Sliding Into Home Finding Its Place
I have been working hard on finding the right places for Sliding Into Home. Now more than ever I feel an urgency to bring the opportunity for dialogue about race, immigration, and diversity into the homes and schools of as many people in this country as possible. As long as ripping children from their parents’ arms and leaving them in tents and facilities where they may possibly never be reunited with their families becomes an acceptable reality in our country we must strive to make change. When black men are being shot routinely while in their back yards, apartments and on the streets of the cities in this country we must speak out. Not only must we speak out against these crimes of humanity, we must speak with one another. We need to dialogue, to be curious and investigate our own biases, and prejudices.
My voice is what I have to contribute to the efforts in opening hearts, and changing perspectives, and attitudes that add to the deterioration of values that lift all people to their highest potential. Sliding Into Home is what I have to open conversation about race in white majority schools and communities. It is a book about one boy's search for self and place in his family, community and skin. It is an introduction, a first step towards a deeper understanding of what it means to be white or a person of color in this country.
An expanded edition of Sliding Into Home will be coming out in the next few weeks. A discussion guide has been added to the back of the book. I will post the new discussion guide here as well. I am working hard to bring Sliding Into Home into the schools where I live in Marin. If you are a teacher, especially in a white majority area, and would be interested in having my book as a curriculum read please let me know.
“The status quo always favors neutrality which in truth is never neutral at all but supports those who stand against change.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
“Justice is what love sounds like when it speaks in public.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America