AUTHENTICITY, ACCOUNTABILITY & AMBITIONS

A memoir offers reflections on the African American experience.

As a project engineer and founder of the nonprofit organization B-Relyt, Johnson seeks “strategic” and “organized” answers “to solve the problems in the Black community.” Geared toward solutions, this book is “part-history, part-memoir, and part-self-help” but perhaps most poignantly is, in the author’s words, “my scream” as a Black woman who “had to work twice as hard and be twice as good…just to be considered average.” Divided into four sections, Part 1 centers on a prolonged conversation with Los Angeles megachurch pastor Cecil “Chip” Murray. He walks readers through a succinct but thorough history of African contributions to the world and of the role of Black men and women in the development of the United States. Part 2, the book’s strong point, is Johnson’s memoir that details her experiences as a Black girl at predominantly White schools, her role in the rebuilding of Los Angeles after 1992’s Rodney King verdict, and the struggles of Black motherhood—for instance, choosing between racist private schools and public schools in “the hood” for her son. The final two sections focus on self-help, both on the individual and collective levels, and contain reflection questions and space for journaling, as the work encourages readers to think about their own experiences with racism. Unafraid to “hold anything back,” the author is at times also critical of the Black community. After devoting a chapter to the mistakes she made in her own life, Johnson turns her attention to 10 negative character traits that she sees in different subsets of Black Americans, from those who are too “Bougie” to those who tell others “You Ain’t Black Enough.” Though its critiques of Black men and women may be off-putting to some readers, the book always balances these assessments with self-love, from its early chapters that highlight Black history to its concluding “Thank You” letters written to over a dozen of Johnson’s Black heroes. These include her parents, her husband, former President Barack Obama, and Steve Harvey.

An engrossing exploration of Black life and history from the perspective of a Black woman.