Questions: "Why must our children be perfect to live? Why do they have to pull up their pants, or get good grades, or be respectful, and have ambitions, to live? Why can't they be children who hop fences, cuss when they're out of their parents' earshot, smoke a little weed, hate math, have dangerous-joyful lives, make mistakes, and recover from them?" These questions and so many more are heartbreaking statements as they relate to African Americans or black people. We/they must go the extra mile and be 10x better, but that is still not good enough. It seems that we/they are only good enough if a white person deems you as “one of the good ones”.
Why is this so ingrained in our society? Jody Armour’s book is definitely must-read. Armour delves into stereotypes and the expectations of white society on black society. Explorations of race and culture are prominent along with a look at systemic racism and how mass incarceration is a part of the whole. This is a great read offering insight information into our current culture. I highly recommend this book. It is extremely informative and may help to provide a better understanding of culture and bias. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

As someone with an educational background in criminal justice, this book is very timely! These are things that are not generally talked about in this field, but should be. I enjoyed the candor and rawness of this book. It's something everyone in country needs to read right now.

Very good sample. The sample did make me want to read the full book. Very interesting to read the author’s POV. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this sample, in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.