Donald M. Jones
University of Miami Law Professor, Best-Selling Author, Recognized Legal Expert, Keynote Speaker, Consultant
Professor Jones is the author of four books – Race, Sex and Suspicion: The Myth of the Black Male (Praeger 2005); Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet: America’s New Dilemma (2013); and Dangerous Spaces: Beyond the Racial Profile (Praeger 2016) and his latest, The Presumption (Bloomsbury, May 30, 2024).
The Presumption
This powerful book on racism in the United States argues that a threatening narrative originating in slavery continues to link Black people to inferiority, dangerousness, and crime, causing them to be presumed guilty by society and U.S. legal systems.
Why are Black people stopped, arrested, and shot by police at such a high rate? Why are they portrayed in the media as gangbangers and urban thugs?
D. Marvin Jones writes that the problem of race lies in the way Blackness has been inextricably knotted together in our culture with presumptions. In the era of segregation this was a presumption of inferiority, but in our era, it is primarily a presumption of dangerousness or criminality.
Donald M. Jones Has Been Seen On
Testimonials
★★★★★
Donald Jones is a powerful and prophetic voice in the Age of Obama. He courageously and compassionately keeps our focus on social injustice and structural racism in America.
Prof. Donald Marvin Jones brings originality, daunting perspective, and a wise, careful touch to the perennial topic of race. For years, I have turned to Professor Jones. In my efforts to understand and present racial sensitivity and issues in my courtroom presentations, I read and reread his works constantly. Without his assistance, I could never have been so successful in humanizing minority clients whom the criminal justice system routinely devalues and objectifies.
Donald Marvin Jones, one of our most acute observers of race and the war on crime in urban America turns his insight to the new frontiers of fear and social control in an America still at war with itself.
From Ordinary to Extraordinary
The Epic Journey of Donald M. Jones
Media
Chris Lomax and myself at University of Miami
February Book Event