An Amerikan Family
The Shakurs and the Nation They Created
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Standard 30-day free trial
An Amerikan Family
Buy Now for £12.20
-
Narrated by:
-
Adam Lazarre-White
About this listen
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' PICK
An NPR Best Book of the Year • Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
Longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
""Magnificent…. A uniquely intimate history of Black liberation."" – Los Angeles Times
The long overdue story of the Shakurs, persistent fighters in the U.S. struggle for racial justice, and one of the most prominent, influential and fiercely creative families in recent history
For over fifty years, the Shakurs have inspired generations of activists, scholars, and music fans. Many people are only familiar with Assata Shakur, the popular author and thinker, living for three decades in Cuban exile; or the late rapper Tupac. But the branches of the Shakur family tree extend widely, and the roots reach into the most furtive and hidden depths of the underground. Whether founding one of the most notorious Black Panther chapters in the country, spearheading community-based healthcare, or engaging in armed struggle with systemic oppression, the Shakurs were at the forefront.
They have been celebrated, glorified, and mythologized. They have been hailed as heroes, liberators, and freedom fighters. They have been condemned, pursued, imprisoned, exiled, and killed. But the true and complete story of the Shakur family—one of the most famous names in contemporary Black American history—has never been told.
An Amerikan Family is a history of the fight for Black liberation in the United States, as experienced and shaped by the Shakurs. It is a story of hope and betrayal, addiction and murder, persecution and revolution. Drawing from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, historical archives, court records, transcripts, and other rare documents, An Amerikan Family tells the complete and often devastating story of Black America’s long struggle for racial justice and the nation’s covert and repressive tactics to defeat that struggle. It is the story of a small but determined community, taking extreme, unconventional, and often perilous measures in the quest for freedom.
In short, the story of the Shakurs is the story of America.
Given that surveillance and harassment of Pac is widely known and well-evidenced (see John Potash’s ’FBI War on Tupac Shakur’), its omission here undermines Holley’s credibility, if we’re being generous. To be ungenerous, one might say it’s suspicious.
It is a documented fact that the FBI had a 4000+ page file on Pac. After spending the whole book explaining how the Shakurs were pressured, hunted and sabotaged by the state, it makes no sense that Holley would completely disregard that dynamic in the downfall of Tupac. If anything, he leans on the tired, one-sided narrative that Pac was irrational, performative and over-emotional. He doesn’t even mention the well-known suspicious circumstances around the death of Kadafi/Yafeu - the only one who saw Pac’s shooter. Erroneously claiming that Pac accused Biggie and Puffy of setting him up only undermines Holley’s credibility further. Plus characterising Tupac as “seeking approval” from gangsters (implying a shallow obsession, born from insecurity), rather than him forming strategic alliances based on mutual respect to further his clearly-articulated agenda of politicising the streets (as Fred Hampton did, which Holley bizarrely misses) is also…questionable. Pac was right: his target audience was trapped in the streets, and Hip Hop offered direct way into their heart and minds. The rightness of his assessment and the success of his project led to Holley securing a contract to write this book. Tupac was right, but like the Shakur’s before him, his path wasn’t pretty.
I’m very critical of these oversights. Why? Because they misdirect the reader right at the end of the story. One might walk away thinking the Black liberation movement ultimately collapsed because those involved were just too criminal and self-destructive. To ignore the overall pattern of state violence against this family (all the way up to Pac) is to sanitise the story.
I’m fighting the urge to reduce my ratings to 2 stars but I won’t, because I appreciate the attempt overall. Combining these prominent Shakur stories in one account is important, and makes their legacy more accessible to a new generation. But that ending made me uneasy. What else did the author leave out?
Good storytelling, strange omissions/oversights
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.