If We Are Brave: Essays from Black Americana

The popular Washington Post contributing opinion columnist challenges readers to have uncomfortable conversations about race. “Johnson’s informative and reflective essays illustrate how the impacts of the broken promise of American democracy manifest in our everyday experiences, from church to school to work."—Panama Jackson, columnist, TheGrio

“The United States claims to be a nation founded on an idea,” writes Johnson, “but Americans—even though we nod our heads to that assertion—do not agree on what that idea is, what it should do, or who it is for.” America is undergoing an existential crisis. Its citizens do not share a common vision for a democratic system in action and, even worse, do not share a common vision for what the country should be.If We Are Brave is a keen-eyed and sobering examination of this rift and how race exposes and challenges traditional conceptions of national identity, national mythology, and American democracy. It is both a cultural exploration and a consideration of our national experiment through the eyes and experiences of Americans of different generations across race, ethnicity, gender, region, religion, and class. Johnson reveals the subtle ways that racialized conceptions of the American identity and an imperfect culture of democracy have hindered our ability to connect with one another.A beautiful but harsh indictment of a nation that aspires to be a more perfect union yet has consistently and painfully fallen short, If We Are Brave is a portrait of a nation at a precipice.