George M. Johnson: Black Boys Painting with All the Colors of the Rainbow.

At the Podium with Patrick Huey

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Black Boys Painting with All the Colors of the Rainbow.

The New York Times called George M. Johnson’s memoir and manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue “An exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but clear-eyed love for its subjects. Johnson lays bare the darkest moments of his life with wit and unflinching vulnerability.” It’s also a book that has been banned in 8 states and 29 school districts for being what its vocal critics call sexually explicit, pornographic and inappropriate for kids. It is a shocking story in many ways. George doesn’t shy away from the rough and unimaginable moments of their life: being molested by a family member at 12 years old and how that colored their views of trust and intimacy throughout their life. What it felt like to get their two front teeth knocked out in a street fight coming home from school and how that thwarted their ability to want to smile growing up. And what it was like to have their first consensual sexual encounters without the knowledge or preparation for what that meant physically and emotionally.

So, the book is uncomfortable and unexpected for the reader at times. Does it cross over into pornography and inappropriateness? Definitely not.

If people are so disturbed by the account of George’s life, imagine what George felt living through it. The book is a beautiful and a necessary story, because as George says in our conversation, “All boys aren’t blue because we’re not a monolith. None of us have the same spirit. We all have different struggles we will go through. We all have a different journey. We all have a different path. And trying to force us to all be the same, trying to force us to be blue impedes the path and impedes the purpose of a person’s life.”

George paints different, nuanced possibilities for black boys, pulling us from the obscurity of self-erasure into a declarative existence. What does it look like if you get to define for yourself who you are? What if you have a family unit that values love for you above all else? What if you find love and brotherhood and companionship with other black men, as opposed to just fearing one another? What if you get to paint with all the colors of the rainbow, not just blue?
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