Black Nurse White Baby Please No African American Nurses to Care for Baby

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Well-nigh Pocket-size Bang-up Things

It'southward Kennedy's journey of coming to terms with her own racist relatives and white privilege, as she realizes, for the first time, the pervasiveness of American racism, that is the existent story here…
—Kirkus Reviews

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The publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: October eleven, 2016

This is the deliriously happy face of a #1 NYT bestseller!!

AUTHORS NOTE

Stream Pocket-sized Groovy THINGS by Jodi Picoult --Author's Notation by PRH Audio from desktop or your mobile device on SOUNDCLOUD

Well-nigh 4 years into my writing career, I wanted to write a book nearly racism in the US. I was drawn by a real-life outcome in NYC, when a Black hole-and-corner law officeholder was shot in the back, multiple times, by white colleagues – in spite of the fact that the hole-and-corner cop had been wearing what was called "the colour of the twenty-four hours" – a wristband meant to permit officers to identify those who were in hiding. I started the novel, foundered, and quit. I couldn't do justice to the topic, somehow. I didn't know what it was like to grow upward Black in this land, and I was having trouble creating a fictional character that rang true.

Flash forward twenty years. Once again, I badly wanted to write about racism. I was uncomfortably aware that when white authors talked nigh racism in fiction, it was usually historical. And once again, what right did I take to write about an experience I had not lived? Then again, if I'd only written what I knew, my career would have been short and tedious. I grew upward white and class-privileged. For years I had done my homework and my inquiry, using extensive personal interviews to aqueduct the voices of people I was non: men, teenagers, suicidal people, driveling wives, rape victims. What led me to write those stories was my outrage and my desire to give those narratives air fourth dimension, and then that those who hadn't experienced them became more enlightened. Why was writing near a person of color any different?

Because race is different. Racism is different. It'due south fraught, and it'southward hard to discuss, and and then as a result we often don't.

So I read a news story about an African-American nurse in Flint, MI. She had worked in labor and delivery for over twenty years, and and then 1 24-hour interval a babe's dad asked to see her supervisor. He requested that this nurse, and those who look like her, not touch his baby. He turned out to be a White Supremacist. The supervisor put the patient asking in the file, and a agglomeration of African-American personnel sued for discrimination and won. Merely information technology got me thinking, and I began to weave a story.

I knew that I wanted to write from the point of view of a Black nurse, a skinhead father, and a public defender – a woman who, similar me, and like many of my readers, was a well-intentioned white lady who would never consider herself to exist a racist. Suddenly I knew that I could, and would, end this novel. Unlike my kickoff aborted foray, I wasn't writing information technology to tell people of color what their own lives were like. I was writing to my own customs – white people – who tin can very hands bespeak to a Neo-Nazi skinhead and say he's a racist…but who can't recognize racism in themselves.

Truth be told, I might equally well have been describing myself not so long ago. I am often told past readers how much they've learned from my books – but when I write a novel, I larn a lot also. This time, though, I was learning almost myself. I was exploring my by, my upbringing, my biases, and I was discovering that I was not as blameless and progressive equally I had imagined.

Most of united states think the word "racism" is synonymous with the discussion "prejudice." But racism is more than simply discrimination based on skin color. It'south likewise about who has institutional power. Merely as racism creates disadvantages for people of color that make success harder to achieve, it also gives advantages to white people that make success easier to achieve. It's hard to encounter those advantages, much less own up to them. And that, I realized, was why I had to write this volume. When information technology comes to social justice, the role of the white marry is not to exist a savior or a fixer. Instead, the function of the ally is to find other white people and to talk to make them see that many of the benefits they've enjoyed in life are a direct result of the fact that someone else did not have the same benefits.

I began my research by sitting downward with women of color. Although I knew that peppering people of color with questions is not the best way to educate oneself, I hoped to invite these women into a process, and in render they gave me a gift: they shared their experiences nearly what it actually feels like to be Black. I remain so grateful to these women – not only for tolerating my ignorance, merely for being willing to teach me. Then I had the pleasure of talking to Beverly Daniel Tatum, former president of Spelman College and a renowned racial educator. I read books by Dr. Tatum, Debby Irving, Michelle Alexander, and David Shipler. I enrolled in a social justice workshop chosen Undoing Racism, and left in tears every night, as I began to peel dorsum the veneer of who I idea I was from who I truly am.

Then I met with two former skinheads, to develop a vocabulary of detest for my White Supremacist graphic symbol. My girl Sammy was the one who found Tim Zaal – a former skinhead who had Skyped with her course in high schoolhouse. Years ago, Tim beat out upward and left a gay homo for dead. After getting out of the Movement, he started to work at the Simon Weisenthal Eye talking about hate crimes and realized one day that the man he had left for dead worked there likewise. In that location were apologies and forgiveness, and at present, they are friends who talk about their unique experience to groups every calendar week. He also is happily married, now, to a Jewish woman. Frankie Meeink, another former skinhead, works with the Anti-Defamation League. Later recruiting for hate crews in Philly, he now runs Harmony through Hockey – a program to promote racial diversity among kids.

These men taught me that the White Power groups believe in the separation of the races and think they are soldiers in a racial holy state of war. They explained how recruiters for hate groups would target kids who are bullied, marginalized, or who come from abusive homes. They'd distribute anti-white flyers into a white neighborhood and run into who responded by saying that the whites were nether attack. And so they'd arroyo those folks and say You're not alone. The point was to redirect the recruit'southward rage into racism. Violence became a release, a mandate. They also taught me that at present, most skinhead groups are not crews seeking out violence, simply rather individuals who are networking underground. Nowadays, White Supremacists dress similar ordinary folks. They alloy in, which is a whole different kind of terror.

When it came time to championship this book, I found myself struggling again. Many of yous who are long-fourth dimension fans of mine know this was not the original proper name of the novel. SMALL GREAT THINGS is a reference to a quote frequently attributed to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "If I cannot exercise great things, I tin can practise small things that are peachy." But as a white adult female, did I have the right to paraphrase these sentiments? Many in the African-American community are sensitive to white people using Martin Luther King, Jr.'south words to reflect their own experience, and with good reason. However, I also knew that both Ruth and Kennedy accept moments in this novel where they practise a minor thing that has keen and lasting repercussions for others. Plus, for many whites who are merely beginning to travel the path of racial self-sensation, Dr. Male monarch'southward words are often the first step of the journeying. His eloquence about a field of study about of usa feel inadequate putting into words is inspiring and humbling. Moreover, although individual changes cannot completely eradicate racism -- there are systems and institutions that need to be overhauled as well – it is through small acts that racism is both perpetuated and partially dismantled. For all of these reasons – and because I hope it will encourage people to learn more almost Dr. Male monarch -- I chose this title.

Of all my novels, this volume will stand out for me because of the sea change information technology inspired in the mode I remember virtually myself, and considering information technology made me aware of the altitude I have yet to go when it comes to racial awareness. In America, we like to recollect that the reason nosotros accept had success is because nosotros worked hard or we were smart. Admitting that racism has played a part in our success means albeit that the American dream isn't quite so accessible to all. A social justice educator named Peggy McIntosh has pointed out some of these advantages: having access to jobs and housing, for instance. Walking into a random hair salon and finding someone who can cut your hair. Ownership dolls, toys, and children's books that characteristic people of your race. Getting a promotion without someone suspecting that it was due to your peel colour. Asking to speak to someone in charge, and being directed to someone of your race.

When I was researching this book I asked white mothers how often they talked almost racism with their children. Some said occasionally; some admitted they never discussed information technology. When I asked the aforementioned question of Black mothers, they all said, Every solar day.

I've come to encounter that ignorance is a privilege, as well.

So what have I learned that is helpful? Well, if you are white, like I am, y'all tin can't get rid of the privilege you take, only you can use it for expert. Don't say "I don't even detect race!" like it's a adept thing. Instead, recognize that differences betwixt people brand it harder for some to cross a end line, and create fair paths to success for everyone that accommodates those differences. Educate yourself. If you think someone's vocalisation is being ignored, tell others to heed. If your friend makes a racist joke, call him out on it, instead of just going along with it. If the ii one-time skinheads I met tin have such a consummate change of center, I feel confident that ordinary people can, too.

I look pushback from this volume. I will have people of color challenging me for choosing a topic that doesn't belong to me. I will have white people challenging me for calling them out on their racism. Believe me, I didn't write this novel because I thought it would be fun or easy. I wrote it because I believed it was the right thing to do, and because the things that make us most uncomfortable are the things that teach us what we all demand to know. As Roxana Robinson said, "A writer is similar a tuning fork: we answer when nosotros're struck by something…If nosotros're lucky we'll transmit a strong pure note, one that isn't ours, but which passes through us." To the Blackness people reading Modest GREAT THINGS – I hope I listened well enough to those in your community who opened their hearts to me to be able to represent your experiences with accuracy. And to the white people reading SMALL GREAT THINGS – nosotros are all works in progress. Personally, I don't have the answers and I am still evolving daily.

There is a fire raging and nosotros accept two choices: we tin turn our backs, or we can try to fight it. Yes, talking about racism is hard to do, and yes, we stumble over the words—simply we who are white need to have this discussion amongst ourselves. Considering then, even more of u.s. will overhear and then, I hope, the conversation volition spread.

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I've read Small Nifty Things, and I want to DO something. Help?!

I am not a social justice educator, so I tin offer advice only as someone who is all the same a piece of work in progress. The first thing I can tell you is what Non to do:

1. Don't say you're colorblind. That ignores the bear upon racism has had on others.
2. Don't say "Well, I'm gay/Jewish/female..I'm a minority too!" Over again, this robs people of color of THEIR narratives.
3. Don't say "I accept Black friends!" It assumes that one person represents the whole of the race. And FYI, if y'all don't sit downwards and talk about racism with that Black friend of yours, you aren't a truthful friend.
4. Don't assume y'all need to be nowadays at all conversations almost race. Information technology'south okay to exist excluded and to yield the floor and the microphone to leaders within the Black community.
5. Don't be a savior. Your job is not to come into a community to "fix" it. Your job is to say, "Exercise you need help? If so, what would you like me to do?"
6. Don't say "All Lives Matter!" Yes, of course all lives matter. Only it's like going to the doctor with a broken arm – and he says, "All bones thing!" True, only correct at that moment you need the Broken one fixed. All lives CAN'T matter until the ane type that is being threatened daily is no longer a pressing problem. For this reason, Blackness Lives Matter.

What you lot SHOULD practice:

1. Know the divergence between equal and equitable. Equal ways THE SAME. Equitable ways FAIR. If you had a blind student in your classroom would you lot requite her a written test? No, you'd requite a Braille i with the same material on information technology. Likewise it is of import to realize that because people of colour may be at a disadvantage (be in in wellness intendance, jobs, education) information technology is necessary to level the playing field, to make success fair and possible for all.
2. Educate yourself. Information technology's not the job of people of color to teach you their history. Certain, you know Martin Luther Male monarch Jr, and Rosa Parks. Practice you know who Henry Ossian Flipper is? Lewis Latimer?
3. Feel uneasy. Put yourself into a position where you are not the majority in the room. You may feel uncomfortable – only then again, comfort is a privilege, not a right. And people of color oftentimes don't experience comfortable.
4. Notice your tailwinds. Claiming your uncle when he tells a racist joke at Thanksgiving. If yous're at a meeting and discover white men are doing most of the talking, suggest that you hear from someone who's phonation hasn't been heard yet.
5. Talk to those who look like y'all. Ane reward to being white is having access to places that are primarily full of white people. Talk well-nigh race in that location, even if there aren't people of colour effectually. Get people to recognize and empathise their privilege.

6. Read authors of color »

   A really like shooting fish in a barrel way to starting time to claiming implicit racism is to look at your bookshelf. Who are you reading? For every white writer, make sure yous choose an author of color to read next: Colson Whitehead, Octavia Butler, Celeste Ng, Nicola Yoon, Jesmyn Ward, Toni Morrison, Jacqueline Woodson, Ta-Nehesi Coates, Nnedi Okurafor, Jason Reynolds, Nic Rock, Walter Mosley, Zadie Smith, Roxane Gay, Christina Henriquez, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan, Junot Diaz, Sabaa Tahir, Issa Rae, Tracy 1000 Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Edwidge Danticat, Lisa Run into, Sherman Alexie, Ellen Oh, Sandra Cisneros…shall I go along??

A really great little mnemonic device is one I stole from Kayla Reed, a Black activist on Twitter: Ally: A (lways eye the impacted), L(isten and learn from those who live in the oppression, L(everage your privilege), Y(ield the flooring).

Finally, if you have time or money, consider donating to a group similar Black Lives Thing, Showing Upward For Racial Justice, Race Forward, or a local community group that promotes racial justice.

Q + A

Small Nifty Things questions, answers & interviews

Some books leave you thinking. This ane gets you talking.

Book order discussion questions

1. The title alludes to a quote attributed oftentimes to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "If I cannot do great things, I can do small things that are corking." In what ways do the actions of each of the narrators back up this statement?
2. Do you lot remember legal activity would accept been brought against Ruth if she were white? How far back in the story do you demand to become to consider this outcome?
3. Turk'south ideology targets black people, people of Jewish heritage, and queer people.* With that in mind, consider the below iii questions:
4. • Do you think legal action would have been brought against Ruth if she was of Eastern European Jewish heritage?
   • Practice you recollect legal action would have been brought confronting Ruth if her sexual orientation were other than heterosexual?
   • What are the similarities and differences betwixt these three identities in terms of navigating hate groups? Everyday life in America?
5. Of the three main characters, Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk, who exercise you most relate to? Why?
6. Were there moments in each of the three characters' stories that you could relate to and/or feel pity for?
7. How do each of the below systems contribute to Ruth'southward sense of place as a Black woman in America?
8. • Transportation
   • Education
   • Health care
   • Housing
   • Lending
   • Food supply
   • Human Resources
   • Policing
   • Judicial
   • Media
9. White people have a historical habit of 'helping' and 'fixing' people whom they deem 'other' and inferior. This damaging pattern even has a proper name: "White Savior Syndrome." The ultimate, and deadly, irony is that it serves by and large to reinforce ideas about white superiority and white goodness. Can y'all give iii historical examples of this? Can you detect 3 moments in this story where Kennedy falls into that inherited behavioral design?
10. What do you retrieve Kennedy learns in this story about the ways being white has shielded her from racial discrimination? Did you experience she was open up to learning? If yes, how did she demonstrate that? If no, how did she demonstrate that?
11. Tin white nationalists such as Turk and Brittney perpetuate racism? How?
12. Can people such every bit the hospital lawyer, the gauge, Kennedy, or the law perpetuate racism? How?
13. We see Kennedy wrestling with her ain inner bias and racial conditioning. (add some examples here) Are you lot in impact with your inner bias and racial conditioning? Tin can you list five moments over the course of your life when yous were taught – through language or silence – what to think and experience about race in America?
14. How often to you speak virtually racism with your closest friends and family?
15. • daily
    • weekly
    • monthly
    • twice a year
    • less than once a year
16. What exercise you lot think the impact is on a person who engages infrequently in conversations nearly a given topic? What about ofttimes? How does this differential play out when it comes to racism?

Social justice questions for book clubs —from Debby Irving's Waking Up White:

A note from Jodi: For volume clubs interested in exploring racism, I highly recommend reading Debby Irving'due south WAKING UP WHITE and having a discussion in conjunction with Pocket-sized GREAT THINGS.

1. What stereotypes near people of another race exercise you lot remember hearing and believing as a child? Were you ever encouraged to question stereotypes? (WUW p. 6)
2. How have yous understood racial difference? In terms of biology? Culture? Accept you given information technology much thought? Why or why not? (WUW p. 41)
3. Retrieve of a time you grossly misinterpreted a person (of whatever race) or situation. What information was missing that allowed you to describe the incorrect conclusion? What in your conventionalities system contributed to your misinterpretation? (WUW p 68)
4. What have you lot filed abroad? Create a column that contains these labels: African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Latinos, Muslims, Whites. Next to each, speedily write at least v stereotypes that come to mind for each. Practice not pause, censor, or correct — rather, let sally what will. Now wait at what you lot've written. Does it surprise you? If you are white, do y'all have any stereotypes for whites? Why exercise you think this is? (WUW p. 91)
5. Have you tried to form relationships beyond racial lines? How have they worked out? If they didn't get very far, how did you explicate that to yourself? (WUW, p. 123)

PRAISE

Praise for Small Cracking Things

Given that Picoult is wrestling with the bailiwick of white privilege, writing Ruth's story in the first person might seem like an exercise of that very prerogative. Can Ruth exist the hero of her own story? Or must she be saved by Kennedy? Turns out, this is Picoult's driving concern, too. That "Pocket-size Great Things" embraces this question with empathy, promise and humility is no small feat.

There are times it's hard to read because of the window it opens into our 2016 world, just it's even harder to put downward. Picoult has outdone herself with "Small-scale Bang-up Things."

A novel that puts its finger on the very pulse of the nation we live in today...A fantastic read from beginning to end, equally can ever exist expected from Picoult, this novel maintains a steady, page turning step that brand it hard for readers to put downwardly. Information technology also allows for conversations to exist had and for people to sit down back and await at their life, actions (past and present) and wonder how they will motility forward. This is a fantastic book not simply because it addresses something that happens in America and around the world every solar day, merely information technology also shows united states that modify is possible too.

Small Groovy Things challenges readers, especially those who acquit privilege in the color of their peel, to look at the world in a different way. Picoult succeeds in using her platform to create thoughtful conversations within a land that is continuously struggling with race.

An Amazon All-time Book of October 2016: Jodi Picoult's Pocket-size Great Things is virtually racism, choice, fright, and hope. The novel is based on the true story of a labor and delivery nurse who was prohibited from caring for a newborn because the male parent requested that no African-American nurses tend to his baby. In the fictional version, Ruth, the African-American nurse in question, finds herself on trial for events related to the aforementioned asking made past a white supremacist male parent. Using the narratives of Ruth, the baby'south father, and the female public defender who takes Ruth's case, Picoult examines multiple facets of racism. The topic of race in America is difficult to talk about, but in in an honest and revealing fashion Picoult allows readers to draw their ain conclusions about how we encounter ourselves and others in the world. Small Great Things is an of import and thought-provoking novel about power and prejudice that deserves to exist read, digested, and shared with others.

Modest Bully Things, Jodi Picoult's 24th novel, is the remarkable story of an African-American nurse, a white supremacist couple, and one babe whose fate pits them against each other. Only it's so much more: an insightful exploration of the overburdened American justice organisation, a potent meditation on race, and a dramatic tour de force. The New York Times bestselling writer is a supremely gifted storyteller whose characters are never less than unforgettable.

It'southward Jodi Picoult, the prime number provider of literary soul food. This riveting drama is certain to be supremely satisfying and a bravely idea-provoking tale on the dangers of prejudice.

Famous for her 'ripped from the headlines' fiction, Picoult grabs the 3rd runway of American life - race - in her most ambitious novel ever. The combo of a black nurse, a white baby, his white supremacist parents and a murder trial may leave united states uncomfortable, merely information technology's guaranteed to make united states think.

A compelling, can't-put-it-down drama with a trademark Picoult twist.

Picoult's stories are always interesting — they're well-written, fast-paced, multi-faceted and current. Small Nifty Things is no different. Information technology will leave you with lots to call up almost, more knowledge than you had before and a deeper understanding of America today.

Was so honored to be a part of this. Both books are moving, gorgeous, mind blowing, and perfect. Xo

Picoult's gripping tale is told from three points of view, that of Ruth, Kennedy and Turk, and offers a thought-provoking examination of racism in America today, both overt and subtle. Her many readers will find much to hash out in the pages of this topical, moving book.

Jodi Picoult is never afraid to take on hot topics, and in SMALL Great THINGS, she tackles race and bigotry in a mode that will grab concur of you and decline to let you go…this page-turner is perfect for volume clubs.

Jodi Picoult has dealt with weighty issues such every bit teenagers with leukemia in My Sister's Keeper and child sexual corruption in Perfect Match. Now, in her latest novel, she'south roofing another pressing topic: racism in the United states

Critical acclaim for Jodi

Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance.

It's difficult to exaggerate how well Picoult writes.

Picoult is a chief of the arts and crafts of storytelling.

…her storytelling skills are most evident.

Bout

A huge Thanks to all of my Australian, United states, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and Canadian fans who come up out to my Pocket-sized Neat Things tour!
  xoxo —Jodi

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