Black Klansman

I'm glad to have read this book but I did not enjoying reading it, if that makes any sense. Stallworth's story is so interesting, but his telling of it was, in my reluctant opinion, surprisingly uninteresting.

Stallworth is detailed in outlining series of events, but I was hoping for more reflection and analysis.
I wanted him to talk more about what it was like to navigate his identity in all of these different contexts. How he encountered racism in the Colorado Springs Police Department even as he worked to undermine white supremacy by investigating the KKK as CSPD's first Black detective. How being a Black police officer resulted in both Black political organizers and white police officers distrusting his integrity. How his actual and undercover personas repeatedly experienced such close proximity despite needing to be keep separate for the investigation to survive.

Stallworth describes many occasions where he felt pulled in different directions, but instead of exploring that more deeply, he doesn't offer much beyond, “I had to compartmentalize”
And I'm sure he did compartmentalize, but I wished he would have integrated his opinion more throughout recalling the course of the investigation.

There are moments where Stallworth shares his opinions, but to me they felt a little disjointed in contrast to the dry tone in which he describes his work. You catch glimpses of passion and conviction, but they don't feel as justified as they would if he gave you more alongside the impassive “and then this happened...and then this happened” etc.

The story would be more compelling if he wasn't trying so hard to pretend he or any person can volitionally distance themselves from something like this. Maybe it was an attempt to gain credibility, to make the narrative feel less politically skewed, but I don't understand why a story about a Black Klansman would aim for an apolitical tone. I wanted him to tell us the story and then say something about the story he told, but the book was primarily the former and sorely lacking the latter.

I wanted a book not only about the impact of the investigation but also about the impact the investigation had on him. How it altered his view of law enforcement, of politics, of race, of America, and all the combinations thereof. What it reaffirmed, what it threw into question. How it's shaped his assumptions and priorities. I needed more of that.

To end on a somewhat positive note, all in all, I am glad to see Ron Stallworth's story told, and by him, even if he somehow managed to make it boring as hell.