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A review by krisboss
Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink
5.0
This shouldn't have taken me almost two weeks to read, but it did. I started it on January 4. I was reading it on January 6 when the insurrection started. In June 1921, Tulsa racial riots destroyed the upwardly mobile Greenwood. January 6, I saw the confederate (it gets NO capitals from me) flag in our Capitol by people who have been legitimized by a president (no capitals).
As I read I had to process every word. This is a young adult book that is a love story. It is also a story of race and fear. According to the author, it was originally meant to just be a love story, but her characters fit well into the retelling of the destruction in Greenwood.
Greenwood is a tale as old as this country. It started as a result of a white woman wrongfully accusing a black man of attacking her in an elevator. This is much like the woman in the park who called the police on a black an who dared to ask her to lease her dog.
It is also a story of two young people who have different philosophies about the way black people need to move ahead. One favoring Booker T Washington who says "Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top." And the other favoring WEB DuBois who says "I believe in liberty for all men; the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote; the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a Kingdom of God and Love."
We have not moved the needle on race much. We may not experience the burning riots that occurred in Tulsa, but we watched half of the nation vote for a president who is the very epitome of racist. I saw friends and family decide that a president being blatantly racist is NOT a deal-breaker. This does make one racist, whether they can ever admit it to themselves or not.
This book is one of many that should be pressed into the hands of as many people as we can press it into. White men and women take it for granted that our race is something we benefit from every single day we are on this earth. Only in God's home will we ever experience life without prejudice. I pray for the day when we can all serve our purpose as humans with no regard for race, gender, station, or who we love.
As I read I had to process every word. This is a young adult book that is a love story. It is also a story of race and fear. According to the author, it was originally meant to just be a love story, but her characters fit well into the retelling of the destruction in Greenwood.
Greenwood is a tale as old as this country. It started as a result of a white woman wrongfully accusing a black man of attacking her in an elevator. This is much like the woman in the park who called the police on a black an who dared to ask her to lease her dog.
It is also a story of two young people who have different philosophies about the way black people need to move ahead. One favoring Booker T Washington who says "Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top." And the other favoring WEB DuBois who says "I believe in liberty for all men; the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote; the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a Kingdom of God and Love."
We have not moved the needle on race much. We may not experience the burning riots that occurred in Tulsa, but we watched half of the nation vote for a president who is the very epitome of racist. I saw friends and family decide that a president being blatantly racist is NOT a deal-breaker. This does make one racist, whether they can ever admit it to themselves or not.
This book is one of many that should be pressed into the hands of as many people as we can press it into. White men and women take it for granted that our race is something we benefit from every single day we are on this earth. Only in God's home will we ever experience life without prejudice. I pray for the day when we can all serve our purpose as humans with no regard for race, gender, station, or who we love.