We the people are in crisis. This is what the nation's headlines clearly tell us. Growing economic inequality is crippling more Americans, and the divide that defines us is decaying our public will. Where we have landed is unacceptable.

But there are solutions, and Robert Principe knows that the solutions to America's problems must see White men, including himself, get off the sidelines and be at the center of the work for greater equity that will strengthen health and well-being for more Americans, not just some Americans.

Excuse Me While I Skip a Beat: Working to Reinvent My Life and Leadership as a White Guy is Principe's uniquely transparent narrative that details what he has learned over more than 30 years of addressing the challenges associated with implementing effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies in dozens of companies and organizations, and speaking with folks all across the country about this critically important topic.

This book is full of the voices of dozens of underrepresented and underserved Americans-BIPOC Americans (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), women, and working-class Americans of all races and ethnicities-whose honest accounts are centered to fill Excuse Me While I Skip a Beat with concrete strategies for removing the barriers these populations face and interrupting America's destructive pattern of racial inequity and gender inequality.

Excuse Me While I Skip a Beat is also full of what Principe calls, "Yes We Can, Yes We Do" stories. He proclaims, "This is who we are, America, and we don't hear enough about it! My book features many examples of America's everyday citizens, and leaders of all races, and ethnicities working all across the country for the common good of all Americans."

The result of more than three years of extensive research and reflection, Excuse Me While I Skip a Beat: Working to Reinvent My Life and Leadership as a White Guy is a straightforward chronicle of a White guy questioning his day-to-day acceptance of inequity and what to do about it. It is a voice long overdue.

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Robert Principe (January 21, 2025)
• ISBN-13: 979-8348463625