This post includes the second set of thought questions related to Austin Channing Brown’s book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.
One can look anywhere from Harvard Business Review to Brené Brown to find those touting the importance of curiosity to spark change. Brené Brown asserts that “in the context of solving problems, failure to be curious results in poor solutions. Curiosity means focusing on the nature of the problem before even considering a solution.”
Austin Channing Brown argues for curiosity as a holy process: “Our only chance at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It’s not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky and messy. But is this not the work we have been called to anyway? Is this not the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth and inspire transformation? It’s haunting. But it’s also holy” (117-18).
As you think through this week’s questions, I hope you will become curious about your own experiences (or lack of experiences) and how they might lead you to the point where “doing nothing is no longer an option” (58).
Laura Bolin Carroll, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Adams Center for Teaching and Learning
Thought Questions for June 17
Chapter 4: Ain’t No Friends Here
Traveling through the markers of black history greatly impacted Austin, especially her time at a lynching exhibit. How has learning the history of people of color impacted you? Has it changed your worldview? Your politics? Your theology?
Bonus media: Earlier this summer Nathan Gibbs reported for KACU on memorial ceremony for Grover Cleveland Everett, the victim of a 1922 lynching in Abilene. During the ceremony soil was collected that will become part of the permanent collection at The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Nathan and his students continue to work on a documentary about the lynching.
Summer Schedule of Readings
Chapter 5: Whiteness at Work
Interlude: Why I Love Being a Black Girl
Chapter 6: White Fragility
Chapter 8: The Story We Tell
Chapter 9: Creative Anger
Interlude: How to Survive Racism in an Organization that Claims to be Antiracist
Chapter 11: A God of the Accused
Chapter 12: We’re Still Here
Interlude: A Letter to My Son