I picked this book up after listening to Traci from The Stacks Podcast discuss this book with Kiese Laymon and WOW.

It’s such a powerful book, a beautiful book, and a necessary book to read. 

As it says in the title, this is a letter to her sons. And from literally the first page she makes very clear how she feels about the comment “It must be terrifying to raise a Black boy in America”

 She starts off the book as a response “Between me and these others—who utter the sentence—the indelicate assertion hangs mid-air. Without hesitation, they speculate as if it is a statement of fact. I look into their wide eyes. I see them hungry for my suffering, or crude with sympathy, or grateful they are not in such a circumstance. Sometimes they are even curious. It makes my blood boil, my mind furnace-hot. I seldom answer a word. I am indignant at their pitying eyes. I do not want to be their emotional spectacle. I want them to admit that you are people. Black boy. People. This fact, simple as it is, shouldn’t linger on the surface. It should penetrate. It often doesn’t. Not in this country anyway. But no matter how many say so, my sons, you are not a problem. Mothering you is not a problem. It is a gift. A vast one. A breathtaking one, beautiful. One that makes me pray for an unmercenary sprit about what I am here to do, never considering it a burden or worthy of particular praise” (1).

Perry goes on to write about racism, Catholicism, masculinity, and history. Joy, pleasure, beauty, and relationships. She expertly weaves all of these things together. She is firm about her opinions in some places, and questions herself in others. She’s honest and poetic.

Two things she wrote really stuck with me that I think will stick with me for a while are

1.) “Awareness is not a virtue in and of itself, not without a moral imperative” (18).

2.) In writing to her sons about the bifurcation of her school experience to that her peers she writes “Ask a white personal about these moments and often the veil falls. Their moral turpitude lies naked and ashamed. Bewildered at the idea that they might have something asked of them to disrupt the hideous truth. This is what you are surrounded by. Silent witnesses” (9).

Do not be a silent witness. This is a time where I’ve been thinking a lot about moving from awareness towards action. We can’t just repost and move one. Perry’s work is moving and beautiful, delightful and sad. But we cannot just let it settle in the back of our minds. We have to actively engage with it.

Ultimately there’s a reason this review is filled with quotes- Imani Perry’s writing is profound and beautiful and important. And the only way you’ll experience more of that is by reading this book. 

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