It’s all there in front of you. Plain as day. Plain as the nose on your face with nothing left to tell, it’s all in black and white – or is it? When it comes to racism, says author Ijeoma Oluo, it’s complicated and in her new book “So You Want to Talk about Race,” there may be shades of gray. In a world of white supremacy, Ijeoma Oluo’s “blackness is woven” into her life, her preferences, her comfort level. When she was a child growing up in Seattle , her blackness led to questions, because her mother is white. As a student, it affected…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
It was a youthful indiscretion. A mistake made due to immaturity or naïveté. Something you did to look bigger, older, or bolder. You knew better but it shouldn’t cost you everything, should it? As in the new book “Cuz” by Danielle Allen, it shouldn’t cost you your life. He was her baby cousin. Although Danielle Allen was only eight years older than Michael, that’s how she always thought of him. He was a mega-watt-smiling, introspective child with an easy-going way, a beloved mischief-maker in a huge family. She remembers when he was born. She remembers when he died.…
Your life is entirely wrapped up in your job. You never aimed for that to happen, but it’s okay: what you do for a living has become your passion and therefore, you do it well. Life and work balance for you, but in the new book “Called to Rise” by David O. Brown (with Michelle Burford), you’ll see the balance tip. Little David Brown never wanted to be a police officer. Not at first. He really wanted to become a lawyer like on Perry Mason. Working in a courtroom, putting criminals away seemed like the best job ever and so,…
Nothing’s set in stone. Few things are. Lucky for you, there’s usually a chance to change your mind or have a do-over. You can often get another go at something because few things are that firmly decided. As in the new book “Sin of a Woman” by Kimberla Lawson Roby, you can sometimes have a second chance. More and more every day, Porsha Harrington got on Pastor Raven Jones Black’s last nerve. But Raven absolutely had to put up with Porsha, which was part of the problem: Porsha, inheritor of her father’s estate and mistress of Raven’s then-husband-now-ex, had given…
You can do it. Yes, you can. You just need to take a deep breath and then blow it out. Find the courage inside yourself. Think of something else and do it. Don’t be scared. As you’ll see in “Jabari Jumps” by Gaia Cornwall, good things come to those who get brave and take the leap. Jabari loved to swim. He was really good at it, too. He’d gone to all his swimming lessons and he passed every test. He was so good at swimming that he was ready to jump off the diving board. He even told his dad…
It was a Sure Thing. A can’t-miss, a safe bet that you couldn’t possibly fail – or could you? Isn’t there always a danger of losing in a gamble, or at least not winning? What kind of odds would make you take a risky bet? As in the new book “Be Free or Die” by Cate Lineberry, would you put your family’s lives on the line? Because the law in 1839 said that a slave woman’s children were automatically enslaved, Robert Smalls was owned by Henry McKee the minute Smalls was born. Because his mother was a house slave, the…
Your feet sometimes have a mind of their own. You see your favorite foods, and they carry you toward lunch before you even realize you’re hungry. When you’re faced with danger, they take you in the right direction, away and safe. And when you read “Super Freak: The Life of Rick James” by Peter Benjaminson, your feet just gotta dance. James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York, on February 1, 1948, into a family filled with talent and power: little Rick (no explanation for the nickname) was related to politicians and journalists, actors and performers. Even his…
You got this. You know what’s up. You’ve been schooled and you know how things work, how it is, how it goes down. You can do it, no problem. You got this – except when, as in the new book “Jake the Fake Keeps It Real” by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach, art by Keith Knight, you don’t. Jake Liston plays the piano. But he really doesn’t. He made people think he does, though, just so he could get into the Music and Art Academy, a magnet school for creative kids. His older sister, Lisa, goes there so Jake’s parents…
Your friends follow what you have to say. Whether on social media or otherwise, they listen to you and understand, ask your opinion, seek your wisdom, and look to your lead. With them, you live a good life. Have followers like those, as you’ll see in “Madame President” by Helene Cooper, and you can change the world. “This child will be great.” Roughly translated, that’s what a local prophet said about Ellen Johnson when she was born in Liberia in October, 1938. Those words were repeated in praise and in sarcasm as Johnson grew up, but no one had any…
You are on a need-to-know basis. You’re told only what’s relevant, and nothing more. Rumors, innuendo, extra little details, none of that’s important; only what you need is what you get. But read “The Lost Eleven” by Denise George and Robert Child, and you may wonder what else you’re missing. Hitler reportedly did not want the 1936 Olympics in his Berlin. Not a sporting man, he didn’t see the point, until he was told that the games might be a good chance to showcase his Aryan athletes. He acquiesced, and openly seethed when African American star Jesse Owens snatched medals away…