A Reflection On Race from GIVE ME SOME TRUTH Author Eric Gansworth

Here’s a moving and thought-provoking note to readers written by acclaimed author Eric Gansworth on how his personal experiences with racial identity inspired his powerful new YA novel, GIVE ME SOME TRUTH.
The first draft of this novel was done in January 2016, when the country had a decidedly different tenor than it does now. More and more, I’m aware of the real risks involved in being profiled, and consequently, the flipside of that coin. My siblings and I run the spectrum on an imaginary Sherwin Williams paint card. My one brother looks like the Indian on the Indian head nickel, and I, at the other end of the spectrum, am more ethnically ambiguous. I came up with the term ChameleIndian to capture my experience. I look just enough like a variety of ethnicities that I visually register as familiar enough to belong. My parents, as the children of boarding school survivors, also insisted on being hyper literate. They didn’t want us being tagged in any way as “less than,” and a reservation accent in Niagara County comes with a certain amount of baggage. Because we additionally grew up with our community’s influence, we’re well versed in the “Rez accent.”
What I recognize now as “passing” and “code switching,” has its advantages to be sure, but I’ve also gotten to see the more complicated side of that selective invisibility. In the era that I came of age, the 1980s, there were still eating and drinking establishments here that had “No Indians” signs displayed clearly as policy. I discovered them walking into these establishments with white friends and remaining undetected, as I watched no one else consider such a sign inappropriate. I don’t know if that’s still true. I no longer go to those places. That said, as an adult, I’ve been privy to enough conversations across the spectrum of white classes, to hear what some people freely express when they believe there are no people of other ethnicities in the room. Sometimes, the No Indians signs are still there, just invisible, as I, myself, am. I’ve accepted this as a reality of my life, but I felt that when a young person has such encounters now, it was important for them to know they’re not alone. If that’s a truth I can give them with this novel, then I’ve done my job, with this book, and I hope you find it a fulfilling or at least eye-opening read.
—Eric Gansworth, author of GIVE ME SOME TRUTH