With all the news headlines telling of black lives taken prematurely, brutally, and unfairly, I've become much more aware of both the brokenness around me and the privilege within me. It's been hugely eye-opening to realize how my own identity as a white, college-educated, salaried woman puts me in a bubble that protects me from so much danger, while people of color live in fear with a constant need to fight for their safety. It's sickening to realize. Books like this one are powerful beyond words. My eyes are more open now to what it means to be black in America in 2016, and although it wasn't easy to read, I am so grateful to have read it. I'm convicted of the ways in which I, too, have been one to judge or ignore or look down on others who are different from me. I'm broken by the truth that there isn't a neat and tidy solution to racism and injustice. I don't want to stay sheltered by my privilege but instead to step out of the bubble and into the brokenness where I can listen to stories like this one, let my heart be broken, and steep my soul in the truth of the world around me. I do not have answers. I do not know solutions. I know I can listen to what people of color are saying. I can hear their stories instead of silencing their voices. I can choose to not live like those before me who put people down because of skin color or ancestry or geography. I can start by opening myself up, and I'm grateful that this book could be part of that. Please read this one.