 Roy Jackson | The end of February is here, and contributor Roy Jackson concludes the month with another great recommendation: This Is My America by Kim Johnson. To remind our readers, Roy Jackson is a writer and educator whose scholarship and prose have appeared in various outlets. He holds degrees in English and Education, including an MFA from Youngstown State University. He is currently an assistant professor of education at Goshen College. Our many thanks to professor Jackson for his important contribution to the blog this month and reminding us that "History has a way of latching on to you." |
This Is My America by Kim Johnson
“History has a way of latching on to you. Like touching a hot stove – you only need to do it once before you know better” (p. 269).
 | Kim Johnson’s (2020) novel, This Is My America, confronts the hot stove. And as a reader, I couldn’t look away. Positioning my racial and gender privilege as a reader required careful attention while engaging with this novel, and it is a practice I look forward to modeling for my students. At my college, we take pride in our commitment to social justice and restorative practices, and for those of us who benefit from white American privilege, reading novels like this demands intentional reflection and deliberate steps. This Is My America opens with seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writing a letter to Innocence X, a legal advocacy organization, on behalf of her father, who is on death row in Texas for the double homicide of a white couple. Tracy’s father maintains his innocence, and she hopes the organization can investigate his case to prevent an unjust execution. |
Tracy’s efforts draw public attention, and she and her brother Jamal are interviewed on television, bringing her family’s story into the spotlight. The media coverage adds pressure. Throughout the novel, Tracy navigates threats and intimidation from those invested in keeping the official narrative intact.
Jamal is a talented track star who plans to attend college nearby to stay near the family. When he is accused of murdering a white woman in a case that mirrors their father’s conviction, Tracy becomes determined to protect him from a similar fate. She continues writing detailed letters to Innocence X, highlighting inconsistencies, racial bias, and misconduct in the investigation of her father’s case, while also preparing to fight for Jamal.
Her persistence, careful documentation, and courage eventually attract the attention of Innocence X, who begin formally investigating the family’s cases. The organization uncovers evidence that exposes flaws in the justice system and racial bias, working toward justice for her father and protection for her brother.
Throughout the story, Tracy confronts systemic racism, personal danger, and the emotional toll of advocating for her family, while also highlighting the broader reality that Black men and women are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States. Her resilience and determination shine as she faces overwhelming obstacles within a system stacked against her family.
The book concludes with a robust Author’s Note that provides both essential historical context and insight into the artistic choices Johnson made in crafting the novel. This serves as a starting point for me as a reader and educator, particularly for those who are witnesses to the harms of mass incarceration in the United States but are not directly affected by it. Johnson shares her personal testimony from when she was twelve, recalling the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD and the officers’ subsequent acquittal: “I felt their rage. Their pain was my pain” (p. 391). From Jonny Gammage and Eric Garner to the so-called War on Drugs and the Crime Bill of 1994, Johnson frames historical narratives and legislative practices as systemic injustices disproportionately targeting Black Americans—both then and today.
| Johnson points out that “as of April 1, 2019, there were 2,637 inmates in prison who are sentenced to death, across thirty-two states. African Americans make up 13 percent of the US population but are 42 percent of the people on death row. It’s important to acknowledge that, nationally, 95 percent of prosecutors are white” (p. 397). This Author’s Note at the end of the book makes for an incredible pre-reading activity for readers of racial privilege to examine how systemic bias is pervasive in the US legal system, not only among death row inmates but in incarceration rates overall. An examination of these stories and facts sets the stage for all readers to understand how this impacts them as they provide their own testimony or witness the injustice of this system. |  Kim Johnson |
And while these statistics and mentions in the Author’s Note matter as a manner of foregrounding necessary information for all readers, the YA novel’s human story matters just as much, if not more. It is the human toll and costs that this system of injustice enforces on the citizens of this country that resonate with me as a reader. This toll is expertly depicted in the novel.
There are many poignant entry points for young readers in this novel, but I think the idea of compounded trauma, the weight and burden placed on marginalized individuals within systems of injustice, is particularly important. The protagonist, Tracy, cannot be a typical American teen; her burdens are immense. She is systematically persecuted by white supremacy, both literally and figuratively. These binaries are powerful points for examination and invite deep, meaningful discussion. Additionally, while she is ostensibly tasked with excelling at school, she must expend the precious currency of her time and cognitive energy writing endless letters to Innocence X and witnessing the framing of her brother by a biased justice system. These themes of compounded trauma come from experience and testimony, not just from witnessing, and for readers with privilege, this underscores the importance of positionality.
Published in 2020, Johnson wrote in the Author’s Note, “Some declared the United States a post-racial society upon the election of Barack Obama, the forty-fourth president. This declaration is refuted by the rise of white supremacists since the election of the forty-fifth president. The stain of racism also rears its ugly head each time a viral video reveals police brutality or racial disparities in arrests and convictions” (p. 395). Reading this in 2026, with the rise of white Christian Nationalism, eradication of DEI by the government, and the assault on higher education academic freedoms, makes this novel and Author’s Note all the more poignant.
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