Accountable by Dashka Slater

ACCOUNTABLE by Dashka Slater (The 57 Bus) is subtitled “The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed” and relates events that occurred in 2017 in Albany, California (liberal Bay Area) when a Korean American high school junior posted racist and misogynist memes on Instagram. Even though he initially had only 13 followers, many of the posts dealt with classmates and people they knew, especially Black and biracial girls. The New York Times recently published a lengthy article written by Slater who described, “competing narratives about how exactly the events should be interpreted, with some seeing them as a calamity that occurred despite Albany’s particular virtues (small, liberal, educated, interconnected) and others as a consequence of Albany’s particular shortcomings (too white, too insular, too wealthy, too obsessed with academic achievement).” Clearly, there is MUCH opportunity for teaching, for reflection (e.g., Am I racist? What makes someone racist? Why had no-one said anything earlier?) and for discussion (e.g., Does not taking action imply approval of content? How could the account followers and its subjects attend school together? Do the statistics Slater share correspond to our school? Are these events about race, gender or both?) with adolescent students. ACCOUNTABLE received a starred review from Booklist which says in part that this text “should be required reading for any teen before they create, comment, or even like a media post.”