You know what I was thinking throughout this book? ‘Hmm… I don’t know, it’s a bit flat, not much is going on’, but that was just so dumb of me, I’m sorry. It’s not meant to be an action-packed story, it’s a short, simple book about a long standing and important problem of everyday life for too many people:
Aimed at young adults, this book demands from us that we realise that police brutality, especially towards black people, is not okay and should be fought against.
As well as having the POV of Rashad, a black kid who was badly hurt by police for basically no other reason than his looks, we also get the POV of Quinn, a white guy from his school realising, like quite a few of us realised I’m sure, that he has been part of systemic racism all his life and that that systemic racism should be deconstructed, even when friends and family seem to be parting with the wrong side.
This book was made to be a conversation starter (or continued conversation I should say) on racism, white privilege and injustice around all of those themes. As the author says, “We all live here. There are no bystanders. We all have a role.”
Dear authors, I will try and speak up more about this injustice and pass around this book, articles and so on in order to keep the conversation going so that we get to a point where we deal with them better.