{"id":14596,"date":"2024-12-12T15:43:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T15:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=14596"},"modified":"2024-12-12T15:43:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T15:43:49","slug":"if-we-are-brave-essays-from-black-americana-by-theodore-r-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/if-we-are-brave-essays-from-black-americana-by-theodore-r-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"If We Are Brave: Essays from Black Americana by Theodore R. Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2024, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>
\n$30.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>
\n208 pages<\/em><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

You may remember the first time a respected adult asked you in earnest for your opinion, and you felt like you had arrived. Ten feet tall, you were. Suddenly a grown-up with viewpoints and thoughts that mattered. What do you think about sports, fashion, food, school, a new apartment or neighbor? In the new book If We Are Brave<\/em> by Theodore R. Johnson<\/strong>, what do you think about current events?<\/p>\n

Every summer for most of his childhood, Theodore Johnson traveled with his family from North Carolina to Georgia to visit relatives. There, Johnson always tried to insert himself in with the menfolk and was usually turned away \u2013 until one day, an uncle asked his opinion.<\/p>\n

He still remembers it. Listening to your elders, he says, \u201cyou learn who your people are.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, Johnson was a curious child, never wanting to take anyone\u2019s word, preferring instead to make up his own mind. When a church leader at prayer call told him that \u201cGod has a special plan for your life,\u201d Johnson was humbled but he knew the prophesy came with baggage.<\/p>\n

His thirst for understanding hasn\u2019t diminished since then; in fact, it\u2019s ballooned.<\/p>\n

Here, he dives into democracy in America.<\/p>\n

Over the past months, you\u2019ve undoubtedly heard about the subject and you noticed that the word seems to have a lot of slippery meanings. Johnson believes that these days, democracy can be used to do undemocratic things and most people hardly blink.<\/p>\n

To \u201csave democracy,\u201d we need to question all the things that affect it, and then re-imagine it. We must examine why racism still exists, for example, and how it affected the last five election cycles. We shouldn\u2019t worry about changing democracy because we\u2019re already in the midst of change. We can look at history for proof of that. And we need to very watchful.<\/p>\n

Says Johnson, when elected officials use the \u201cinstruments of government to divide and polarize\u201d voters and public institutions, they can easily send democracy on a \u201cdeath spiral.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may seem like the kerfuffle over the election has eased some. Whether your candidate won or lost, you\u2019ve had time now to let it settle in. So read If We Are Brave<\/em> and get ready to have everything you thought you knew shook up like a snow globe.<\/p>\n

Like the Black churches he writes so lovingly about, author Theodore R. Johnson \u201cdon\u2019t play.\u201d Once you\u2019re pilled into one of his stories, you can just as well find a good seat; you won\u2019t want to go anywhere anyhow. Johnson uses tales of his childhood and his classrooms to lead readers into understanding how we got to this point, politically, and how we might\u2019ve seen this last election coming, had we just known where in history to look.<\/p>\n

Reading this book is like having a private civics lesson, only way more interesting than it ever was in high school. It\u2019s sense-making, at a time when many things don\u2019t make sense. Start If We Are Brave<\/em> and see what you think.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2024, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 $30.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 208 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor What do you think? You may remember the first time a respected adult asked you in earnest for your opinion, and you felt like you had arrived. Ten feet tall, you were. Suddenly a grown-up with viewpoints and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-14596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14598,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions\/14598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14596"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=14596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}