#diversitybingo2017

Title: Dear Martin

Author: Nic Stone

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Publication: October 17, 2017

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 

Official synopsis:

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.

Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.

This book punches you in the gut, teaches you to check your privileges, and makes you open your eyes to a hard reality impossible to deny, because "walking arround pretending inequality doesn't exist won't make it disappear".

Dear Martin is a very important book that talks about racism, racial profiling, and police brutality. It's a very interesting read, because it shows different levels of racism: from the most evident ones (shooting deaths of unarmed black teenagers) to those that are more subtle (jokes, racial slurs...). They might be different, but all of them are important, all of them affect people, and all of them are acts of racism.

This book also makes you realise that PoC always find themselves in this kind of situations and it helps you understand the rage of marginalised groups, because sometimes it seems like things are never going to change, no matter what you do. However, Dear Martin is a story that gives you hope, too, and makes you want to keep fighting to make the world a better place.

My only problems with this book are that it was too short, and I wasn't very keen on the dialogue format, but it is a must read and I recommend it to everybody, specially to those who enjoyed The Hate U Give. If you're looking for a story that's easy to read (even though it's hard) and makes you think, don't doubt it and go for it!

"Stories have a way of staying with us long after people are gone."