The Warmth Of Other Suns

 Book by Isabel Wilkerson.

This was an important and powerful story brought to life through the careful gathering of oral histories. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the root cause of the negative race relations being fear: fear of the unknown and fear borne of a scarcity mindset. That fear is what led to anger, envy, violence, and discrimination. The solution to the fear of the unknown is integration. If you never interact with people who are different from you (and I would suggest this applies not only in racial or ethnic matters, but also in religion, politics, and ideological diversity), it is easy to stereotype and dehumanize. But when you actually have genuine conversations, you discover a shared humanity, with similar goals and dreams. The solution to the scarcity mindset, or the idea that one person’s success causes another person’s hardship and therefore life is a competition of pulling others down so that you can prosper, is to recognize that economically, we  can all be lifted together. We are like boats and the economy is like tidewaters. Sabotaging someone else’s boat isn’t going to lift yours any higher. But when the tide rises, we all rise with it. And with that high tide comes the freedom to row our boats any direction we choose. 

The other big takeaway for me was how little financial prosperity had to do with happiness. Robert Foster became ridiculously wealthy, yet spent his entire life bitter, judgmental, obsessed with appearances, a slave to gambling addictions, and neglecting his family. It’s like he completely missed the point of life. Contrast that with Ida Mae, who struggled financially her entire life, yet found happiness in faith, family life, freedom, and meaningful work.

My one complaint about the book is that the author often repeats herself. If you already told me how someone got their nickname, or why blacks sat at the front of trains, or any other number of details, don’t tell me again. Trust me as your reader to have read carefully the first time. In a book nearly 800 pages long, there was definitely room to edit out the superfluous and tighten up the prose. Particularly at the end, I felt the writing could have been more concise.

Note: there are several descriptions of tortures and lynchings that are truly horrific. Age 16+.