The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick JosephMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Black Friend reads like a conversation with, well, a friend. As Frederick Joseph says near the end, "this book is a gift, not an obligation. The gift is in the form of an opportunity." It is, indeed, a gift to readers, both white people who want to learn and grow in antiracist action and to black people who are exhausted by explaining things to those us people and can (hopefully) find reassurance from Frederick Joseph that such explaining is not their job.
It is also an opportunity for readers to benefit from real talk. The book includes excerpts from interviews from a wide range of BIPOC individuals, and I really appreciated the various voices included. (As a fan of Serial, I especially appreciated reading Rabia Chaudry's comments.) Joseph intersperses helpful sidebars and pauses to interject helpful factoids or directions. And for those not familiar with all of the terms Joseph uses, he includes a helpful glossary ("encyclopedia") at the end.
The book will definitely appeal to teens, who will likely relate to the stories that Joseph tells about his middle and high school years, and is appropriate for middle and high school. I hope, however, that adults will also take the opportunity to read it. I definitely connected with and learned from Joseph's discussions about the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation, why some things really aren't OK for white people to say or do, and why we cannot engage in "the oppression Olympics."
For those looking for more, be sure to check out the great conversation between 2020 School Librarian of the Year, Cicely Lewis, and Frederick Joseph here: https://youtu.be/cStzJvI7QIk.
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