Expanding a magazine essay into a book doesn't always work, and doesn't fully succeed here, but this would make a good gift book nevertheless. The book is ten very short chapters written to Charles Johnson's eight-year-old grandson, Emery.

Johnson recommends that Emery take a Buddhist approach to being a black man (consistent with Johnson's Buddhism), which Johnson doesn't really distinguish in any remarkable way from being any person or consciousness manifested in the world. He is a pacifist, with an emphasis on being able to protect yourself if necessary. Johnson is a black belt in Choi Li Fut kung fu. To many activists of color, this is bound to be perceived as bringing martial arts to a gunfight. The culturally dominant message to black men in popular culture is that rage is power. Johnson wants Emery to grow up free of rage and fear, embracing Zen and believing himself one with all humanity, approaching people of all races without pre-judgment of any kind.

"I confess to being an idealist," Johnson says in Chapter 3. This may be the most radical view of being a black man I've come across. Having been steeped in Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship for many years in order to write this novel "Dreamer," Johnson remembers things about King as a bridge-builder and man of peace that modern identity politics prefers to gloss over or forget.

The golden parts of this book in my opinion were the teaching of Zen master Wu Kwang about the Three Gatekeepers of communication, and the part where Johnson writes beautifully about 14 logical fallacies, taken from his own class instruction as a creative writing teacher. This lesson alone is worth the price of the book for anyone who hopes to raise and influence reasoned thinkers in a world full of confusion. Emery is certainly lucky to have a grandfather who wants to show him another path, in a world that prizes "wokeness" and hysteria above careful examination of claims based on evidence and the pursuit of peace. ( )