The Western Front

This is the book I wish I’d had in grad school when a white acquaintance made a quip about all of the “angry Black women” in our cohort of fifty (there were four of us). It’s the book I wish I’d had in high school when a white classmate demanded I “talk to those n — ,” kids he accused of stealing at a house party. Gracefully written and sharply recounted, They Said This Would Be Fun is the book I wish I’d had throughout my academic career — so I could share it with students, teachers, and administrators, to put their actions and words into perspective and to tamp down the overwhelming isolation I often felt.

Herein lies the beauty and the power of Eternity Martis’s memoir: for Black women who have had to navigate and survive the blatant aggressions and coded language of campus life, reading these pages will be a cathartic experience. Conversely, for those who have never been policed or never had to police themselves in public, for those who have never had to...