Dear Martin by Nic Stone (2017)

Justyce is not allowed to be a care-free, regular teenage boy. He’s not allowed to be these things because he is a person of color, and in present day America, that puts a target on his back. And on the night he’s arrested, it doesn’t matter that he’s on his way to Yale or that he is a loving person, all that matters is he’s a black boy seen with a drunk, white-passing girl at two a.m. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but he’s arrested and held for hours, only to not have any charges filed against him. In the months following his arrest, Justyce is forced to examine his relations with American culture while being in an environment that denies his struggles.

The minute I heard the premise of Dear Martin I knew I wanted to read it. In the past years, the collection of published YA books has broadened in diversity, not to say that there isn’t always room for improvement. Originally, this book reminded me of The Hate U Give, one of my favorites this year. Now that I’ve read both books, I see the flaw in the comparison. Yes, both books deals with police brutality against people of color, but, besides that, address completely different aspects of the situation.

As the title suggests, Dear Martin explores the application of the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. in present day society. Throughout the novel, Justyce writes to King as a way to process his thoughts, something I thought was really interesting. I thought that including the letters also emphasized the struggle Justyce was specifically facing. In general, I loved how clear Nic Stone explained privilege and the injustices that people of color face. To me, it was obvious what Stone was trying to communicate about racial disparities which will hopefully make it easier for all types of audiences to understand.

An aspect that I particularly enjoyed within this book was the conversation around interracial relationships. Basically, Justyce, who’s a person of color, and his longtime friend SJ, who is white, start having feelings for each other. At this point, Justyce is already contemplating what it means to be black and how his blackness extends to all points of his life. He’s also been told his whole life that it would be easier on him to date someone who’s also black. Both Justyce and SJ face prejudice for dating someone of a different race. It’s framed that SJ only likes Justyce to be a “bad girl” and the Justyce is betraying his race by dating SJ. Throughout the book, SJ and Justyce go on a journey to redefine their relationship on their own terms and have extremely honest conversations about how race affects their relationship.

I also like that Dear Martin connect racism to other forms of oppression. Going along with relationships, Justyce and his best friend Manny definitely say some misogynistic things about women and at the same time have toxic views of their own masculinity. Manny, who’s also a person of color, experiences internalized racism and truthfully says he’s afraid of dating someone who’s also black because of the stereotypes that surround black women. Although it’s not a frontal topic in the book, I did notice that as Justyce became more aware with his own struggle his misogynistic comments about women started to dwindle down.

Dear Martin is a truthful and dynamic story about racial disparities in America that is written to both be understandable and relatable. For anyone confused or wanting to understand more about the specific struggle people of color face, this book one that is perfect for them and anyone in between.

4 Stars