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This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism
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About This Book
In this "vital book for these times" ( Kirkus Reviews ), Don Lemon brings his vast audience and experience as a reporter and a Black man to today's most urgent How can we end racism in America in our lifetimes? The host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon is more popular than ever. As America's only Black prime-time anchor, Lemon and his daily monologues on racism and antiracism, on the failures of the Trump administration and of so many of our leaders, and on America's systemic flaws speak for his millions of fans. Now, in an urgent, deeply personal, riveting plea, he shows us all how deep our problems lie, and what we can do to begin to fix them. Beginning with a letter to one of his Black nephews, he proceeds with reporting and reflections on his slave ancestors, his upbringing in the shadows of segregation, and his adult confrontations with politicians, activists, and scholars. In doing so, Lemon offers a searing and poetic ultimatum to America. He visits the slave port where a direct ancestor was shackled and shipped to America. He recalls a slave uprising in Louisiana, just a few miles from his birthplace. And he takes us to the heart of the 2020 protests in New York City. As he writes to his young We must resist racism every single day. We must resist it with love.
Reviews
"Readers will savor the well-honed language, but wish for stronger substance."
"Baldwin has become the iconic shorthand and barometer for Black ethos, his work and identity forming a fundamental part of our culture."
"In his eloquence and candor, Lemon is a lyrical and ardent advocate for what is decent, just, and long overdue."
"Invoking the zeal and courage of Dr King and Sojourner Truth, portraying even the proscribed accomplishments of Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen in the same light of heroic survival, his is a voice as essential for our time as Ta-Nehisi Coates and as compelling as Caroline Randall Williams ..."
"It's both direct in tone and obvious in content—the type of unsparing historical statement from an 'openly Black' news anchor likely to prompt some white viewers to clutch their pearls even as Black viewers look at one another and unemotionally remark, 'Yeah, we already knew that.'"
"Recommended for those interested in trying to enact systemic change."
"Long on context and analysis, this is a vital book for these times."
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