New Book Review: Recollections About Race

Title: Recollections About Race 

Author: Janis Leslie Evans

Date: 2021

Publisher: Jahmerican Press

Length: 104 pages

ISBN: 979-8-9851559-0-7 (hardcover) ISBN 979-8-9851559-1-4 (paperback) ISBN 979-8-9851559-2-1 (ebook)

Quote: "I’ve led a pretty uneventful and boring life as a mental health therapist...but my gut told me I had something important to say about the African American experience through relatable stories worth sharing at this moment in time."

Some insects bite through each other's outer shells, not in search of food, but apparently just for fun, while mating. Years ago I read a researcher's description of a specimen as a "minimally damaged female." At the time that seemed a good phrase to describe my experience with the dating game. Now, that's the phrase that popped into my head while reading Evans' Recollections About Race.

Evans is a minimally damaged Black female: middle-class, Jamaican-American, nice family background, successful at school and in her career, with memories of "race" stereotyping that seem like little things, but they do add up. Boys picked fights on the street, but several White boys started a fight with one of her friends while he was with her. Newspaper photographs aren't usually high quality, but the picture of her the hometown newspaper ran reduced her dark face to a shadow. A teacher gave her a low grade for the term despite her higher grades on individual projects because he said she'd never succeed--interesting that she classified this as race rather than gender prejudice; she knew the man, but her basis for classifying his prejudice is not clear to me as a reader. She got into a decent university, made friends, joined a church, found a job, in Washington where she was in the majority "race" category. Nevertheless, she felt insecure. Sharing her memories, being part of a community, and demonstrating support for causes her community supported, helped her heal her emotions.

I have an unusual personality profile, balanced  just in between FP and TJ. I read this book with the FP side of my brain, mentally going "Really!" and "Say what?" and "Oh, that wretch!" and "When guys start fighting dirty, four against one, the Bible only actually prescribes a punishment for women who jump in grabbing their private parts. It says nothing about kneecaps." Talking about this kind of thing can be a bonding experience. Then I came online, the Twitter page I wanted to read was Scott Adams', and I saw a cartoon where one of the co-workers Dilbert seldom talks to was fawning on somebody higher up the hierarchy. "All of your stories made the same point. Thank you for this wonderful gift," etc., and Wally said, "Is he serious?" Ouch. I can relate to Wally's impatience too; in real life people give  nonverbal cues to tell us whether they're interested in the little stories that converge toward one point, or not.

So, other than the total TJ's who have no use for the process of bonding by sharing personal memories, who should not read this book, what types of readers should read it?

1. Black Americans who can relate to Evans' stories and use the questions she asks to open writing or discussion about their own "race" memories. Especially if they've been tempted to resent the stereotype that West Indians who are Black benefit from being perceived as "so different from other Black people, easier to work with, less embittered." Evans explains why this "lefthanded compliment" is perceived as a microaggression. 

2. Non-Black Americans who genuinely need to know why some things we do, sometimes without thinking about "race" in any conscious way, cause unintended pain. (The older I get, the more I realize what a trial it was for a certain distinguished academic, who was far from being my first Black (school) friend, to be my first Black (close) friend.) 

3. People who are stuck in any kind of hostile, bitter emotions, who can benefit from Evans' terse discussion of things that are likely to help. There's a worksheet. If the source of your hurt feelings is something other than "race," you can tweak the questions accordingly. It's a short worksheet, suitable for people who feel no need to spend months or years "processing" their hard feelings but want to move briskly on to thinking about, and doing, things that feel better.

Is this a Christian book? Well...it's a book by a Christian. It doesn't mention any specific religious belief or tradition on every page, but Evans does identify her church in the discussion of things that help.