Simple actions for changing your life around
“We Speak for Ourselves:
A Word from Forgotten Black
America” by D. Watkins
c.2019, Atria
$26.00 / $35.00 Canada
208 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
You could be rich someday.
That’s what they say: you
could have a great job, a nice
car, and a crib on the beach, if
you want them. They say it could
happen, if you seize opportunities
that come your way. They
say it’s possible to be successful
if you just pull yourself up by
some imaginary bootstraps. And
according to D. Watkins in his
new book “We Speak for Ourselves,”
they are lying.
Oprah, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye.
Of course, you know who they
are but did you ever notice that
they aren’t like most black people?
That’s something D. Watkins
sees in the books he reads
on race, in the TV he watches,
and events he attends: there are
“different types of black people”
and when it comes to news and
“maybe even in society…. People
from the street are absent…”
In Watkins’ world — “Down
Bottom” in Baltimore — gunshot
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is a common background
noise. It’s also common for multiple
generations of black men
to die by bullets, for girls to get
pregnant early, and for boys to
sling drugs.
What else do they know,
except what they see? Kids on the
street are not “dumb,” he says,
but a “street hustler mentality” is
given to them as a sort of heritage
because there aren’t a lot of
choices, opportunities are few,
and the need for money is powerful.
It doesn’t help that education
for black students is often underfunded,
proper nourishment is
sometimes lacking, housing may
be sub-par, “open-air drug markets
are real,” cops can be “more
crooked than the crooks,” and
“Black Taxes” exist.
And yet — Watkins is proof
that success is possible, but it’ll
take action: promote literacy.
Teach a child something. Get to
know people who are different
than you. “Be the person you
needed growing up.” Speak up,
but remember that your voice
won’t mean a thing “if action is
not added to those words.”
Sometimes it happens: your
eyes are open but you can’t see.
When author D. Watkins writes,
though, you’re smacked with the
very thing you’re missing.
Watkins, who starts “We
Speak for Ourselves” with a cocktail
party attended by elite blacks,
turns his attention quickly to
the majority of black people he
knows, none of whom are rich
or famous. This tour, if you will,
takes readers into his neighborhood
through a voice that quietly
hammers home the realities of
privilege, inequality, poverty, and
feelings of helplessness, but Watkins
doesn’t let us linger there.
Observant readers will find
simple actions for change-making,
and reminders that we always
hold the power to act. There’s
quiet advice for keeping a cool
head when wrongs are presented,
and a gently-urgent plea that
differently-backgrounded people
spend time together. There’s also
one hilariously subtle thread of
humor, so look for it.
No matter which part of the
sidewalk you occupy, this short,
quick book is a must-read if you
worry about our future. “We
Speak for Ourselves” offers the
beginnings of a map forward,
and in thought-provoking ideas,
it’s rich. Book cover of “We Speak for Ourselves” by D. Watkins.
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