This book definitely made me think more deeply about my white privilege.

Powerful and thought provoking!
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America - Michael Eric Dyson


Ok, this a huge departure from what I usually read, but I'm making a point this year to read more non-fiction. It's something that I need for my soul right now. I have to stop always escaping into fantasy because the real world is out there and it's not going away.

Anyway, to get back on TEARS WE CANNOT STOP: A SERMON TO WHITE AMERICA. I felt that this was really powerful. It didn't mince words, it didn't just scapegoat one race while victimizing another. But what it did do is breakdown why we are having so many problems in this country right now...lack of empathy.

I see it all the time in my own life, my own work how this lack of empathy is eroding our society. It is as if if something didn't happen that way for you, then there must be something wrong with that person and they need to get over it. But, if you can't even try to put yourself in that person shoes, then how can you possibly begin to understand their plight.

But herein lies the problem with the book. TEARS WE CANNOT STOP: A SERMON TO WHITE AMERICA, while a fascinating book for me as a black woman in America, but I'm not the target audience. Even white Americans who fight for social justice and racial equality are not the target audience. It's the people who feel that blacks have had it so easy and white people in this country are being persecuted by all the black and brown people getting a free ride who are the audience. And I have to say, I doubt that this book will even be on minds of people who are not already open to what Michael Eric Dyson has to say not to mention the nightstands.

I hope that one day soon, we'll have better communication. That we will try to listen to each other instead of just surrounding ourselves with people who only think the way that we do. Because I fear if we don't our future is in a wold of hurt.

But the other thing this book did was outline some ways in which I've become tone deaf. I have turned a blind eye to hearing what some people have been saying as they are just racists and/or kooks, but that is just as bad. We have no hope of coming together as a country is we all just paint the other side with a broad brush. I pray that we can do this, and books like this--the ones that get you thinking--are a good start.

*Advanced Reader's Copy provided by NetGalley and Publisher in exchange for an honest review*