What is the author's tone in the nonfiction book, Wandering in Strange Lands?

The overall tone of the book includes a potent mixture of both tragedy and hope, for while Jerkins acknowledges the many incredible hardships that Black communities have endured throughout American history, she also acknowledges the perseverance of Black communities in the face of those hardships. Jerkins celebrates elements of Black culture that have formed in response to events of Black history. Jerkins also highlights the connections between seemingly disparate Black communities, and she urges Black Americans to focus on these connections in order to increase countrywide solidarity among Black Americans. In the epilogue, Jerkins writes, “We’re separated from other family members, separated from our stories, separated from our lineage and our very identity, because if we ever fully understood just how vast and interconnected we are—as most white people do—we would be even more formidable and less exploitable” (244-245). This line is a suitable representation of both the tragedy and the hope contained within the text.