Jarrett-Schell, Peter, Seeing
My Skin: (A Story of Wrestling with Whiteness)
[New York]: Church Publishing, [August 17] 2019.
I
picked this up as an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) at ALA this
summer. In unusual fashion, I actually was reading it as the
publication date arrived. It has made me stop and think about many of
the things I think, say, and do.
The
book opens with an incredibly powerful vignette of an actual event,
and is the author's Facebook posting of that event. The rest of the book is
divided by location and starts with a series of vignettes, followed
by a “debriefing.”
The
stories tell of his experiences of the racial divide and his
reactions to what he has experienced. It starts with his growing up,
and ends with incidents after the most recent presidential election.
The debriefing section of each chapter is probably the most powerful.
The
author is an Episcopal priest who met his wife in college.
She is also an ordained Episcopal priest. He is white, she is black.
I
think this a book which I want to sit and read again … that doesn’t
often happen.
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