White people don’t need to have “The Talk” about how to survive racism—they need to have a different talk about taking responsibility for and trying to change it.

Jason Reynolds introduces this informal memoir about young adult author Kiely’s experiences of Whiteness, which also serves as a call to action for White people to make similar reckonings. With humility and feeling, Kiely narrates his growing understanding of White privilege: that “what we’ve earned often comes at the expense of other people not being able to earn it as easily.” He mixes pithy anecdotes from his own life with trenchant statistics and historical context that make clear the huge extent to which people in power have “legalized, institutionalized, and systematized racism in America.” One section lays out all the opportunities Kiely’s White grandfather had to build wealth for his family, starting with the GI Bill, alongside all the ways these opportunities were denied to veterans of the Global Majority (a phrase he credits learning from Tiffany Jewell’s This Book Is Anti-Racist). His personal stories are equally demonstrative: When teenage Kiely was pulled over for reckless speeding, the police officer let him off with caring, paternal instructions to “go home, be safe, and keep your friends safe.” Kiely doesn’t mince words when it comes to accountability, but his conversational tone invites readers to grow with him.

Well-executed and long overdue. (author's note, endnotes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

-Kirkus Review

Includes a timeline of policies, social customs, and laws that institutionalized and systemized white privilege in the US.

Brendan Kiely reflects on his mistakes from growing up as a bit of a trouble maker in new jersey: mild shoplifting, speeding, and being a doofus. However, in every instance he recalls, he can find a case study (or multiple) where someone did the exact same thing, with the exact same intentions, and then ended up in jail, in the hospital or dead. The only difference? Brendan is white and the others were Black. In this serious book with some silly stories, Brenan Keiley calls on other white kids to think of the world as it is and how it can be harder for others to do the same thing, just be cause of their skin color.

What I Loved:

This book was written for white people to talk about race. While he does not discredit the guilt that white people feel when studying race in the United States, he does help put those feelings into context and why it's important to recognize them. Most race books for kids up to this point have spoken about great figures in the civil rights movement or have talked about terms in context of lifting Black and Brown people up. This book calls on white people to do better, with a message from a person who looks like them and has gone through the same thing.

What I Missed:

I can see how this book would be frustrating as a person of the gobal majority. The language is very gentle and it can be taken as coddaling the people in power. I see it as a gentle guide as white people rethink their world view. I think that this would benefit from more diolauge with Jason Reynolds- who does the forward to this book- and model what a conversation could possibly look like for people trying to learn more about the world. ( )

Brendon Kiely thinks about the ways in which white people rarely talk about race, the impact of this, and explores the need to have that talk in order to become allies and co-conspirators in addressing racism. It's accessible, directed toward students, particularly white students. It pulls examples from his youth and his learning, listening, and taking action in the journey as he's traveled through life. It could be used as a companion to The Talk by Hudson. ( )