Sign-In
Cart
The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesRegional: Midwest
Publisher Price: $30.00
ISBN13: 9780063091245
Publisher: Harper
Published: Jun 16 2026
Pages: 432
Weight: 1.22
Height: 1.29 Width: 6.31 Depth: 9.27
Language: English
In writing a book about Minneapolis, Justin Ellis has really written a book about America's favorite lie--that good intentions lead to justice. Ellis is a rigorous historian and a visceral storyteller, and he has produced something essential: a reckoning with a city that wanted to be a safe haven for all and built a foundation that made this impossible. -Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians
A Boston Globe Best Book of Summer 2026
One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Spring 2026 Books
A revelatory look at one of America's most progressive cities--Minneapolis--as journalist Justin Ellis returns to his hometown to grapple with the quiet history of white supremacy in the wake of George Floyd's murder, uncover his family's story of surviving Minnesota nice, and revisit the city years later as state violence again forces the question of what a real reckoning looks like.
It's the North, they like to say, not the Midwest. It's different. Minneapolis is a city for everyone. But in 2020, George Floyd's murder by the city's police left many Americans stunned and wondering, How could this happen in Minneapolis? To Ellis, the real question is: What made people think it couldn't?
The Minneapolis Justin Ellis grew up in is not the idealistic metropolis it claims to be. The City of Lakes was built on discrimination-- in its housing, its schools, its politics--much like all other American cities. Black families were systematically cut out of the prosperous neighborhoods, lush parks, and pristine lakes that make Minneapolis a haven of the heartland. Because of its image as a liberal ally in the fight for civil rights, Minneapolis has rarely been forced to confront this fact. But when George Floyd's murder sparks a global protest movement with the city as ground zero, its residents must finally ask what being a good neighbor actually means.
In a powerful new epilogue, Ellis turns his gaze back to Minneapolis as the sweeping federal immigration operation once again thrusts the city into national headlines. If George Floyd's murder forced Minneapolis to confront questions of policing, power, and responsibility, the events of 2026 ask what those years of reckoning ultimately changed. Where fear once threatened to overwhelm the city's response to state violence, Ellis finds a community newly practiced in dissent and collective action. The crisis reveals a Minneapolis still wrestling with its identity, but also one transformed by experience--no longer shocked into awakening, but shaped by it.
The Cruelty of Nice Folks stands to be a record of a moment in time as well as a definitive portrait of America, documenting:
- The Myth of Post-Racial America: Reveals how the promises of the George Floyd reckoning faded, exposing a nation still shaped by deep inequality
- The Hidden Cost of Nice Liberalism: Shows how progressive spaces can avoid real change, allowing injustice to persist beneath a veneer of goodwill
- Minneapolis as America in Microcosm: Uses one model city to uncover the deeper roots of segregation, policing failures, and systemic racism
- A Personal Story with National Stakes: Blends memoir and reporting to explore what it means to be Black in a place that sees itself as fair and just
Also in
General Racism & Ethnic Studies
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paperback
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Fadiman, Anne
Paperback
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Iton, Richard
Paperback
Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West
Hyde, Anne F.
Hardcover
Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity
Corber, Robert J.
Paperback
How to Be Less Stupid about Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Fleming, Crystal M.
Hardcover
Scandinavians in the State House: How Nordic Immigrants Shaped Minnesota Politics
Bergman, Klas
Paperback
The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization
Farmer, Crystal Byrd
Paperback
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy a.
Paperback
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Paperback
The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception, and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers
Barragán, Carlos
Hardcover
1,000 Days in America: An Illustrated History of the Moments That Defined a Nation
National Geographic
Hardcover
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
Kara, Siddharth
Hardcover
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage
Thompson, Heather Ann
Hardcover
P Fkn R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance
Díaz, Vanessa
Rivera-Rideau, Petra R.
Paperback
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Menakem, Resmaa
Paperback
The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States
Silverman, David J.
Hardcover
Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation
Williams, Elliot
Hardcover
American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate
Lichtblau, Eric
Hardcover
The Iceman Inheritance: Prehistoric Sources of Western Man's Racism, Sexism and Aggression
Bradley, Michael
Paperback
Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises
Green, Erica L.
Benner, Katie
Hardcover
The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth
Fowler, Jermaine
Paperback
Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America
Solomon-Simmons, Damario
Hardcover
Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital
Musgrove, George Derek
Asch, Chris Myers
Paperback
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Revised Edition: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy a.
Hardcover
Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church
Sack, Kevin
Hardcover
The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic (Large Print Edition)
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paperback
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Fadiman, Anne
Paperback
Crime Fictions: How Racist Lies Built a System of Mass Wrongful Conviction
Gonzalez Van Cleve, Nicole
Hardcover
Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
Ewing, Eve L.
Paperback
The Japanese Way of Parenting: And What It Taught Me about Raising (Mostly) Calm, Caring, Capable Kids
Katayama, Lisa
Paperback
Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson
Curran, Andrew S.
Hardcover
Are White Men Smarter Than Everybody Else?: Playing Offense in the Fight for Racial Justice in America
Phillips, Steve
Hardcover
How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
Richardson, Heather Cox
Paperback
Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past
Brown, Dorothy A.
Hardcover
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E.
Paperback
Man-Made: How We Designed a World That Leaves Women Out, and How We Can Make It Right
Reuther, Karen Korellis
Hardcover
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Ansfield, Bench
Hardcover
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Ellsworth, Scott
Hardcover
The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas
Newman, Brooke N.
Hardcover
Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World
Hazareesingh, Sudhir
Hardcover
We've Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
Days, Michael I.
Dodson, Angela P.
Hardcover
A High Price for Freedom: Raising Hidden Voices from the African American Past
Ford, Clyde W.
Hardcover
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paperback
Read These Banned Books: A Journal and 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association
American Library Association (ALA)
Paperback
Was That Racist?: How to Detect, Interrupt, and Unlearn Bias in Everyday Life
Carter, Evelyn R.
Hardcover
For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color
Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, Prisca
Paperback
When It's Darkness on the Delta: How America's Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land
Eubanks, W. Ralph
Hardcover
Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Robinson, Cedric J.
Paperback
Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City's Soul
Shetterly, Aran
Hardcover
Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity
Beety, Valena
Hardcover
Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success
Fritzgerald, Andratesha
Paperback
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake
Paperback
White Women: Everything You Already Know about Your Own Racism and How to Do Better
Rao, Saira
Jackson, Regina
Paperback
The Priest Who Stayed in Gaza: A Witness to Hope in the Ruins
de Dieuleveult, Guillaume
Romanelli, Fr Gabriel
Paperback
The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians
Pranaitis, I. B.
Paperback
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
Bloom, Joshua
Martin, Waldo E., Jr.
Paperback
Blackinese: Reflections on Race and Ethnicity from a Biracial Millennial
Moore, Patricia Bradby
Hardcover
Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How a Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America
Ponce de Leon, Charles L.
Hardcover
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy Angela
Paperback
John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law
Lew-Williams, Beth
Hardcover
Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s
Fayer, Steve
Hampton, Henry
Paperback
Stamped from the Beginning [Graphic Edition]: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America
Christian Gill, Joel
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paperback
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too
Oluo, Ijeoma
Paperback
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race
Tatum, Beverly Daniel
Paperback
The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate
Dozier, Curtis
Hardcover
Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch
Freeman, Andrea
Paperback
Yoruba Mythology: Stories of the Orisa from West Africa and the Diaspora
Ogunnaike, Ayodeji
Hardcover
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)
Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O.
Paperback
Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants in America
Conlon, Deirdre
Hiemstra, Nancy
Paperback
A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to Covid-19
Bonhomme, Edna
Paperback
Black, White, Colored: The Hidden Story of an Insurrection, a Family, a Southern Town, and Identity in America
Noble, Lauretta Malloy
Noble, Leeanet
Hardcover