Plot Summary
Another Day in the Death of America
Gary Younge
Another Day in the Death of America
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016
Plot Summary
In response to the statistic that seven children die per day in America due to gunfire, award-winning British journalist Gary Younge’s Another Day in the Death of America (2016) examines the randomly selected day November 23, 2013, in which ten American children of different races, ages, and geographic locations lost their lives due to senseless gun violence. Younge chose these specific ten victims because their stories hardly made the daily news, highlighting how normalized gun violence has become by American standards, yet how extraordinary the crime rate is compared to the rest of the world. Younge traverses the entire country, from California to the rural Midwest to urban Texas, giving a heartbreaking snapshot into the lives devastated by rampant gun violence. This is not a story of gun control, but the consequence of the lack of gun control. Another Day in the Death of America won the 2017 J. Anthony Lukas Award, was shortlisted for the 2017 Hurston/Wright Foundation Award, longlisted for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-Fiction, and was named a finalist for the 2017 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
The book examines the 24-hour period between November 23 and November 24, 2013. Author and longtime journalist for The Guardian, Gary Younge, states upfront that on average, seven fatalities due to gunfire take place in America every day. Yet, on November 23, a date Younge chose at random, ten victims of gun violence lost their lives. Younge also notes that seven of the ten victims were African-American, one Hispanic, and two white, reinforcing the disproportionate racial component to American gun violence. The average age of the ten victims is 14.7 years old. The youngest was nine, the oldest nineteen. Younge also personalizes his reasons for writing the book, saying he has a unique perspective as a Brit, but also because he has “black skin in the game” as a father with Barbadian ancestry. Younge goes on to dedicate one chapter to each fallen child, noting the stark differences and similarities between them. Younge’s investigation lasted eighteen months. The victims’ lives are recounted through friends, family, media, and police reports.
The youngest victim to lose his life to gunfire on November 23, 2013, was nine-year-old Jaiden Dixon, who was shot dead by his mother’s enraged ex-boyfriend. Jaiden, a sweet-natured boy who liked to stay home and play Battleship and watch the movie Cars, was senselessly shot dead for opening the door at the wrong time. Similarly, in rural Michigan, eleven-year-old Tyler Dunn was also fatally shot by someone he knew. However, while Jaiden was shot deliberately, Tyler was accidentally shot to death by his friend whose dad had left a loaded Remington shotgun sitting around in the boy’s room. The oldest murder victim Younge chronicles is nineteen-year-old Kenneth Miles Tucker, who was gunned down in a car. The circumstances remained cloudy.
After spending the night playing the card game Uno with his friend, sixteen-year-old Samuel Brightmon of Dallas, Texas offered to walk his friend home. On the way, the boys noticed a parked car with its headlights dimmed but didn’t think much of it. Moments later, Samuel was gunned down in the street by a drive-by shooter. Samuel was buried on his seventeenth birthday. His killer was never identified or apprehended. Samuel’s father, Willie, laments how little white America seems to care about these instances of black children being victimized by gun violence. The news goes by “like a flash of lightning” on TV or in newspapers before the next fatality occurs, normalizing the abnormal rate of American gun violence.
Two additional innocent victims include sixteen-year-old Honduran Edwin Rajo and eighteen-year-old Gary Anderson. Rajo, a hyperactive child who probably should have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD), told his girlfriend Camilla to “make like you’re gonna shoot me.” Camilla did just that, unaware that the gun they had purchased was loaded with a live round. As for Gary Anderson, the only mistake he made on November 23 was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt. While out walking at night, Anderson was shot dead by a man looking for another person in a red hoodie.
As the book continues, Younge discerns between innocent victims and not so innocent victims, underscoring the point that even those with criminal records who made poor decisions in a “brutalizing, unforgiving environment,” should never be subjected to these kinds of senseless gun crimes. One example includes eighteen-year-old Tyshon Anderson, who was murdered in a gang-related melee in Chicago. Tyshon’s mother, Regina, expresses mixed feelings over her loss, saying, “I hate to the fact that he’s gone, but I look at it like now I don’t have to worry about him being out there killing nobody else or nobody else trying to kill him.”
In his attempt to contextualize the problem, Younge discusses America’s second amendment, which legally allows citizens to bear arms, and the powerful pro-gun lobby, The National Rifle Association (NRA). He also discusses how inured African-American parents have become, accepting this increasingly normalized crime rate, and rather than challenging systematic oppressors of poverty and crime, turn to personal responsibility to control the problem. Younge argues that there have been decades of systematic, institutional racism that has fostered an oversaturated culture of guns in the African-American communities around the country. Despite their varying degrees of innocence, Younge emphasizes that no one should lose their lives to such mindless gun violence.
Another Day in the Death of America has been praised as a “heart-rending, beautifully written book” by Kirkus Reviews, a “powerful and necessary accounting of one of the deadliest epidemics ever to sweep across America” by The Root, and “gripping and eloquent yet challenging in the brutality of its subject” by Library Journal. A feature film version of the book is currently in production, with British actor David Oyelowo slated to star.
The book examines the 24-hour period between November 23 and November 24, 2013. Author and longtime journalist for The Guardian, Gary Younge, states upfront that on average, seven fatalities due to gunfire take place in America every day. Yet, on November 23, a date Younge chose at random, ten victims of gun violence lost their lives. Younge also notes that seven of the ten victims were African-American, one Hispanic, and two white, reinforcing the disproportionate racial component to American gun violence. The average age of the ten victims is 14.7 years old. The youngest was nine, the oldest nineteen. Younge also personalizes his reasons for writing the book, saying he has a unique perspective as a Brit, but also because he has “black skin in the game” as a father with Barbadian ancestry. Younge goes on to dedicate one chapter to each fallen child, noting the stark differences and similarities between them. Younge’s investigation lasted eighteen months. The victims’ lives are recounted through friends, family, media, and police reports.
The youngest victim to lose his life to gunfire on November 23, 2013, was nine-year-old Jaiden Dixon, who was shot dead by his mother’s enraged ex-boyfriend. Jaiden, a sweet-natured boy who liked to stay home and play Battleship and watch the movie Cars, was senselessly shot dead for opening the door at the wrong time. Similarly, in rural Michigan, eleven-year-old Tyler Dunn was also fatally shot by someone he knew. However, while Jaiden was shot deliberately, Tyler was accidentally shot to death by his friend whose dad had left a loaded Remington shotgun sitting around in the boy’s room. The oldest murder victim Younge chronicles is nineteen-year-old Kenneth Miles Tucker, who was gunned down in a car. The circumstances remained cloudy.
After spending the night playing the card game Uno with his friend, sixteen-year-old Samuel Brightmon of Dallas, Texas offered to walk his friend home. On the way, the boys noticed a parked car with its headlights dimmed but didn’t think much of it. Moments later, Samuel was gunned down in the street by a drive-by shooter. Samuel was buried on his seventeenth birthday. His killer was never identified or apprehended. Samuel’s father, Willie, laments how little white America seems to care about these instances of black children being victimized by gun violence. The news goes by “like a flash of lightning” on TV or in newspapers before the next fatality occurs, normalizing the abnormal rate of American gun violence.
Two additional innocent victims include sixteen-year-old Honduran Edwin Rajo and eighteen-year-old Gary Anderson. Rajo, a hyperactive child who probably should have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD), told his girlfriend Camilla to “make like you’re gonna shoot me.” Camilla did just that, unaware that the gun they had purchased was loaded with a live round. As for Gary Anderson, the only mistake he made on November 23 was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt. While out walking at night, Anderson was shot dead by a man looking for another person in a red hoodie.
As the book continues, Younge discerns between innocent victims and not so innocent victims, underscoring the point that even those with criminal records who made poor decisions in a “brutalizing, unforgiving environment,” should never be subjected to these kinds of senseless gun crimes. One example includes eighteen-year-old Tyshon Anderson, who was murdered in a gang-related melee in Chicago. Tyshon’s mother, Regina, expresses mixed feelings over her loss, saying, “I hate to the fact that he’s gone, but I look at it like now I don’t have to worry about him being out there killing nobody else or nobody else trying to kill him.”
In his attempt to contextualize the problem, Younge discusses America’s second amendment, which legally allows citizens to bear arms, and the powerful pro-gun lobby, The National Rifle Association (NRA). He also discusses how inured African-American parents have become, accepting this increasingly normalized crime rate, and rather than challenging systematic oppressors of poverty and crime, turn to personal responsibility to control the problem. Younge argues that there have been decades of systematic, institutional racism that has fostered an oversaturated culture of guns in the African-American communities around the country. Despite their varying degrees of innocence, Younge emphasizes that no one should lose their lives to such mindless gun violence.
Another Day in the Death of America has been praised as a “heart-rending, beautifully written book” by Kirkus Reviews, a “powerful and necessary accounting of one of the deadliest epidemics ever to sweep across America” by The Root, and “gripping and eloquent yet challenging in the brutality of its subject” by Library Journal. A feature film version of the book is currently in production, with British actor David Oyelowo slated to star.