Member Review

✨𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒 [REVIEW & FAV QUOTES] ✨ ⁣⁣
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Thank you to @simonteen and @hearourvoicestours for the gifted eARC! ⁣
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𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘒𝘪𝘥𝘴 by Christina Hammonds Reed provides an exploration of race, class and violence through the eyes of a wealthy Black teenager named Ashley Bennett, whose family gets caught in the vortex of Rodney King riots.⁣⁣
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𝘗𝘜𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘚 𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘒 𝘐𝘕 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘚𝘚𝘙𝘖𝘖𝘔𝘚 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘏𝘖𝘔𝘌𝘚! ⁣⁣
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Reading this book made my heart hurt. Within The Black Kids, issues like police brutality, racial profiling, privilege, systemic racism, identity, stereotypical behavior, rioting, family dynamics and even tearing down our own are explored. My word, this book was a reminder that so much has time has passed but so little has changed. Its like deja vu and it’s a no brainer, these issues keep happening...𝗪𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃. ⁣⁣
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Ashley’s friends though? They brought out some deep feelings. Microaggressions GALORE😒. At times we even see Ashley dimming her own light to excuse racist comments and behaviors 🥺😩. Can we think of a time where we’ve done this to ease the conversation? To check ourselves KNOWING that just our Black existence makes others uncomfortable. To make oppressors feel safe and welcome, despite how we’ve been made to feel? Of course we can. Believe me there were PLENTY these instances.⁣⁣
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There’s so much packed within this book, so many shifts of understanding for Ashley. Here’s a few quotes that really stood out to me during those pivotal moments.⁣⁣
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𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐐𝐔𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: ⁣⁣
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“Sometimes being different means hiding pieces of yourself away so that others people’s mean can’t find them.” ⁣⁣
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“These are the ads they play on Spanish and Black people stations - bail bonds, cheap auto insurance, ads in which grown men berate your very existence”⁣⁣
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“The system’s rigged against us. It was built that way.” ⁣⁣
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“If all the hero’s in our stories are white, what does that make us?”⁣⁣

This is what y’all really think of me? This is all I am to you?”

“We have to walk around being perfect all the time just to be seen as human. Don’t you ever get tired of being a symbol? Don’t you ever just want to be human?”

“They’re not as open with their bodies, as free with their laughter. They sit and whisper with one another. Them. Us. Our. They.”