Mychal Denzel Smith's Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream is an eye-opening look at America and the American dream through the eyes of someone who, because of his race, often feels not fully American. Like there are parts of the American dream that are not within his reach, like he doesn't embody what it is to be "American" even though this is the country where he was born. I wonder what group of people could have made him feel that way, hmmm?
It was really interesting to read Smith's perspective of Donald Trump's election and the history of America leading up to it, a history that made Trump's presidency inevitable.
So where do we go from here? Smith lays out a plan to go forward and not look back. I loved how he wrote that this country always thinks it has to "go back" to when things were better. But when we go back, the country literally just goes backwards or, at the very least, stays stagnant. What America needs to do is move forward, to pave a new path that will truly make this country what it should be for ALL Americans. We need to shed our old story to make a new one.
I think one of my favorite passages from the book is this one:
"...those who champion the lies are called patriots, while anyone who takes actual American history as its history is deemed a radical."
I know a lot of white people are trying to read more books from African-American writers. Well, this book would be a good place to start, especially with the upcoming election.
Stakes Is High is published by Bold Type Books and will be on bookstore shelves tomorrow. I received a free e-ARC in exchange for my review.
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