Being honest and kind of raw about racism and prejudice in our country is really the, it’s like the only way to approach it from all sides, every angle. And I think the important thing for people to know is that kids, young kids in schools today, no matter who they are or where they are very aware. They know about racism, they see it. They … it’s happened to them or to people that they know. They want to talk about it. They are not afraid to talk about it. I think it’s us grownups that get afraid to talk about it, like uncomfortable. We’ve been taught that it’s uncomfortable to talk about, but we’re not going to make any change or any progress if we don’t talk about it. And I think kids are, they are so much more sophisticated, mature, capable of grappling with nuance, nuance of feeling, with empathy than we give them credit for. I just think we do them so much disservice to try to pare things down or cut things out, or hide things from them. You really can’t hide things from them. I mean, think about yourself in middle school and high school. You knew what was up even if nobody was telling you, you knew what was going on.
For more author interviews, please visit ReadingRockets.org.
