I Am Brown by reginald kearney for the urban sentinel Recently the Urban Sentinel had the opportunity to have a conversation with LaToya Lewis who is the author of a kids book ‘I Am Brown.’ LaToya Lewis is an educator who lives in Abu Dhabi, UAE and she has lived there for the last six years. Living and working in the UAE has been a very rewarding experience for LaToya. She stated that the support system is strong in the area because of the shared interest among many of the American citizens who reside in Abu Dhabi. In writing this book LaToya wants to give a message to kids of all races and skin colors that regardless of your
received her degree from a Historically Black College
skin color you are still a great person.
and University. In this day and time can you imagine being criticized for getting your degree from a HBCU
The book that was written for the kids, is a book that
school and not a predominately white university? The
is needed at this time given the amount of racism that
parents were also pushing the racism that took place,
is taking place in our country. Her desire to write this
and this ugly action by the white parents pushed her
book was rooted in her experiences that took place at
to write this book. LaToya felt that the presidency
the school she was teaching at in Lakeland, Florida.
of Barak Obama was the fuel for the parents feeling.
The school was a charter school which had a board
There were times in the classroom where the white kids
whose members were parents who had children
made comments that could have been attributed to the
attending the school. One of the experiences that took
attitudes of their parents. LaToya wrote the book and
place happen because the residents of her community
the reception of this book has been overwhelming.
where the school was didn’t want her to teach their kids (white kids in particular) because she had
‘I Am Brown’ is a book about a young girl with brown URBAN SENTINEL MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER
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