I look at books as being a form of activism. Sometimes they'll show us a side of the world that we might not have known about.

It would be easy to quit if it was just about me, Khalil, that night, and that cop. it's about way more than that though. It's about It's about Seven. Sekani. Devante. It's also about Oscar. Aiyana. Trayvon. Rekia. Michael. Eric. Tamir. John. Ezell. Sandra. Freddie. Alton. Philando. It's even about that little boy in 1955 who nobody recognized at first- Emmett. The messed-up part? There are so many more.

When I was in college, I lived in a mostly black, poor neighborhood. That's where I grew up, but I attended a mostly white upper-class school in conservative Mississippi. I was often very aware of how I presented myself.

As a black woman, I feel like I have a unique experience that we don't often see in media portrayals of the South.

At the time when I was in college, Oscar Grant had just lost his life in Oakland, Calif. He was an unarmed young black male who had a record. And at the time when his death was making headlines, more people were talking about what he had done in his past than the fact that he unjustly lost his life.