It would be hard for me to be critical of this book, but fortunately, I do not need to be. I listened to it in audiobook form and progressed through it quickly. It reads like a series of sermons – jeremiads of sorts – admonishing us to value human life in every form. As alluded to in the title, they focus on concerns about race. As an American white man, I am systemically complicit and privileged in this situation even though I take personal efforts to promote human worth. Elizabeth Alexander shows me ways where I and we can do better.

In my personal time, I mentor a black young man in high school, and he is like a son to me. I wonder what his future might be. I try to keep him involved in good things (like school, football, and volunteering), but also am worried about social forces against him – forces that did not fight against me. He can overcome, I sincerely believe, but it requires more, focused effort. By identifying these forces and giving voice to their resistance, Alexander makes me a better mentor.

Alexander, herself a mother of two black men, was a professor at Yale University and is now president of the prestigious Mellon Foundation. Her words are eloquent, informed, and honest. She points out details that quietly contribute to racism’s hold on American society, all the way down to images on a historic painting. While I’m not sure representing such as a part of our collective past is implicitly wrong, what’s clearly wrong is that these ideas, rooted in white supremacy, still feature prominently in American society. We must continue to undo them.

For me personally, the first step, a recurring step, is listening. Too many white people like to imaging America is a colorblind society. We’ve made progress, yes, but we’ve got a ways to go. Listening to others’ struggles and being willing to advocate for them are things that I want to do, regardless of their skin color. Empathy makes me a better human; it makes humans a better species. Well-articulated essays, like Alexander’s here, help us in that quest. Though the night can be long and doubt can be strong, her words give me hope that we shall indeed overcome. ( )

No words. No, that is wrong. Two words. Read this. ( )

The Trayvon Generation, Elizabeth Alexander, author
This is an excellent book, (an ARC) written without wasting a word, depicting the emotional stress that black citizens live with every day, and it is easy to identify with the need for change. However, one could substitute any oppressed people and the book would be as accurate. Historically, oppressed people who have succeeded, against all odds, have had to work harder to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. The author blames others for the plight of people of color. She believes it is not their own responsibility to solve their problems, but rather it is the responsibility of the society of white privilege to repair the damage.
Black people need safe spaces where they can be “free” and unafraid. I agree, but shouldn’t everyone have the same right to a safe space, free from fear? Providing safe spaces for some but not others, implies others do not deserve to be safe. Are black people targeted for crimes or are they committing more crimes? Some believe it is their right to commit crimes, because it is their due; it is reparations. Attacking others for the state of unhappiness and distress one finds oneself in, is like an alcoholic or a drug addict blaming the bottle or the narcotic. An inability to recognize that sometimes our own choices make our situation more untenable, creates more problems and no solutions. While the author genuinely expresses the ills of society and the pain and suffering of blacks, she offers no concrete suggestions to repair it. The original sin was committed in Africa, when Africans sold Africans as slaves. This is not addressed by the author, rather it is an essay about current conditions in the era of Trayvon Martin.
So, is the community suffering from self-fulfilling prophecies? Some people are taught to respect the police, while others are taught to fear the police. Their reactions, therefore, are quite different. The author stresses the number of blacks murdered by police, completely ignoring the far larger number of black-on-black crimes and murders. The deaths of hundreds of innocents, not resisting arrest or committing any crimes. These criminals are not brought to justice because of a code of silence or because of the fear of gang retribution. If we excuse the crimes, they will proliferate. Most policemen join the force to maintain order, not to oppress a particular people. Yes, there are a few rotten apples, and they need to be weeded out, but so too, do the criminals engaging in the violence in these cities that are overrun by crime.
In school, students are taught about social issues. They do not concentrate on subjects that will prepare them for their future. When they graduate, how will they earn a living? Perhaps society is responsible for that failure to produce successful men and women. At some point, there has to be an equality of effort and respect for America’s institutions before one can succeed. Today, black citizens want to self-segregate, want to have more power, and want the education requirements reduced so they can achieve the same grade level as those with whom they compete. But to raise up a portion of society, they need the tools to rise. They need to be taught, not have their standards lowered to standardize underachievement. If you want equity, you must also grant others respect and allow them to continue to achieve, not deny them their progress because you have not yet reached that level. Who wants to go to a doctor or lawyer or a mechanic, who has been excused from the training necessary to make them qualified to do the job?
Changing history and removing statues that offend some and putting up others that are equally offensive to other groups serves no purpose. We must learn from our history not remove it from memory. Why is crime increasing only in certain cities? If we ignore our own culpability and always place the blame on others, especially those who are, or who have been, productive in society, we will be left with an unproductive declining society. In reality, we all have a lot to learn from each other, if we do not isolate ourselves.
Life in America is not perfect, not for anyone, but all of the society’s ills cannot be attributed to race or religion. Individuals have to own up to their own behavior, good or bad. Single parents, children having children, a belief only in oneself and not a higher authority, not revering a good education, dealing drugs, expecting a handout and a leg up, and normalizing certain crimes, does not encourage upward mobility. Those principles make life an uphill battle. Before we can achieve our ideal society, we must first address the problems of our reality, the society we are in now.
Fixing the injustices against one group by placing injustices on another is an oxymoron. This book, like so many, resorts to politics. It smears the participants of the rally on January 6th, which to some was only a real objection to an election that did not follow the rules, but ignores the months of rioting and looting by BLM and Antifa. The author makes mention of a Confederate Flag at the rally. That flag does not mean all people there believed in that confederacy, but rather that some people were hateful. Many BLM marchers said and did hateful things, as did Antifa marchers. Many blacks supported Hitler and the Nazis. Did that define them all? When marchers in Skokie carry Nazi swastikas, they are all Nazis, but we don’t condemn all of society.
The specter hanging over black people is brutal. There is real fear of being caught up in the system and of the system’s violence, but many in the world fear the violence that their demographic inflicts, as well. It has nothing to do with their race but with criminal behavior. It isn’t white privilege or racism that causes someone to cross the street to avoid someone, it is fear of that person’s behavior because of actual statistics. We cannot fix a problem if we do not recognize it.
There have been miscarriages of justice, but why is there no outcry to stop the black-on-black crime, the murders that are taking the lives of our future leaders? The loss of loved ones causes real pain. Why do the people resist those trying to maintain law and order? Why support the lawbreakers? Why make some criminal acts, legal? Don’t stop the police, stop the criminals. You cannot simply over compensate one way or another, because that is just as harmful to society. Which double standard is the one we should use? I say none. If we want to have a better generation, we have to have a better way. ( )