Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. There's a part in today's interview that really clearly elucidates my somewhat complicated feelings about the wave of anti-racism that's come since the summer of George Floyd's murder. It's with Helena Andrews Dyer about her book, The Mamas, What I Learned About Kids,

Class and Race from Moms Not Like Me. And it's about being a first-time parent and going to

the mommy groups and all the pressures that you get, both internally and externally,

to make sure that this new kid of yours turns out okay. And NPR's Rachel Martin asks,

what kind of racial tensions she felt

being the only black person in the group. And Helena tells this story about how all the good

moms had all the right anti-racist books, bought from all the right anti-racist bookstores,

and all the boxes ticked to make sure they were raising a good person.

And at a certain point, it just felt like another thing, you know, like taking your kid to

tumbling class. But then, I won't spoil it, but the story takes a slight inward turn.

And, hey, it turns out raising a kid is complicated business.

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We're all supposed to be great at something that, in essence, we all sort of suck at the beginning

because we don't know what's going on. We don't know what we're doing.

You know, I remember going to my first group meeting, which was just like a bunch of moms sitting in a circle in the park. And I remember thinking, I was like, oh, have these women like known each other forever? They're having these deep conversations. People are, you know, breastfeeding with abandon. You know, it's just, I was like, oh, these women must have known each other forever. And then I learned in talking to the woman sitting next to me, she was like,

oh, no, I just came here last week. Once I got really into it, I saw these women literally almost

every other day. And for me, one, not only being a new mom, but also being one of the few,

...