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If we are brave
Coming from Amistad / HarperCollins on October 1, 2024
The popular Washington Post contributing opinion columnist challenges readers to have uncomfortable conversations about race, drawing on the first-person perspectives of the author and Americans from diverse viewpoints and walks of life.
“The United States claims to be a nation founded on an idea,” writes Theodore R. 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.” The reality is that America is facing an existential quandary. 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. We use the same words, but do not speak the same language.
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 the American experiment through the eyes and experiences of Americans of different generations that cuts across race, ethnicity, gender, region, religion, and class. Johnson reveals the subtle ways that racialized conceptions of the American identity and the imperfect culture of democracy have hindered our ability to connect with one another, carefully piecing together first-person accounts ranging from a Rust Belt diner to the back of a police car to a jail cell.
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 Were Brave is a portrait of a nation at the precipice. It is an eye-opening, essential resource in a pivotal election year which will define America’s future, and a much-needed beacon of truth that sheds a bright light on who we are.
When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America
“Racism is an existential threat to America,” Theodore R. Johnson declares at the start of his profound and exhilarating book. It is a refutation of the American Promise enshrined in our Constitution that all men and women are inherently equal. And yet racism continues to corrode our society. If we cannot overcome it, Johnson argues, while the United States will remain as a geopolitical entity, the promise that made America unique on Earth will have died.
When the Stars Begin to Fall makes a compelling, ambitious case for a pathway to the national solidarity necessary to mitigate racism. Weaving memories of his own and his family’s multi-generational experiences with racism, alongside strands of history, into his elegant narrative, Johnson posits that a blueprint for national solidarity can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America.
Selected Book Talks
“Praise for When the Stars Begin to Fall:
What People Are Saying
“When the Stars Begin to Fall offers an impassioned account of what we need to do to save this country. Drawing on political philosophy and history, Theodore R. Johnson tells the truth about how racism remains an existential threat to American democracy. He writes beautifully about the resources found in the Black tradition that may help save us all. And he offers concrete suggestions about what we can do right now. In the end, the book is motivated by an unshakable love of country rooted in a renewed sense of civil religion that is not beholden to the idols of race. Johnson calls us to live together differently―to imagine a kind of solidarity with each other that finally leaves behind the very thing that threatens to destroy this fragile experiment in democracy. This is the kind of book to read and reread and to argue over. When the Stars Begin to Fall is exactly what we need in this time of storm and stress.”
— Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of the national bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton
“Ted Johnson melds his family history with political analysis in order to offer thought-provoking responses to the questions posed by Black Americans for centuries, from Frederick Douglass’s ‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July’ to Fannie Lou Hamer’s ‘Is This America.’ Johnson’s answers come out of his experiences of racism and patriotism, and he invites readers of all backgrounds to imagine that, despite all of the separation and hate in the United States, our fates are indeed intertwined.”
— Marcia Chatelain, Ph.D, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
“Ted Johnson summons the courage and clarity to call forth the better angels in us to face the existential threat that structural racism poses for our beloved country. He traces his roots to the deep and wide foundations of our republic and calls on us to work through its maddening contradictions to seek and find that ever-elusive ‘more perfect union.’ In this work, he challenges America to find her better self, precisely because he loves her so much.”
— Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans
“With an inspiring mix of passion and patriotism, Ted Johnson offers us a way forward. He blends stories of an all-American family with wide reading in philosophy, religion, history, politics, and sociology to develop a vitally important concept of what true national solidarity could look like. When the Stars Begin to Fall is scripture for a second great awakening, one that we need to create a foundation for the nation’s next 250 years.”
— Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America
Other Publications
Chapter 10 - Hindsight in 2020: Black Voting Behavior and the Next Presidential Election (June, 2019)
Chapter 9 - Parties, Presidents, and the Black Electorate’s Gender Gap (April, 2021)