Emmanuel Acho Says His Kids' Book About Racism Could Have Saved Him From 'Emotional Damage' As a Child

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"Was I Black enough?" Emmanuel Acho — a former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker and Fox Sports analyst, who attended a predominantly white prep school in Texas — remembers asking himself as a kid.

After George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in May 2020, sparking national protest, Acho began recalling these types of memories and delving into hard conversations about race and racism on his hit series, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. In November, Acho released his bestselling book of the same name.

Now, the analyst turned activist is reaching out to kids with his young readers' adaptation, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy, which published on Tuesday.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Acho explains how such a book could have saved him from "emotional damage" as a child.

"Rather than To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm and The Great Gatsby being mandated, I so desperately wish that a book like this was mandated," says Acho, 30, who wishes his peers had access to books that tackled racism. "It's not necessarily for me, but it would have saved me so much emotional damage then. It would have saved so much emotional insecurity."

He continues: "They told me that I'm too smart to be Black, so maybe I should act dumber, because I guess to be smart is to make my Blackness void. That's what I was led to believe."

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Despite these challenges, Acho, whose parents are Nigerian immigrants, went on to succeed in college, on the football field and on TV. (Besides working for Fox Sports, Acho recently served as the host of The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special after longtime host Chris Harrison stepped back following a widely criticized interview with Rachel Lindsay, the first Black Bachelorette.)

Now a successful author, Acho says that Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy is the next step in his "mission" to help dismantle racism through candid and nonjudgmental dialogue. He explains that it's imperative to connect with and educate children and their parents in order to prevent racial injustice from continuing.

"I want to send a message to the kids, but also the parents," Acho explains. "I would say that if you want to change a tree, you would cut down the branches, you may collect the leaves, but if you want to do it best, it's best you address the root."

He continues: "How can we best address racism is by addressing the youth, because they are the roots going forward. That's my one message: let's tackle the roots, let's dismantle racial ignorance and racial insensitivity before it matures into full blown racism."

In Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy, Acho addresses questions that white friends have been asking him for a long time. Chapters range from "Roll Call: Black or African American?" and "NOOOOOPE!: The N-Word" to "Good Trouble: Fighting for Change". He also weaves in history and stories from his own life.

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"American history books are typically autobiographies written by white people about white people. And an autobiography will always seem, and sound, better than it actually was," says Acho. "So I don't think that our youth are well equipped, and well educated in regards to different vantage points of history. A history book may say that the Civil War was about southern pride, when in all actuality it had much more to do with slavery. And so we just have to do a better job of teaching and educating."

Acho explains that every topic he addresses is "difficult to broach" because it may be a sensitive topic depending on the reader.

"For one [person], interracial relationships is a super heavy, sensitive subject," he says. "For another reader, systemic racism may be an important thing. It really all depends on the topic. Everything is difficult."

For Acho, writing about cultural appropriation was the hardest issue to break down for young readers.

"I titled that chapter 'Cite Your Sources or Drop the Class' because we all understand that you can borrow someone's work on a paper in class, but if you don't cite your sources you'll get suspended," he says. "The difficult part isn't the concept. The difficult part is making the concept digestible."

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The task may be a hard one, but it hasn't stopped Acho from trying to bridge the national divide and start conversations about race and white supremacy. He says the key to stop people from shutting down during these pivotal conversations is by being "friendly."

"No one wants to come out if they're going to get hurt, right? You don't want to walk outside if there's a torrential downpour. And so, if it's a nice, sunny day out you'll walk outside," he explains. "I think if you can make these kinds of topics and conversations seem more approachable, then I think people are willing to have them."

The importance of Acho's mission became even more heightened during the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, on April 20. Watching the trial and hearing the verdict was an emotional experience for Acho — and for many Americans who have been marching and protesting for justice for the police killing of Floyd and other unarmed Black Americans since this summer.

"In all honesty, I was nervous because I was nervous for this country," Acho says. "If Derek Chauvin would have gotten acquitted we were going to go into a mess — just turmoil and chaos all over again. And then imagine what that would have meant for society."

"Then, finally I felt relief," after the verdict, says Acho. "But then I felt guilt for my relief, because I was like, 'If I am relieved that a man I saw murder someone got charged with murder, what does that mean for this country?' We were all collectively relieved that Derek Chauvin, who we all saw murder George Floyd, [got charged] with murder."

Even though Black people continue to be killed by police and racism continues to pervade American society, Acho hasn't lost hope.

"I'm hopeful because I'm choosing to be hopeful," he says. "I think that this country at least is now aware that we have historically had some major problems that we all need to fix. And now we're now cognizant of how we're going to go about fixing them."

Acho adds: "We have to realize that our children are the ones who are going to be the fixers of these problems. Our youth are the ones who are going to change the future, literally."

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy is on sale now.