‘We Are Not Like Them’ authors share how writing the book helped them speak honestly about race
He’s having a nightmare about being shot by cops and imagines the college image his mother would use when he dies and his demise would grow to be information.
The work is fictional, however the writing permits you to see the world via a distinct lens.
All through their novel, uncomfortable occasions occur which begin precisely the form of dialog Satisfaction and Piazza needed their ebook, “We Are Not Like Them,” to sort out. The story facilities round a White girl named Jen and a Black girl named Riley, who’re pressured to cope with race after Jen’s police officer husband is concerned within the taking pictures of a Black teen.
The 2 used their very own friendship — Satisfaction is Black and Piazza is White — as a place to begin.
“For us, writing collectively as a Black girl and a White girl, and as mates who turned mates late in life, we had by no means talked about race till we actually began penning this ebook as a result of we did not need to,” Piazza stated. “And, generally, it is the very last thing you speak about. I knew about all of Christine’s horrible ex-boyfriends earlier than we really had an honest dialog about race.”
Quick mates
The 2 first met when Satisfaction labored as Piazza’s editor for her novel, “Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win.”
Over time, in speaking about their completely different backgrounds and the way they grew up, they had been impressed to put in writing a novel informed in alternating voices between a Black girl and a White girl.
What they did not anticipate was that their very own talks would really feel so difficult, testing the boundaries of each their working relationship and their friendship all through the method.
“Black folks, typically, are very cautious of getting this dialog as a result of we speak about race amongst one another so much as a result of it is a central part of life,” Satisfaction stated. “However while you meet a brand new White individual, as I met Jo as a brand new buddy, there’s, I believe, a built-in degree of apprehension there about what is that this individual’s background? What’s their household like? , what, what are they listening to on the dinner desk? What did they hear about Black folks rising up? Who’re their different mates? What’s their social circle?”
Then, there’s the anxiousness of mentioning race in any respect, Satisfaction added.
“Are they going to get tongue tied? Are they gonna get defensive? Are they going to get dismissive?” she stated. “So, I believe the rationale why numerous these conversations aren’t occurring is due to that weariness on it — no less than from a Black perspective.”
Fiction into motion
When Satisfaction and Piazza had been creating the characters and writing “We Are Not Like Them,” they noticed numerous parallels between their story and their very own experiences. General, the writing course of made them higher mates, they stated.
“We needed to speak about race in a approach that is not hitting you over the pinnacle or preaching to you,” Piazza stated. “It is a story about feminine friendship and the way two ladies assist one another develop and reside on the planet. However we additionally weave via race into the combo and we expect it lets folks get snug.”
Satisfaction is just not even certain race would have come up organically of their friendship with out the assistance of the ebook. Piazza agrees.
“I used to be full of an excessive amount of hubris. I am like, I’ve written about politics, about finance … I am going to determine easy methods to write about race,” Piazza stated. “And it was simply a lot extra of a studying curve, each writing and speaking about it. And I believe that reveals simply how fraught it has grow to be in our whole nationwide dialogue.”
The 2 stated they in the end wish to follow what they preach: Within the robust moments — within the moments when it’s troublesome or uncomfortable to hold on with a dialog about race — to pay attention and to push via.
“We needed to hold pushing via, to ship this ebook in order that different folks may do the identical,” Satisfaction stated. “This finish product and getting the story down on the web page may assist different readers and folks do the identical issues we had been doing, in a approach our characters actually turned a proxy for us on the web page, they’re having bother determining easy methods to speak about race. And there is numerous misunderstandings and apprehensions and fears and even blind spots. And people had been, I imply, not equivalent as a result of the circumstances had been completely different between Jo and I in actual life and our characters, however the general dynamic was [similar.]”
Piazza stated it is working to this point. Readers have been messaging, emailing and opening as much as each her and Satisfaction, telling them that they’ve reached out to folks that they did not know easy methods to discuss to or that they’ve had a falling out with about race.
“That is genuinely a ebook beginning laborious conversations about race in America proper now,” Piazza stated. “And Christine and I needed to come back collectively as former colleagues, and likewise as mates, to create a really business and really accessible approach that will encourage folks to have their very own conversations about race.”
