Richie’s Picks: THE INCREDIBLY HUMAN HENSON BLAYZE
Richie Partington
Richie’s Picks: THE INCREDIBLY HUMAN HENSON BLAYZE by Derrick Barnes, Penguin Random House/Viking, September 2025, 272p., ISBN: 978-1-9848-3675-5
“Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi, goddamn”
– Nina Simone (1964)
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't."
The American public adored the clever putdown verses Muhammad Ali recited about his various boxing opponents. It was seen as great entertainment. And he sure did perform in the ring. But when he stopped being a sports hero and spoke seriously, white America came down on him like a ton of bricks:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
– Muhammad Ali (1967)
THE INCREDIBLY HUMAN HENSON BLAYZE is a dark, powerful, ground-breaking, sometimes fantastical tale that explores the significant disconnect/deep gulf between how Black sports stars, musicians, and other Black entertainers are worshiped when they are on the field/stage/screen, and how the average Black American (or Black star out of uniform) still faces racial prejudice and contempt from white America simply because of his or her skin color. Especially when he or she opens their mouth.
“‘Mm-hm…’ Mrs. Pendergrass looked him up and down. ‘So, tell me, why are all of these white folk being so nice, going so crazy over you this year? Can’t be just because of no dern football, is it?’ she snipped with a confused look on her face. ‘ I mean…they done lost their minds.’
‘I guess so. They’re just excited about the season. I am too…aren’t you?’ asked Henson after he bit the tips off of two asparagus stalks.
‘Chiiiiiile..I can take it or leave it.’ She quietly chuckled. ‘I used to change your Pampers. Put baby powder on your little brown butt.’
Henson chuckled softly right along with her. ‘I’ll just go sit down and eat before lunch is over, he said.
‘Yeah, you gon’ ahead…but let me tell you something first,’ she said. Then she latched his elbow and leaned into him really close. ‘Watch yourself, Henson. Ya hear? When they start acting like this–and I done seen it before–it never ends well. Just protect yourself, baby.’”
Henson Blayze is an eighth-grader in the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi. The son of the latest in a long line of preacher-farmers from Great Mountain, Henson's football skills are legendary. When the story begins, at the beginning of the new school year, he’s just days away from starting and starring on the high school football team. The whole town has been salivating over this upcoming season. It is hysterical how the white townsfolk go to comedic lengths to treat him like a god.
But this is a story that was inspired by the 2014 police murder of Tamir Rice. At the end of the first half of his first varsity game–after having piled up a 56-3 lead–Henson learns that his beloved little buddy Menkah–really a little brother figure–has sustained life-threatening injuries, Henson chooses to leave the game and the stadium and go care for Menkah. This, without even knowing the facts that we readers are privy to: Menkah was in the hospital, near to death, because white cops have beaten the crap out of him.
Day by day, as Henson considers whether or not to play again, he is supported by the young female activist he’s adored since they were in elementary school. In the process, THE INCREDIBLY HUMAN HENSON BLAYZE rips off the scabs from those 400 years of Black subjugation and abuse. It is one WOW of a read, a life-altering tale that will impact tween and teen readers of all colors and persuasions.
Don’t miss it!
Richie Partington, MLIS
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