Letters to My Black Sons: Raising Boys in a Post-Racial America

"I want you to be fully present in your own life, a change agent who is not afraid to dare to be who you are. I wonder though, my dear sweet child, how I can mother you when I have not been able to mother myself? How can I give you the tools to survive this brutal world when I have not been able to craft these tools to save myself? How can I stand up for you when my whole life has been spent trying so hard to stand up for myself? I am not perfect. I am flawed. I am pregnant. And in nine months, I will be your mother." And so begins Karsonya Wise Whitehead's first letter to her oldest son. For the past 14 years, she has written letters, poems, notes, and words of inspiration to her two boys, Kofi Elijah and Amir Elisha. She has documented everything from their first steps to their first encounter with racism; from their questions about race to their questions about falling in love. She has borne witness to their tears of joy and pain, their cries of frustration and discovery, and the difficulties that they have encountered growing up black and male. Since this is her love for them poured out onto the page, she chose to publish them exactly as they were written-without any edits or corrections. "Letters to My Black Sons" traces her (and her husband's) journey to try and raise happy and healthy black boys in a post-racial America.

Author: Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Publisher: Apprentice House
Published: 01/23/2015
Pages: 174
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781627200585

About the Author
Whitehead, Karsonya Wise: - Karsonya Kaye Wise Whitehead is an Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland. Best known as the #blackmommyactivist, she is also the host of Today With Dr. Kaye on radio station WEAA. In 2020, Dr. Whitehead was selected by The Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women; by The Baltimore Sun as the Best Radio Host. Her radio show received the Chesapeake Associated Press Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary. In 2019, she received the Collegium Visionary Award from the College of Holy Cross and the Exceptional Merit in Media Award (EMMA) from the National Women's Political Caucus. The Baltimore Sun named her as one of Baltimore's 25 Women to Watch in 2019, and Essence magazine included her on the 2019 Woke 100 List of black women advocating for change. Her radio show received the Associated Press Award for Outstanding Talk Show, and the second-place Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary. She is also an Opinion Editorial columnist for the Afro newspaper. Dr. Whitehead can be reached by e-mail todaywithdrkaye@gmail.com or on twitter @kayewhitehead. She lives in Baltimore with her family and her quarantine puppy, #BellaReds.