We see this kind of thinking play out in The Kindest Lie with the character of Butch Boyd, a White man, who’s down on his luck and has lost his job at an autoplant. In the book, I wanted to explore the perception that in order for me to be successful, or for my family to be successful, or for my children to advance, that means that other people can’t have as much as I have: if other people get ahead then that means there’s less for me and my children. I was interested in exploring mobility and scarcity between Black and White America, particularly working-class Americans. It’s not about who sits in the Oval Office it’s really about the people. It is indeed up to us to be the change we want to see in the world. Obama talks about that himself too-particularly in his campaigns. So much of electing Obama as president was symbolic but the substantive part of it would really be up to us. We hadn’t achieved the success we thought. Could you tell us a bit more about this aspect of your book? There’s a mechanism of interrogation that persists throughout your book, whether it’s challenging the idea of scarcity or questioning what upward mobility looks like. I was really interested in starting the book at this time of great celebration and hope, but then, also, showing what happens when some of that hope deteriorates because the problems that are so deeply embedded in America are still there. I remember so many people saying after Obama was elected that the country had entered this post-racial era but, I just knew that was a fallacy because the divide between Black and White America, in particular, was so great. It was a hopeful time but, also, a bittersweet time for me personally. Here’s a man who survived the Great Depression, World War II, and Jim Crow, and he got to witness the elections of America’s first black president. He was alive when Obama was elected president, though he couldn’t remember many of the details. I knew how hopeful my father was and convinced him to vote early. When he was in the hospital, the doctor asked him, to see if he was lucid: “Who’s the president?” And, in a croaky voice, he replied “Barack Obama!” This was in October, so the doctor responded with “Oh, not quite yet.” I knew how much he wanted Obama to be president. It was also very personal for me because, in November of 2008, my father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

There was such vitriol but, there was also this sense of hope. The country was just so deeply divided at that time-which it still is, particularly around racial lines. I wrote it at the beginning of President Obama’s second term, but I was always thinking back to his first election. The election of Obama was my inspiration for the book.

Your book begins on Barack Obama’s election night.

The kindest lie