The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
I think it is so super important to listen to people’s stories…to hear about their journey, listen to their worldview.
And I think it is extremely important to make sure the stories we listen to aren’t all from people who have similar backgrounds and life experiences as our own.
Once we hear these stories we can not just let them fade away.
They need to change us and shift our perspective deep into our core.
This book definitely does that.
Here is the summary:
“Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police.
How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence?
Wes Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound question. In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.”
Two young men.
Both growing up in the same area.
Both dealing with loss and struggles.
Both trying to figure out how to navigate adolescence and the culture of the street.
Both realizing what it means to be male and black in America.
Both having dreams and desires for a better and easier life.
Two young men.
Same name.
And many of the same circumstances.
Yet their lives took extremely different turns.
One ended up with opportunities beyond anything he could have imagined…one ended up spending the rest of his life behind bars.
This book tells each of their stories and explores how things like living circumstances, privilege, poverty, systemic oppression, adult mentoring and luck affected each of them…both positively and negatively.
The Author spent hundreds of hours interviewing the other Wes Moore, his family, his friends and his coworkers to ensure he was able to tell his story with as much detail and empathy and understanding as he did his own.
One of his quotes that really stuck out to me as he told both narratives was this:
“The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”
This story got deep in my heart.. and also frustrated me.
It made me realize how cycles of oppression and poverty and struggle just keep continuing when there is no community intervention or systemic improvement.
And also it reminded me that these disadvantages were put into place intentionally by policies and regulations to separate certain people groups 😡
People can not “do better” if there is no way or resources available to them to do so or if policies and regulations and laws are in place that prevent them from doing so.
I feel like heartbreaking is not an adequate word to describe this as so many lives are so heavily impacted by this.
Two boys…similar circumstances…different outcomes.
At the end of the book the author briefly tackles the question “What made the difference?”
He states that he was lucky enough that even though he had some of the same environmental circumstances as the other Wes Moore, the difference for him is that he had many positive adult mentors in his life who guided him, continued to show him resources and persisted in getting him on a positive path even when he kept veering off.
He is a very big advocate for mentoring programs (for kids as well as adults) as he believes this has a huge impact in lives.
At the end of the book he has a Call To Action for readers. He encourages people to become involved in fighting poverty and inequality in your community and also lists several that he belongs to.
I looked him up after I was done reading and found that he is a founder of Robin Hood, NYCs largest poverty fighting orgAnization.
They provide 200 nonprofits with financial, real estate and management support and their mission is to improve the lives and living standards of as many low income New Yorkers as they can.
To read more or to donate check out their website here