The Feminist Press discussion

How did this book grab your attention?

Safiya wrote: "If we didn't write the truth of what we had done and believed, someone else would write his or her version of the truth." What intrigues me the most about this book is how it reveals how shifting history is. Or rather the telling of it.

Sad admission. Before this book, I had never read anything about the BPP. I cannot ever remember studying the Black Panthers, being exposed to their politics, or encountering the BPP in any way other than through media sculpted images of militant men wearing berets and shouldering guns.

And it is because I had this stereotyped image squirreled away in my brain that the contrast of Safiya's life and papers make such an impact. She
makes clear the truth of her life. She makes clear why she made the choices she did and how the changing times affected her thoughts and outlook. She gives detail to what would be otherwise a stereotype.