Stakes Is High is a history book by author Mychal Denzel Smith.
Staking Is High is the book we need to guide us through crisis mode and through an uncertain future.

The events of the past decade have forced us to reckon with who we are and who we want to be. We have been invested in a series of beliefs about our American identity: our exceptionalism, the inevitable rightness of our path, and the promise that hard work and determination will bring We come to freedom. In Stakes Is High, Mychal Denzel Smith confronts the shortcomings of these stories – and to the American Dream itself – and urges us to live by principles we claim to but fail to execute.

A series of poignant essays, Smith exposes the stark contradictions at the heart of American life that hold all of us, as individuals and as a nation, accountable. We are used to turning our heads away, but the usual cracks and violence of institutional oppression are still present.

There is a future that is not as grim as our past. In this poignant work, Smith helps us visualize it carefully, honestly and imaginatively.

The stakes are really high! And time is running out. Mychal Denzel Smith is writing here with urgency. “There is a future that is not as grim as our past. But it is a future that depends on the bravery this country has never shown. It demands undue honesty and a radical retelling of who America was. That means letting go of our myths and forming new people based on principles we have hitherto found difficult to live by.

We will have to give up our old dreams and replace them with dreams that meet the challenges we are currently facing. We’re going to have to do it quickly.” After this quote, Mr. Smith takes us through four sections; Illusion, Justice, Accountability and Freedom. Each section is essentially an extended essay written in dry prose aimed at awakening consciousness. If America is to survive as a civilized democracy, change must happen yesterday, Smith said. Stop with legendary making! Abolish the police! I’m sure he’ll get a big outcry in that regard. But listen to him talk about what that might look like. The statement itself, without context sounds agitated, but that’s why one reads it, for a deeper understanding, isn’t it?

This is a page turner for me. It is very well written and explains the myth of the American Dream. This book is written with honesty and compassion. I look forward to reading his future works.

• Stakes Is High

• Life After the American Dream
• By: Mychal Denzel Smith

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