Review by Booklist Review
Civil rights attorney, activist, and Montgomery County, Maryland, councilmember Will Jawando has penned a passionate "love letter to Black men," honoring seven exemplary "fathers," including an elementary-school math teacher, a choir director, two of his mother's co-workers, former President Obama, and his biological father and stepfather, each of whom was paramount to his self-actualization. Each chapter shares a particular moment of his life and the lessons he learned from his father figures. Growing up in the Long Branch community, near Silver Spring, Maryland, biracial Jawando (his white mom is from Kansas; his Black dad is from Nigeria) details heartbreaking instances of racism and prejudice as well as his fraught relationship with his biological father. As an extroverted, smart, yet overweight kid, he was either "surveilled or ignored." Yet, buttressed by supportive mentors, he ultimately flourished. This candid and uplifting memoir has echoes of the memoirs by astrophysicist Hakeem Oluyesi, A Quantum Life (2021), and Michael Tubbs, The Deeper the Roots (2021), which also highlight the Black experience through the eyes of an enthusiastic and promising young African American male overcoming myriad obstacles. This book is a clarion call to families and communities to provide crucial support to young people, particularly young Black men.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With Jawando's ties to the Obamas and numerous TV appearances and articles, his impactful first book will receive lots of media attention.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this rousing debut, attorney and community leader Jawando brilliantly uses the arc of his life to root out how "Black male mentors... make America a more just place for Black boys and a better place for all Americans." He deploys a novel narrative device by tracing his path to "wholeness" through the stories of seven men who shaped his "sense of what it means to be a Black man in twenty-first-century America." In vivid and moving passages, he describes the impact these men had on him during crucial times in his life--noting, for example, how he rediscovered his "sense of identity" with the help of his stepfather Joseph Jacob, and how his fourth grade math teacher, Mr. Williams, left a powerful mark on his life by protecting him from bullying and racism. Another particularly stirring section sees Jawando reconnecting with his estranged father before going on to serve as the associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Barack Obama (another noted "father figure") in 2009. As Jawando lucidly details, the net effect of the loving support he received helped him become "a statistic on the positive side of America's skewed racial balance sheet." This effective combination of the personal and the political acts as a powerful call to action in these fraught times. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This memoir, by lawyer and city councilmember Jawando, is a study on the importance of strong Black male figures in the lives of Black children, particularly Black boys. Jawando is the son of a Nigerian-born father and a white mother from Kansas. Growing up in Maryland, he struggled with his biracial identity and racism, along with a strained relationship with his father after his parents' divorce. For Jawando, mentorship came in the forms of seven Black men he encountered in his community: his stepfather; a Nigerian computer whiz; a gay reporter; a teacher; a coach; a U.S. president; and, later, his birth father. In seven chapters, Jawando demonstrates how these men helped him reconcile his biracial identity and become the man he is today. VERDICT Jawando has written an enlightening, heartfelt memoir that will appeal to readers looking for a "different" all-American story; one that shows the power of community to uplift Black men in the United States.--Leah K. Huey
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A biracial Nigerian American lawyer, community leader, and activist tells his life story through the lens of his most important relationships with other Black men. Jawando, a council member in Montgomery County, Maryland, grew up in a neighborhood where a number of Black boys he knew were deeply affected by the violence of structural racism. The author believes that the reason he "became a statistic on the positive side of America's skewed racial balance sheet" is because he had access to a group of Black male mentors who nurtured him when he needed it most. These influential figures included Jawando's stepfather, who helped him cope with his distant, depressed biological father; his high school gospel choir director, who drove Jawando to college and housed him when he served as an AmeriCorps volunteer; and his mother's gay Black colleague Jay ("the first openly gay person who I ever met"), who took him to art museums and plays and emphasized the importance of being his whole self. Throughout, the author's stories and analysis serve as an homage to the importance of providing Black boys with Black male role models. "The multisystem disease [affecting society] is called racism," he writes. "How you cure it in Black boys is with the presence of present, diverse Black men who are willing to step up and be mentors. To be 'fathers.' The rewards flow to us all." While Jawando begins with the idea that systemic racism can be cured with personal responsibility, in the remainder of the text, he deftly uses his personal story to provide a trenchant structural analysis of how American racism plays out in Black men's everyday lives. His talent for creating striking imagery and memorable scenes draws readers in to his masterfully constructed world. Jawando treats his past self with compassion without ever skirting responsibility for his mistakes. A beautifully written and innovatively structured memoir of a biracial Black man's life journey. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
