Review: How To Talk To Black People

How To Talk To Black People by A. Anon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was an interesting read. I live in the rural south and my children have gone through schools that are very racially diverse, as financially comfortable white kids. They have had friends (thank goodness) from all different ethnicity, race, religion, sexuality and social class. Many of the characters in this book were stereotypical of kids that have gone to the schools or who live in our area and therefore believable. Even the ugliness of things said by Ivy from the beginning are understandable given her background and what she has been exposed to her entire life. If anything, it reinforces the need for books such as this one to open up the discussion rather than debate over how to speak to each other when our backgrounds are unique to our own conditions. In Ivy's case, she had ignorance from her family, loss of a parent and then neglect from the other and poverty to try to overcome in an environment of a well-heeled school system. So as awful as she was, I think her bravery in trying to keep going makes her a redeemable character.
So, although most likely for brevity, this seemed to have every stereotype possible to make the points on key issues, race, class, sexuality, it also hit many of these well. For my taste, I would have preferred a little more nuance and less obvious tropes but for the discussion purpose that this book was trying to meet, I think it does this well. I liked the willingness of the characters to have open and free discussions about social issues that were differences between them to better understand what life is like in someone else's skin.
I agree with some of the other reviews that there were some issues that seemed to resolve too easily, that in my opinion, would be unlikely to occur in reality. And I would also say that, even if a child is the son of amazingly accomplished parents and gifted in his own right, is it realistic that he would call out the local neurosurgeon on stage in front of his entire class (as the new kid) and be able to recite his mother's research? Maybe....but most kids don't care that much about what their parents are doing honestly. This does not detract from the story at all and I would highly recommend this book.

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