If We Are Brave: Essays from Black AmericanaThe popular Washington Post contributing opinion columnist challenges readers to have uncomfortable conversations about race, drawing on the first person perspectives of the author and Americans from diverse viewpoints and walks of life. The United States claims to be a nation founded on an idea, writes Theodore R. Johnson, but Americanseven though we nod our heads to that assertiondo not agree on what that idea is, what it should do, or who it is