Janisha Watts
Appearances
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
It showed me that someone else was able to see me in a different way outside of the classroom. She was viewing me then as more of... A scholar or intellect, you know, and like I said, like like the character in the book, like James, like I wasn't always I wasn't the top student. I wasn't considered a student that had like the most promise.
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
So when my teacher, Miss Dees, when she gave me that award, it was just like, oh, I see you. I see what, you know, this book is doing for you. And actually, I'm just now thinking about that. I didn't even think about it until like, yeah, it just hit me. But yeah, Ms. D, she was the one that kind of planted that seed in me. My name is Janisha Watts, and I am a senior editor at The Atlantic.
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
The book that impacted me the most in high school was The Color of Water by James McBride. It is a memoir of a young black man from Brooklyn trying to come to terms with who he is as a black man with having a white mother or a Jewish mother. So the great thing about the book is that he's also using his... reporting skills of interviewing his mom and also telling his story.
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
So the thing about the book is like it's layered. It's like it's two stories in one. So you have James McBride telling his story. And then in the next chapter, you have his mom telling her story. So it kind of goes back and forth. So it's like intergenerational. The book made a person like me be able to dream outside of my reality, outside of living in Kentucky.
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
It was almost like the book was like, look, you don't have to be a straight-A student. You can mess up, you can fail, you can get back up, and then you can still make something out of your life. I was a senior in high school. My teacher's name was Miss Dees at the time, and I think she was a recent college graduate.
Radio Atlantic
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
Because I remember her being young and, like, disheveled, but she also, in a lot of ways, like, believed in me. Because I remember after the class, after reading the book, I got some kind of special award for English, and I think it was because how I finished a book or maybe because how I responded to the questions for the class. But I just remember her giving me that award.