Summer Schedule of Readings & Thought Questions for June 3 

Many of you picked up Austin Channing Brown’s book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, to read over the summer. In it, Brown writes to an audience largely composed of white Christians, challenging perceptions and calling for racial justice.

As academics, we’ve been trained to value dialogue and critique, but if we’re not careful dialogue can succumb to what Alice Raynor calls “the coercive force of dialectic” — an attempt to force others’ stories into a predetermined meaning, often one that makes us feel comfortable. One response to this impulse is to practice Krista Ratcliffe’s concept of rhetorical listening: “a stance of openness that a person may choose to assume in relation to any person, text, or culture.”

This summer we have the opportunity to listen to Austin Channing Brown’s sharing of her experience, to choose a stance of openness, and to learn. Every two weeks, you will be emailed thought questions, created by Brown to help listen to her work. We challenge you to sit with those questions, not rushing to answers but considering what you can learn.

Laura Bolin Carroll, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Adams Center for Teaching and Learning

Thought Questions for June 3 
(pages 11-39)
Chapter 1: White People are Exhausting
Chapter 2: Playing Spades

What was the racial diversity like at your elementary or middle school? Was there diversity among teachers? Administration? Was there diversity in your library? Artwork? Curriculum?

Austin discusses how it generally feels to be the only black woman in a predominately white organization, especially one that uses phrases like “Is this person a good fit for our organization?” Asking this question is not inherently negative, but it can be used as a code to mask closed attitudes. How do you think the language of being a “good fit” impacts racial diversity in hiring, performance reviews, and work experiences?