Note: This includes the fifth set of thought questions related to Austin Channing Brown’s book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.
Thought Questions for July 29 (pages 131-164)
Chapter 10: The Ritual of Fear
Chapter 11: A God of the Accused
Chapter 12: We’re Still Here
Interlude: A Letter to My Son
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in The Atlantic, “as many of our sharper activists and writers have pointed out, America’s struggle is to become not post-racial, but post-racist. Put differently, we should seek not a world where the black race and the white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.”
Though Austin was incredibly joyous by the election of the first Black president, Austin wasn’t convinced that America had become post-racial. Were you hopeful that America had become post-racial with the election of Barack Obama (even if you voted for another candidate)?
How do you define the difference between post-racial and post-racist?
Because Austin was pregnant as she wrote this book, she includes a letter to her son where she talks openly about the difficulties her son may face in his future and welcoming him into “a divine community of hope.” If you were to write a letter to someone you love, in what ways would you express how you hope America will change for the better?
Laura Bolin Carroll, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Adams Center for Teaching and Learning
Next Reading
August 12 (pages 165-182)
Chapter 13: Justice, Then Reconciliation
Chapter 14: Standing in the Shadow of Hope