Post

"Who polices the police? Matthew Horace asks this in TheBlack and the Blue....[P]lenty of [stories] are about times when black lives didn't seem to matter, others are about blue lives, too, as police officers-white and black, men and women, good and bad-talk honestly about life on the street."—New York Daily News

"Horace's experiences, from his childhood in Philadelphia to his work on the streets and in police training classrooms, will be revelatory to many readers who have not felt the sting of racial prejudice.... [S]olid reporting and trenchant analysis [gives] Horace's readers a poignant understanding of how it feels to be both a black man and a black policeman. Reading The Black and the Blue will help all of us better understand the formidable challenges that big-city police officers confront every day-and how those challenges are exponentially more difficult when the police officer is a black man."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"The hidden dysfunctions in American policing are laid bare in this searching exposé.... Horace and coauthor Harris write sympathetically of the dilemmas of policing, but are uncompromising in their indictment of abuses. Horace's street cred and hard-won insights make this one of the best treatments yet of police misconduct."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The heated debates surrounding the relationship between police and African Americans have tended to overlook one crucial part of the story: people who belong to both communities. Matthew Horace is a keen observer of the racial dynamics of policing, the often shameful history that contextualizes it and the implications for our current circumstances. A great deal has been said on this subject but very little of it [is as] perceptive and profound as The Black and the Blue."

—Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker

"Matthew Horace is shedding light on racial stereotypes and how they play out in police departments across America."—Salon.com

"An impassioned memoir... Horace vividly depicts the surreal challenges faced by African Americans in law enforcement.... An astute, unvarnished account that should stand out from the crowd of pro- and anti-law enforcement books."—Kirkus Reviews

"If anger and sorrow haven't flooded to the surface when the last page is turned, go back and start again."—Shelf Awareness starred review

"Insightful, honest, and probing.... Drawing on years of experience as an officer-and even more years of experience as a black man-Matthew Horace has written a book that everyone should read."
—Wesley Lowery, author of the New York Times bestseller They Can't Kill Us All