Letters to My White Male Friends -- Dax-Devlon Ross, Hardcover

In Letters to My White Male Friends, Dax-Devlon Ross speaks directly to the millions of middle-aged white men who are suddenly awakening to race and racism.

White men are finally realizing that simply not being racist isn't enough to end racism. These men want deeper insight not only into how racism has harmed Black people, but, for the first time, into how it has harmed them. They are beginning to see that racism warps us all. Letters to My White Male Friends promises to help men who have said they are committed to change and to develop the capacity to see, feel and sustain that commitment so they can help secure racial justice for us all.

Ross helps readers understand what it meant to be America's first generation raised after the civil rights era. He explains how we were all educated with colorblind narratives and symbols that typically, albeit implicitly, privileged whiteness and denigrated Blackness. He provides the context and color of his own experiences in white schools so that white men can revisit moments in their lives where racism was in the room even when they didn't see it enter. Ross shows how learning to see the harm that racism did to him, and forgiving himself, gave him the empathy to see the harm it does to white people as well.

Ultimately, Ross offers white men direction so that they can take just action in their workplace, community, family, and, most importantly, in themselves, especially in the future when race is no longer in the spotlight.

Author: Dax-Devlon Ross
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 06/15/2021
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.10h x 5.10w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781250276834

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/05/2021
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2021

About the Author

DAX-DEVLON ROSS is the author of several books (including The Nightmare and the Dream and Make Me Believe), and his journalism has been featured in Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post Magazine, and other national publications. He won the National Association of Black Journalists' Investigative Reporting Award for his coverage of jury exclusion in North Carolina courts and is currently a reporting fellow at Type Media Center.

A New York City teaching fellow turned nonprofit executive, Dax is now a principal at the social-impact consultancies Dax-Dev and Third Settlements, both of which focus on designing disruptive strategies to generate equity in workplaces and education spaces alike.

Dax received his Juris Doctor from George Washington University. He currently resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Alana, and their young daughter, Ella.