Black folks take whites much too seriously. (Except for the police. Everybody, and especially black men, has to be wary of them because you never know when a couple of them may have had a bad day.) Taking whites too seriously is just one of the things I write about in this collection of essays about identifying and using the power we have as members of the American body politic to work together for our common good. The essays are divided into three sections; the first nine essays are largely autobiographical as Bell writes about life experiences that helped her discover her own power. The second section consists of four essays about religion and spirituality that discuss the author’s search for a satisfying spiritual life. The final eleven essays cover a range of topics that impact our interactions with one another in the public sphere: the environment, economics, entertainment, mass transit, politics, and race relations.