Hate, Mistrust, and Division

It’s been a crazy and insane past few years filled with intense emotions on both sides of the political aisle, being vented by people of all color and creed.

We’ve had to endure Harvey Weinstein and the outcry of the #metoo movement, along with Jeffery Epstein and his sex island for the rich and powerful. Some of the craziest entertainment came courtesy of President Donald Trump and MAGA. Love him or hate him, you couldn’t look away, you couldn’t stay quiet.

Trump obsession spawned on one side rallies larger than carnivals, and on the other side rioting, looting, and burning cities. With that came Black Lives Matters and ANTIFA and their war against cops. Hispanic and Latino immigrants, who dreamed for something better, led a mass migration we had never seen before. Sanctuary cities were formed overnight as right-wing nationalists hurried to build The Wall to protect the American Dream from the threat of rising crime and illegals protected by left-wing progressives.

And if you don’t agree with one side or the other it’s because you’re either a Marxist hell-bent on destroying the American way of life, or a white racist who must be shamed and shunned.

Thus creating the biggest First Amendment, free speech battle of the century (I can say what I want but you can’t), being fought with unprecedented tactics such as shadow banning, blacklisting, cancel culture, and critical race theory.

A Race to Judgment

Wouldn’t it be nice for someone to take all that crap, wad it up, and reshape it into an intriguing crime story? And wouldn’t it be interesting if all that crap centered around high-school kids instead of adults? Well, that’s what I did when I wrote my latest novella, Race to Judgment.

In this volatile time when our political leaders are racing to make America great again or claim America is back, we find ourselves judging one another. Race to Judgment, the second installment in my DeShawn Mills novella series, dares to confront racism and examine diversity in a way that will leave readers questioning their own beliefs and political views. It is an action-packed, coming-of-age crime story that tackles the issues of social class, interracial relationships, police misconduct, political influence, and sexual exploitation.

Everyone loves a good story, and often times social and political issues can become the foundation for a good story if not a great story.

My challenge was remaining neutral to the issues so my characters would appear real. This required me to step back and abandon my own views of the social crises plaguing our nation. I had to see it from both sides, and from each group on each side. Only then could I “tell the truth” as best I understood it.

A lot of the people I talked to when I was plotting the story were dead set in their own views; they didn’t agree with my truths. Some of them told me I, a white male author, was crazy for wanting to write about black people and what they experience and feel. How dare I even pretend to know what they feel. Others got pissed because I wasn’t taking enough of the conservative-nationalist point of view. There were some people who even suggested that the best way to deal with such issues is not to talk about them, not even in fiction.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll get canceled before you ever get published?” one friend asked me.

Sure. I know I’m going to face criticism, from both sides of the aisle, but fiction is all about creating conflict. That demands I not sell out to either side. I have to tell the truth about the issues, the good parts and the bad parts. It’s the only way my characters will become real people. There’s only one way to achieve this:

I can’t be afraid to write about issues that make people uneasy. I need to challenge myself to tell the story, and then challenge readers to engage their earnest emotions. If Race to Judgment succeeds in doing this, Aficionados of crime fiction will turn their emotions on my characters, not me.

Here is the back of the book description:

A high-school graduation party has ripped apart the lives of two young lovers after a rich white girl is fatally injured during a night of drinking and sex. Her black boyfriend is arrested by white cops, only to be released by the town’s black mayor as their quiet Kansas City suburb erupts in racial protests.

As the lines are drawn between black and white, private investigator DeShawn Mills arrives on the scene and finds himself on the wrong side of the fight. All around him, hostile emotions are quickly boiling over. If there is any chance of discovering what happened and who is to blame, DeShawn must act fast before the student body burns down the town.

You can read the first few chapters here, and can check out some excerpts here as well.

What do you think about all the social issues plaguing our country right now? How do you think a crime novella like Race to Judgment will go over with crime fans? Do you think a white author has any business telling a controversial story (fiction or nonfiction) from the point of view of a black person, even a fictitious black person? Leave a comment below.