“I’m proud of young black america. I’m proud of them, even if they are misunderstood. I’m proud of them for using their voices, their way. Racism, classism, fear, it all exists. Still. It’s here, embedded into the fibers of our society. But I have to be honest, I do believe that because of technology, no matter how problematic it can be, and the rapid spreading of information, I’d like to believe there is a slow awakening occurring, and that our babies, or at least the generation after them will have a very different reality here. I know my role is to do what so many have done before me in this tradition — tell the stories, unashamed and unafraid.”

As quoted in [Brown, Lesley-Ann, The Graceful Power of Novelist Jason Reynolds, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/graceful-power-novelist-jason-reynolds-n399721, 10 March 2020, NBC News, August 22, 2015]

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Jason Reynolds 10
author of young adult novels 1983

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