Christine Pride and Jo Piazza, “We Are Not Like Them”

When an unarmed Black teenager is shot by police while walking home from school, the grief and outrage ripples through the city of Philadelphia in the novel “We Are Not Like Them.” The shooting calls for changes in policing, revealing deep divisions among those who experience systemic racism and those who deny it exists.  For lifelong best friends Jen and Riley, the shooting is a deeply personal crisis that threatens to rip them apart for good.  Christine Pride and Jo Piazza join the podcast to talk about writing this deeply moving book together, navigating their own obstacles to openly discussing race, and the value of exploring divisive issues through the storytelling lens of friendship, forgiveness, and what it takes for two different people to take their shared history into the future. In a Moment With Margaret: discussion of other recent books that tackle race, including Zakiya Dalila Harris’ “The Other Black Girl,” Brit Bennett’s “The Vanishing Half” and Emmanuel Acho’s “Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Boy.” “We Are Not Like Them” is the first novel Piazza and Pride co-authored today. The book was published in October, 2021 by Atria Books. 

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