The Talk
By Darrin Bell
Henry Holt and Company, 2023. unpaged. Graphic Novels
Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn’t have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are. Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own son are ready to have The Talk.
Bell was the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for
editorial cartooning, so it’s no surprise that the artwork and story move
together brilliantly to create the whole experience for the reader. This is a compelling graphic novel that will
make you think twice about your own prejudices and reflect on how U.S. culture permeates
hate and violence on minorities. A call to do better by every child who is getting The Talk from their parents, so that hopefully someday it isn't necessary.
If you like The Talk, you might also like:
Good Talk
By Mira Jacob
One World, 2020. 355 pages. Graphic Novels
An intimate graphic memoir about American identity as it has shaped the author's interracial family in the aftermath of the 2016 elections.
Between the World and Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau, 2015. 152 pages. Nonfiction
Told through the author's own evolving understanding of the subject over the course of his life comes a bold and personal investigation into America's racial history and its contemporary echoes.
RBL
