My Brother Moochie: Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty, and Racism in the American South

(Hardback)

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A rare first-person account that combines a journalist's skilled reporting with the raw emotion of a younger brother's heartfelt testimony of what his family endured for decades after his eldest brother killed a man and was sentenced to life in prison. At the age of nine, Issac J. Bailey saw his hero, his eldest brother, taken away in handcuffs, not to return from prison for thirty-two years. Bailey tells the story of their relationship and of his experience living in a family suffering guilt and shame. Drawing on sociological research as well as his expertise as a journalist, he seeks to answerthe crucial question of why Moochie and many other young black men-including half of the ten boys in his own family-end up in the criminal justice system. What role did poverty, race, and faith play What effect did living in the South, in the Bible Belt, have And why is their experience understood as a trope for black men, while white people who commit crimes are never seen in this generalized way My Brother Moochie provides a wide-ranging yet intensely intimateview of crime and incarceration in the United States, and the devastatingeffects on the incarcerated, their loved ones, their victims, andsociety as a whole.

Reviews

With a keen understanding of systemic racismMy Brother Moochiedelves into a rarely explored side of the criminal justice system: the families of the perpetratorspowerful. New York Times Book Review

Baileys memoir is a triumph, a painful indictment of American inhumanity woven with threads of grace and lovean extraordinary book about crime, punishment, redemption, and the empowerment that can spring from adversitynuanced, original, and remarkably clear-sighted. The Guardian

An elegant memoir that speaks to the inequities of the criminal justice system and the damage done to family and community when loved ones are locked awayBailey tells his story with a raw honesty [and] boldly examines the fault lines etched so sharply in our current cultural landscape. USA Today

[A] beautifully written book. Its author will inevitably be compared with Ta-Nehisi Coates, recently hailed as the essential voice of black America. But Mr. Baileys writing has much more concrete detail on lives lived one misjudgment away from prison. The Economist

A raw exploration of [Baileys] relationship to his brother and incarceration writ large, as well as an analysis of the factors that entrap young black men in the South in the criminal justice system. Electric Literature, A Reading List for Understanding the Prison Industrial Complex

Deeply moving and powerfully written[Baileys] unflinching account of his brothers suffering is paired with reflections on community, race relations, and the impacts of poverty, crime, and shame. Booklist(starred review)

Bailey refuses to make things easy for either his readers or himself; he avoids pat analysis of the scourge of racism and never settles for simple answersTheres a catharsis for all by the end but no smooth path or easy arrival. Kirkus Reviews

Eye-openingMy Brother Moochie represents a much larger story about the deeply rooted effects of systematic racism, the Jim Crow South and how race, poverty, violence, crime, opportunity and drug abuse intersect. Ebony

Bailey has a relatable, multifaceted story to tellcompelling. Minneapolis Star Tribune

Searing honestythis is what most strikes me about Issac Baileys brave narrative. In paying tribute to fierce, at times despairing filial and familial love, he holds a mirror to the reader, daring any of us to deny the most self-evident of truths: human beings are deeply flawedandall of us are more than the worst thing weve ever done. Carol E. Quillen, President, Davidson College

Issac Baileys book is one part call to action and another part mirror. A powerful reminder that we are given our skin and genetic fingerprint by nothing short of a lottery, but how we stand in it is often a product of how the world sees or doesnt see us.My Brother Moochieshould be on the desk of every schoolteacher, student, and policymaker in this country.Jennifer Thompson, Founder/President of Healing Justice and coauthor ofPicking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption

In page-turning prose, Bailey explores the self-hatred engendered in him, his immediate family, and his broader communities, by the intersecting oppressions of racism, poverty, violence, and physical disability. But this is also a story of redemption.My Brother Moochieis, in fact, two eloquently interwoven coming-of-age stories: the authors own story of growing up, silenced by a debilitating stutter but free to roam the streets of his neighborhood, and ultimately his country; and Moochies story of growing up, loudly speaking his truth, but only from within the cinderblock confinement of prison walls. The result is a read simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. Keramet Reiter, author of23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement

Author Bio

Isaac J. Bailey was born in St. Stephen, South Carolina. He has a degree in psychology from Davidson College in North Carolina and received training from the prestigious Poynter Institute for journalists in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has been a professional journalist for 19 years and has taught applied ethics at Coastal Carolina University and, as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, has taught journalism at Harvard Summer School. He is a contributor to Politico and CNN.com, has been published by Esquire, and is currently working with former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and The Marshall Project on a piece about his family's story. Bailey was a finalist in the 2001 Novello Festival Press Literary Award for a manuscript he wrote about his battles with stuttering and its parallels to the struggles facing his oldest brother in prison. He self-published a well-received book, Proud. Black. Southern (But I Still Don't Eat Watermelon in Front of White People) in 2008. He currently lives in Myrtle Beach with his wife.