Andrea Hope

Will You Break the Silence? Andrea Hope

Will You Break the Silence? draws from Martin Luther King Jr.'s potent observation that: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Through encouraging poetic verse and black-and-white illustration, Andrea Hope offers practical steps towards race unity. In May 2020, the police killing of George Floyd, an African American man who was suffocated while begging for his life, caused outrage all over the United States and the world. Facing yet another documented case of brutality against an unarmed Black person, the African American community cried out from exhaustion and despair, asking White Americans to finally open their eyes to the bane of racial discrimination and be proactive in its dismantling. In response to her own calls for White Americans to break the silence that allows prejudice mindsets to manifest into horrendous action, poet Andrea Hope heard a longing to contribute but a deep feeling of helplessness from White friends wanting to address racism both institutionally and at its core. This is a beginner's manual in poetic form. Will you rise up? And will you start today?