Savvy's Reviews
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The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
This coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots. Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year. Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.
As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?
This book is powerful and meaningful for every generation present. I really appreciate the way the author could take a normal day in the life of a black kid in the 90’s and really represent how such a historic event either greatly or subtly impacted her. I think it’s important to show these subtle interactions between a teenage girl and the Rodney King riots of the 90’s. I found myself having to recenter my brain around the timeline because so much of this book could have easily been updated to represent 2020. I think that’s the most important part.
This should be required reading for the new generation. History really does repeat itself if we don’t continue to educate ourselves. This story doesn’t just touch on the history of the race riots surrounding the Rodney King murder. It also covers the everyday racism that black people were still facing in the 80’s and 90’s continuing on to today.
Police brutality may be the main subject here and while important, it is also essential that we get a look into the lives of our main characters and see the subtle racisms, the cultural appropriation, the backhanded compliments… This story is unflinching, honest, infuriating and educational on all the right levels but most importantly, it is relevant… still. Our characters are dealing with poverty, classism, systematic racism, and even privilege from both sides of the coin. This book is essential and affirming in the sense that we need change and our younger generations are going to be the ones to bring it.
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