Browning Pleasantville

by Kimberly Brazwell

Hired by a wealthy, predominantly white K-12 school district, Kimberly Brazwell was the district’s first diversity practitioner. As a school administrator, she was charged to engage the district’s students, faculty, staff, and surrounding community in wellness and shaping a more inclusive culture. Kim was charged to deepen the color of a community. However, no one knew exactly what hue it should be. Kim boldly advocates for social justice in a once “redlined” community that, for the first time, grudgingly examines and openly discusses its history of race and class bias. As a biracial woman who unapologetically identifies with her black culture and poverty roots, Kim’s task proves to be one of the most troublesome personal and professional challenges of her life. What begins as a welcoming invitation into the next chapter of her career putrefies into implicit, bias-triggered workplace bullying. Rather than engage and enlighten those around her, Kim experiences the anguish of an activist fighting against racism and the hidden culture of power and control in suburban America. However, Kim’s fight and uphill struggle is in isolation. In the end, Kim must re-examine her personal identity as a young, female, biracial activist who is meant to reshape a culture. Browning Pleasantville is about a predominantly white institution’s reaction to the “browning” of its attitudes, interests, and motives toward the diverse groups of people within its care—including its newly hired administrator who must decide whether to remain an activist or become a “token” within an unchanged community.

Genres: Nonfiction

244 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2017

Reviews

[Stephanie Dargusch Borders · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was fascinating reading this a second time, for a few reasons. I grew up and still live in ‘Pleasantville,’ where the author, Kimberly Brazwell, was essentially our first DEI admin.

I first read this book pre-Covid, when my children were just entering elementary education. Now, reading it years later, it’s interesting to see how my own perspective has evolved. My children are now almost done with elementary and I’ve worked in the district. I have had my own dealings with many of the people mentioned in the book. Brazwell’s descriptions and perceptions are spot on.

So how much has changed in ‘Pleasantville’ since Brazwell left? Well for one the school still can’t manage to keep a DEI coordinator on staff for more than a few years so . . . ? Possibly nothing. Our community seems to be taking such great strides at some points, but then we have something else happens: ‘George Floyd Brotherhood’, a racist news broadcast to the middle school, the Music Man debacle.

[Rachel Laing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I live in Brazwell's fictional Pleasantville. Although my children were still at the elementary level during the years Brazwell was at the high school and so neither they nor I took part in any of the community engagement activities, through my interactions with the city and the school since then, I find her perspective to be compelling, believable--and really sad. There are murmurs in the community re: this book that "there is another side" and granting that fact, even if 30% of what happened to Brazwell, happened to her as described, shame on us, shame on collective all of us. I wonder if she would feel any solace to know that seeds sown during her tenure seem to have the soil and the conditions to grow more now, even if our social justice progress in Pleasantville is slow and halting--I do see growth. I would rate the book a 4 for content but then the single spacing and the lack of editing lead me to reduce it by a star.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a student at this school district while Kim was there. I am white. I have peripheral memories of her assemblies that she discusses in the book, and her descriptions of the student apathy and rejection of her work ring disturbingly true in my experience. Kim’s memoir approach to this history was so helpful to me personally because I was able to see my community through other eyes. I was able to racialize my hometown- something that this town refuses to talk about by holding up the tenant of whiteness that white is normal. I am disturbed by my community’s reaction to Kim’s work, and I am personally & selfishly grateful that she wrote this book so people like me can learn about our roots.

[Vicki Frost · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe Kim went through everything she went through and I feel for her. The book was just not very well written.

[Katy Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was totally absorbed in this brave, moving account of the author's efforts to serve the "brown students" in a wealthy, exclusive suburban high school. Like many who have read and reviewed the books, I was fortunate to read this from the vantage point of someone local to the area, easily able to track points of reference and familiar with the suburb dubbed "Pleasantville." I found the memoir absolutely engrossing, not just because of these shared points of reference, but because my community service is diversity-focused. (In particular, I am the queer staff advisor for the student LGBTQ organization on the conservative, white campus where I work and serve on an advisory board for the same population.) I related to Kim's drive to serve the community's most marginalized students.

Readers are rewarded with some absolutely lovely prose. The concept of "belonging" is often discussed at work and, of course, in the context of the service I've mentioned. A sense of unbelonging has fundamentally shaped me. It is often on my mind. Never have I read such a gorgeous and powerfully true description, though, than that written by Kim in the pages of this book:

"Driving out of Pleasantville that afternoon, each block of wealth and perfection reminded me that this was the community in which I did not fit. Their trees hurt. Their stay at home moms jogging while pushing thousand-dollar baby strollers hurt me. Their perfectly coiffed lawns hurt me. My heart was punctured at each red light leaving Pleasantville."

The words had a bodily impact. Even typing them just now, tears sprang to my eyes. The clear-eyed perfection of those lines will never leave me. These moments of beauty were, as I wrote, a reward. However, as other reviewers have mentioned, the writing also suffers in many respects. I notice that the author hired an editor before publishing the memoir, and that person should not have been paid. There are numerous editorial errors. (For instance, "beeline" is incorrectly written "b-line" multiple times.) In some areas, the prose is also interrupted by bulleted or numbered lists, which provide information but do not build scenes or help us to better understand the speaker at the heart of the memoir.

I so enjoyed this book and connected with its author that I carried this paperback around with me to work and running errands and outside and to bed and everywhere in between. I highly recommend delving into its contents, which are truly a gift.

[Liz Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kimberly Brazwell does an excellent job of describing her experience while serving in the diversity and inclusion capacity at Pleasantville. As a white person, it really helped me to read about the feelings and perception that a brown person would experience. Being a passionate person working for equality, especially women's rights, I see the injustice and inability to make changes when working within a regimented bureaucracy, especially one which refuses to see its shortcomings. This is an excellent book if you wish to learn of the need to have advocacy for minority students and help overcome the disadvantages that our system and our realities have put in place.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir and because of that, one needs to remember that her perception is reality. Though I don't question her take on the lack of support and implicit bias, I'm left wanting more information. How could the superintendent let high school principal run the show as much as it seems he did? Why did the brown students not connect ? Why did the parent ( so verbal in the last meeting) not come forward sooner? I know one thing-this book left me wanting to do more reading on the subject!

[Tiasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brazwell's experience is similar to that of so many other parents and staff of color in this school district -- it echoes what minority parents and students themselves have encountered, and continue to encounter, to this day. It is extremely difficult to advocate for minority students, to advocate for progress in diversity and inclusion, to advocate for more diversity teachers or staff, when a privileged and non-minority majority in one's community is apathetic or unsupportive, or worse antagonistic. It becomes impossible to do one's job successfully if the community you serve is not receptive, and those individuals of color or families with students of color or teachers/staff of color who do want change are too concerned for their safety to join you in your efforts.

[Kevin Leitner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously affecting book. Kim's story changes you if you let it. It is a very honest, very clear and uncomfortably intimate look at her struggles, dreams, hurts, and goals.

The book has the limitations of a self-published title but other than that, truly a great read.

[Yung Nacho · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is racist and communist would not recommend