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It Was All a Dream
A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America
In the News
The Precarity of Everything: On Millennial (Blacks and) Blues
“We know white privilege. It’s not made up.” (CNN)
Praise
"In her revelatory new book, It Was All A Dream, Reniqua Allen amplifies voices that America needs desperately to hear. She explores the lives of Black millennials who strive for success - or sometimes basic survival - with insight, empathy and candor. Pinned between the unfinished business of the civil rights movement and the economic, political and racial rifts of the post-Obama era, their stories are both heartbreaking and hopeful, the pent-up demand of a new generation demanding what has always been its right: liberation."—Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
"Reniqua Allen strikes a fine balance between
the personal histories of ambitious Black millennials and the systems in place
that threaten their mobility. With acute detail to their location, background,
and motive, Allen's sharp journalistic skills are center stage, crafting reportage,
cultural commentary, and personal anecdotes into a thought-provoking book that
will add to our discussions about race, capitalism, education, and
self-actualization."—Morgan Jerkins, author of This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female,
and Feminist in (White) America
"Reniqua Allen's must-read book takes us beyond
the statistics and stereotypes, telling the stories of young Black Americans
who are creating, working, fighting, loving, and surviving. Allen's vital and
empathetic reportage shares their voices-and we would be wise to listen."—Heather McGhee, Former President and Distinguished
Senior Fellow, Demos
"All comfortable notions about the American Dream are shoved aside as Reniqua Allen lays out the harsh and often disturbing challenges facing today's young African-Americans. A powerful, compelling, and important book."—Bob Herbert, author, filmmaker, and former op-ed
columnist for the New York Times
—The Washington Post
"The Great Recession crippled an entire generation, and black millennials were among the hardest hit. Allen interviewed dozens of her peers for an honest and occasionally heartbreaking look at young black twenty- and thirtysomethings trying to succeed in a nation that has often inhibited them from achieving their dreams."—BuzzFeed