Cracked Mirrors: Emmett Till to Barack Obama and My Path to Authentic Islam

I wrote, "Cracked Mirrors: Emmett Till to Barack Obama and My Path to Authentic Islam" to clarify the visceral meaning of black life in America that began for me over fifty years ago. Emmett Till and President Barack Obama each occupy a historical and spiritual space and time. In my Memoir, I invoke the image of an event, a cracked bicycle mirror, to characterize my sojourn in America to reclaim my humanity. My cracked mirror lives as a spiritual metaphor to denote my efforts to experience life as a contiguous event instead of fractured images. I believe my story raises important questions for anyone who seeks to unravel the physics of history and seeks to understand a universal spiritual yearning. My spiritual yearnings led me to Islam. The names Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner stir up potent evidence that challenge American Exceptionalism. My book begs the following questions: Why are some white Americans violent toward people of color? Why has America bee