What is race? How do we define identity? How does education affect our life and relationships? Welcome to Anni K. Reinking’s world, where even the smallest occurrence of everyday life raises new questions and reflections, involving sociology, anthropology, religion and psychology, writes Elisa Di Benedetto in the Foreword to Not Just Black and White. This is Anni’s emotionally and intellectually moving memoir of her life as a white mother raising a black son in multiracial America–but it is so much more than that. While her story is based in the U.S., this is a global story. This book is an extraordinary journey towards awareness and learning. That’s how the world changes for the better–one story at a time that touches us and makes us realize we share far more with our neighbors than might seem to separate us.

America is a racially divided nation. All of us are familiar with the headlines in recent years of white Americans anxiously calling police about innocent black Americans they encounter. Among the troubling news stories are incidents sparked by black young people simply napping in a dorm room, shopping for clothing, touring a campus or holding a business meeting in a coffee shop. National reporting shows that black drivers are more likely to be pulled over by police than white drivers. In some tragic cases, young African Americans have been killed in encounters that were fueled by mistaken impressions or outright racism.

Reinking has spent years as a researcher, scholar and educator. Her roles as mother and researcher come together in this important new book. She shares her family’s life in the hope that these stories will foster learning, discussion and new places for reflection and growth. She is honest even about her own occasional stumbling as a mother through cross-racial experiences in which she discovered how much more she has to learn. In telling those true stories, she invites readers to open up their own lives.

Writer Christine Michel Carter, who specializes in working with black families and consumers, encourages readers to embrace Reinking’s fresh perspective in this book. For years I have researched and written for the general public, advocating for equality, uncovering the challenges of black motherhood and revealing the many cultures that reside in our country, Carter writes. However, Dr. Anni is doing something I cannot: using stories of her own ignorance in hopes that it will push her colleagues outside of their own comfort boundaries and foster within them a place for growth and reflection.

Ultimately, for millions of Americans, this is a family story for our time. Anni’s father, a longtime Presbyterian minister, encourages all parents and grandparents to enjoy this book, writing, I think that every grandparent hopes for a better future, not only for their children, but for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.