This book is a clarion call to wake up to the often blatant, but more often insidious, process of systemic racism in the United States. After a brief introduction recalling the experience of sitting next to the mothers of murdered black men in a restaurant, it opens with the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, who shot him point blank when Trayvon was returning home after buying some delicious snacks. Trayvon was unarmed, but Zimmerman claimed that he was "standing his ground" and that Trayvon was a threat to his life and the neighborhood he was on watch for.
Dianne is a white woman married to the love of her life, a black man who she has watched be treated in micro- and macroaggressions--including death threats--countless times. The heat is on, because being part of a mixed couple, many white people have viewed her as a traitor to their race, which has brought even more antagonism against them. Through the book Dianne reveals experience after experience of what she and her husband go through at the hands of white racists--from housing discrimination to being forced out of their predominantly white neighborhood because they stand up for themselves, and every day occurrences which are exhausting to the soul. Also, throughout the book, Dianne reveals the depths of racism she witnesses repeatedly, not the least of which is being on a community board which knowingly retains the legal services of a man who is the head of a white nationalist group which espouses violence against blacks.
This book is structured in a way that reveals the truth of systemic racism bit by bit, including a heartbreaking letter to Trayvon, and calls repeatedly for white people to take a look at how they are either knowingly or unknowingly aiding and abetting racism in the US. Dianne also outlines a number of times ways white people can stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution. She concurrently laments what her husband feels is the hopelessness of the fight against racism and expresses faith in white people to see truth and act accordingly.
One fact is that supporting Donald Trump and voting for politicians who use white supremacy as their platform is the surest way to cause harm to blacks as well as ensure the downfall of what the United States might have been, if only on paper. White people in the US benefit from racism, both economically and socially. It feels good to think you are better than someone else. There is the story of a white woman in the South during slavery. Her father owned slaves, and this woman was horrified at the reality of slavery. She was very kind toward the slaves on her father's plantation. But her father eventually died and she inherited his slaves. Slowly, but surely, the illusion of power over another human being overtook her, and she eventually became ruthless with her slaves--beating them and humiliating them every chance she got. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Though the names and dates have changed, this dynamic is still prevalent, indelibly etched into the American consciousness. Dianne's book is like a surgeon's knife attempting to cut away the tumor of this dynamic which has resulted not only in countless affronts to the safety and dignity of black people--including ghettoization, purposeful economic disenfranchisement, miseducation, substandard medical care, enforced poverty, pumping of drugs into their communities, shame and self-hatred--not the least of which is the fact that a black man, woman, or child is murdered almost every single day by a white policeman or vigilante or just plain a white person filled with hatrred. Even recently an 80-year-old black man in a wheelchair was beaten to death by a white man who shouted racial epithets at him while he killed him. That is the depth of hatred and feelings of white superiority that Dianne is calling her readers to wake up to and fight against.
I remember, as if it were a red hot knife cutting through my brain, the day my best friend's mother turned to me and said, "Brother, the white man will do anything to keep you down." I wasn't surprised at her words, because I knew the reality of this country, but I was horrified at the level of emotion in her words, her conviction that she was telling me the TRUTH. That is what Dianne, in her book is trying to wake white people up to--the role they play either passively or aggressively in a vicious game that takes no prisoners.
Dianne ends with hope for the future. Dare we share that hope? I have heard many times that one begins to change the world by making change within themselves. All one has to do is wake up to truth. TRUTH in capital letters. And in her book, Dianne is helping people to do that.
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