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myevergrowingbookshelf 's review for:
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
by Emmanuel Acho
“The beautiful thing about the piano is you got white keys and you got black keys. And the only way to make the most beautiful, magnificent, and poetic noise is with both sets of keys working in tandem.”
Emmanuael Acho invites us to have those conversations that we may be hesitant to have, with him in Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man. As he says, it needs to get uncomfortable for us to make progress.
This book is incredible. It’s a fantastic way to start conversations, or to know when to jump in to another conversation when needed. Emmanuel covers everything. And even though this is non fiction, and he covers some seriously heavy stuff, it felt like you were talking to a friend.
I was shocked by some of the history, like I knew quite a bit before reading it, I still remember some of my GCSE history work, and I’ve read and researched other books, videos, speeches, films, etc. But what I didn’t know was that a black woman called Crystal Mason was jailed for 5 years because she voted when she was ineligible. She had missed the fine print that she could no longer vote as she was a formerly incarcerated person, so assumed she was still okay to vote, and even though her name was missing on the voting roll, figured she’d go through the checks afterwards. Let me just repeat that, jailed for 5 years for trying to vote. And this was in 2016, so not exactly that long ago right? At the exact same time as well, a white judge had deliberately turned in fake signatures to ensure he had a place on the ballot. This man, fully knowing what he was doing, only got 2 years. Compare those two cases. And again, 2016!
I could go on and talk to you about many other things from this book, I mean, that’s the point of this book isn’t it, to get conversations started. And I am more than happy to have these conversations, please do DM me, but I do recommend you read this one yourself too. It’s one I’ll be recommending for a long time.
Emmanuael Acho invites us to have those conversations that we may be hesitant to have, with him in Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man. As he says, it needs to get uncomfortable for us to make progress.
This book is incredible. It’s a fantastic way to start conversations, or to know when to jump in to another conversation when needed. Emmanuel covers everything. And even though this is non fiction, and he covers some seriously heavy stuff, it felt like you were talking to a friend.
I was shocked by some of the history, like I knew quite a bit before reading it, I still remember some of my GCSE history work, and I’ve read and researched other books, videos, speeches, films, etc. But what I didn’t know was that a black woman called Crystal Mason was jailed for 5 years because she voted when she was ineligible. She had missed the fine print that she could no longer vote as she was a formerly incarcerated person, so assumed she was still okay to vote, and even though her name was missing on the voting roll, figured she’d go through the checks afterwards. Let me just repeat that, jailed for 5 years for trying to vote. And this was in 2016, so not exactly that long ago right? At the exact same time as well, a white judge had deliberately turned in fake signatures to ensure he had a place on the ballot. This man, fully knowing what he was doing, only got 2 years. Compare those two cases. And again, 2016!
I could go on and talk to you about many other things from this book, I mean, that’s the point of this book isn’t it, to get conversations started. And I am more than happy to have these conversations, please do DM me, but I do recommend you read this one yourself too. It’s one I’ll be recommending for a long time.