Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
Anonymous, 2020
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780358216773
Summary
Part memoir and part joyful romp through the fields of imagination, the story behind a beloved pseudonymous Twitter account reveals how a writer deep in grief rebuilt a life worth living.
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media.
Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace’s voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that’s sprung up around her.
@DuchessGoldblat (81 year-old literary icon, author of An Axe to Grind) brought people together in her name: in bookstores, museums, concerts, and coffee shops, and along the way, brought real friends home—foremost among them, Lyle Lovett.
“The only way to be reliably sure that the hero gets the girl at the end of the story is to be both the hero and the girl yourself.” — Duchess Goldblatt (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Duchess Goldblatt, 81, is the inspirational author of An Axe to Grind"; Feasting on the Carcasses of My Enemies: A Love Story; and the heartwarming meditation on mothers and daughters Not If I Kill You First.
A cultural icon, trophy ex-wife, friend to all humanity, and sponsor of the prestigious Goldblatt Prize in Fiction, she lives in Crooked Path, NY. She’s fictional but her love is real.
Anonymous, the real-life person in whose mind Duchess Goldblatt lives and flourishes, has gathered all available truth and beauty for these pages. There’s nothing else to give. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Deeply satisfying, unexpectedly moving.… As lovable as the duchess herself…. Duchess and Anonymous subtly, slowly become one person. She no longer feels alone; neither do her subjects. People find solace in this fictional character—and Anonymous does, too.
Julie Klam - New York Times Book Review
There's no recipe for Duchess Goldblatt tweets, but they often amount to one part conventional wisdom and two parts surrealism, with some grandmotherly tenderness or saltiness sprinkled in for good measure.… Her feed is one of the few places on the internet devoted to spreading unadulterated joy.… Becoming Duchess Goldblatt recontextualizes the Twitter account as a therapeutic exercise.
Kate Dwyer - New York Times
Her proclamations sound like pithy lines from a standup special—that is, if the comedian was God and if God was an 81-year-old woman from the 17th century.… [H]er community.… [finds] her amusing, comforting, assuring.… It's loving the bizarre and cherishing the weird that Goldblatt does best. And it's why so many people trust her to tell them how to live, how to treat themselves with more compassion, how to treat each other better, too.
Boston Globe
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is many things, all of them splendid…. The best sort of self-help, demonstrating that creativity, generosity and even Twitter… can offer salvation and lift all boats…. The book is enriched by two distinct voices: one frank and vulnerable, the other all-knowing.…This sort of anonymity, in a time of too much oversharing on too many platforms, is a respite. We need magic. The book's timing is inspired. It's a summer cocktail of a book.
Washington Post
A source of wry wisdom and off-kilter commentary...A testament to the powers of redemption, reinvention, and yes, country singer Lyle Lovett.
Christian Science
A life-affirming memoir packed with hilarity and candid observations about life and love.
Marie Claire
Surely you follow Duchess Goldblatt on Twitter? If not, do yourself a favor and hit that button to subscribe to her delightful musings. In Becoming Duchess Goldblatt, the Duchess' real-life anonymous creator writes about crafting one of Twitter's (if not the Internet's) best accounts and healing herself in the process.
Real Simple
The Duchess is a light shining in the darkness, a beacon for troubled souls…. Her presence has uplifted her human avatar, even as it heartens Her Grace's ever-growing audience of "loons" and "rascals." … [A]s the Duchess would say—her love is real.
BookPage
A surprising, joyful story of social media at its best.
Booklist
(Starred review) How does a fictional character write a real memoir? Very, very well.… [The author has] created a long-term fever dream of humor, compassion, wordplay, and dog photos. A fascinating memoir by a 21st-century original.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT … then take off on your own:
1. ''Do you follow the Duchess's tweets? If so, does her book incorporate the same (or similar) style and pithiness?
2. What passages in Becoming Duchess Goldblatt do you feel carry the most weight in terms humor, compassion, or advice for living life as a person you wish to be? In other words, what most resonates with you? Did you have any "Ah-ha!" moments?
3. Well, just how funny is Duchess Goldblatt? What made you laugh out loud, or at least elicit a deep chuckle (or dainty snort)?
4. What does Anonymous tell us about her own life and her own vulnerability?
5. Who do you think Anonymous is, who's the real person behind the curtain? Well, of course, not WHO she is, but what she's like. Have some fun and create an identity for her. Speculate!—is the Duchess even a woman, is she really an octogenarian? Maybe she's a literary historian …or a 17th-18th century literature professor? Where do you think she lives?
6. The Duchess at one point insists she doesn't have many friends, that if you "get too friendly …they [will] inevitably drop you." But later she admits to a desire to connect with people, that she's "trying to make a new life" for herself. Do you find those revelation genuine ...or a part of her made-up character? Does her wariness of friendship feel familiar to you …or completely foreign?
7. The Duchess says that her followers confide in her about "trying to get or stay sober, or their marriages are unhappy or they have a child who’s terribly sick." Why do you think people are willing to share such deeply personal issues with her?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team
Arshay Cooper, 2020
Flatiron Books
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250754769
Summary
The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives.
Growing up on Chicago’s Westside in the 90’s, Arshay Cooper knows the harder side of life.
The street corners are full of gangs, the hallways of his apartment complex are haunted by drug addicts he calls "zombies" with strung out arms, clutching at him as he passes by.
His mother is a recovering addict, and his three siblings all sleep in a one room apartment, a small infantry against the war zone on the street below.
Arshay keeps to himself, preferring to write poetry about the girl he has a crush on, and spends his school days in the home-ec kitchen dreaming of becoming a chef.
And then one day as he’s walking out of school he notices a boat in the school lunchroom, and a poster that reads "Join the Crew Team."
Having no idea what the sport of crew is, Arshay decides to take a chance.
This decision to join is one that will forever change his life, and those of his fellow teammates. As Arshay and his teammates begin to come together to learn how to row—many never having been in water before—the sport takes them from the mean streets of Chicago, to the hallowed halls of the Ivy League.
But Arshay and his teammates face adversity at every turn, from racism, gang violence, and a sport that has never seen anyone like them before.
A Most Beautiful Thing is the inspiring true story about the most unlikely band of brothers that form a family, and forever change a sport and their lives for the better. (From the publisher.)
Now a documentary narrated by actor and hip-hop artist Common.
Author Bio
Arshay Cooper is a rower, author, motivational speaker, and volunteer for numerous community outreach organizations. He works with nonprofits focusing on opening the boathouse doors to everyone, and he was the recipient of a 2017 USRowing Golden Oars Award. He lives in Brooklyn with his family. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Uplifting and always enlightening.… [A Most Beautiful Thing] is a coming-of-age story told with the benefit of adult insights and mature hindsight.… This book is less about this specific sport than how that sport becomes transformative, empowering some kids, giving others a direction.
Chicago Tribune
The sport made intense demands on the young men, requiring them to train hard, learn how to swim, and make countless sacrifices—including not reacting to the racist jeers from competitors and spectators. The experience turned a team of strangers into brothers and unleashed their potential. The book is as uplifting as its title suggests, and sections detailing the races are downright heart-pounding.
Christian Science Monitor
Cooper details how he and his teammates experienced racism and discrimination in the community around the boathouses the team traveled to and how they took a risk in trying a mostly all-white sport that had never seen anyone like them before—and how it ultimately transformed his life.
Sports Illustrated
Spirited account of a pioneering all-black rowing team.… The narrative feels both familiar and memorable due to… well-rounded characterizations. Engrossing as a sports memoir but also relevant to any conversation about privilege and race.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
Alexis Coe, 2020
Penguin Publishing
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735224100
Summary
Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first—and finds he is not quite the man we remember.
Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, demanded military promotions, caused an international incident, and never backed down—even when his dysentery got so bad he had to ride with a cushion on his saddle.
But after he married Martha, everything changed. Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips and hated to leave home. He took up arms against the British only when there was no other way, though he lost more battles than he won.
After an unlikely victory in the Revolutionary War cast him as the nation's hero, he was desperate to retire, but the founders pressured him into the presidency—twice. When he retired years later, no one talked him out of it. He left the highest office heartbroken over the partisan nightmare his backstabbing cabinet had created.
Back on his plantation, the man who fought for liberty must confront his greatest hypocrisy—what to do with the men, women, and children he owns—before he succumbs to death.
With irresistible style and warm humor, You Never Forget Your First combines rigorous research and lively storytelling that will have readers—including those who thought presidential biographies were just for dads—inhaling every page. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Southern California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California-Santa Barbara; M.A., Sarah Lawrence College
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New
Alexis Coe is the award-winning author of Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis (soon to be a major motion picture). Coe has frequently appeared on CNN and the History Channel, and has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications.
Coe is a host of Audible's Presidents Are People Too! and No Man's Land. Coe holds a graduate degree in American history and was a research curator at the New York Public Library. She lives in Brooklyn, New York (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
An important achievement. [Coe] has cleverly disguised a historiographical intervention in the form of a sometimes cheeky presidential biography.
Tatiana Schlossberg - New York Times Book Review
In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book… Coe examines myths with mirth, and writes history with humor…. [You Never Forget Your First] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders.
Boston Globe
You've never quite read a biography like this. Chock full of remarkable facts about George Washington—and surprisingly easy to read—this one feels more like reading your favorite fiction.
Newsweek
Alexis Coe jolts readers with a fresh retelling of the first president. It’s Washington without the pomp—the United States’ first president like you’ve never seen him before.
Reader’s Digest
[B]reezy yet fact-filled revisionist biograph…. The book’s brisk pace and contrarian perspective leave significant gaps…, but it succeeds in humanizing the Founding Father. Readers who like their history with a dose of wry humor will savor this accessible account.
Publishers Weekly
[This] accessible, humorous work casts Washington in a personal light.… An adept, highly approachable read that will appeal to history buffs and anyone seeking a compact overview of the man and the myth. —Stacy Shaw, Denver
Library Journal
(Starred review) In the insightful and entertaining You Never Forget Your First, historian Alexis Coe moves past the well-worn tropes we’ve come to associate with George Washington… with style and humor…. Coe makes colonial history not just fascinating but relevant.
BookPage
A biography of George Washington that debunks many of the tall tales surrounding his legacy.… The author has clearly done her homework…. Evenhanded and engaging, this biography brings fresh insight to one of America's most written-about leaders.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Great Pandemic: The History of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
John M. Barry, 2004
Penguin Publishing
526 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143036494
Summary
Over a year on The New York Times bestseller list when first published.
At the height of WWI, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide.
It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.
But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.
Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research and now revised to reflect the growing danger of the avian flu, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.
John M. Barry has written a new afterword for this edition that brings us up to speed on the terrible threat of the avian flu and suggest ways in which we might head off another flu pandemic. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
John M. Barry is the author of four previous books: Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports (2001); Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1997); The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer (1992, cowritten with Steven Rosenberg); and The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington (1989), which the New York Times called one of the "11 best books ever written on Congress and Washington." He lives in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Easily our fullest, richest, most panoramic history of the subject.
New York Times Book Review
A sobering account of the 1918 flu epidemic, compelling and timely.
Boston Globe
ReviewMonumental… powerfully intelligent… not just a masterful narrative… but also an authoritative and disturbing morality tale.
Chicago Tribune
Hypnotizing, horrifying, energetic, lucid prose.
Providence Observer
History brilliantly written… a masterpiece.
Baton Rouge Advocate
Barry captures the sense of panic and despair that overwhelmed stricken communities and hits hard at those who failed to use their power to protect the public good.… Society's ability to survive another devastating flu pandemic, Barry argues, is as much a political question as a medical one.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion of THE GREAT INFLUENZA … then take off on your own:
1. How does John M. Barry present the state of U.S. science and medicine in the pre-World War I era? Consider, for instance, that admission to medical school had more to do with one's ability to pay tuition than on academic achievement.
2. What role did the founding of John Hopkins Medical School and William Welch play in the development of modern medicine in the U.S.?
3. Talk about the many misguided decisions by military and politial leaders that eventually led to so many influenza causalities.
4. Hiram Johnson said that "the first causality when war comes is truth." What does he mean, and how does that bear on the subject of Barry's book?
5. As a layperson rather than physician or scientist, were you able to follow Barry's descriptions of the research at the time into the mechanisms of the influenza virus in the cell? Why, for instance, is influenza such a formidable opponent? Talk about the role of RNA in the spread of the disease.
6. Talk about the toll of the disease, both in terms of number of people who contracted it and in terms of its effect on the human body.
7. Despite the horrific devastation, what were some of positive benefits that came about in the wake of the influenza?
8. Do you see any parallels between the 1918-1919 pandemic and the Coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2020? Did we forgotten the lessons of history?
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Robin DiAngelo, 2018
Beacon Press
156 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780807047415
Summary
The/00 best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine).
Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence.
These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author and has been a consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice for more than twenty years. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance. Combatting one’s inner voices of racial prejudice, sneaky and, at times, irresistibly persuasive, is a life’s work.
New Yorker
[O]ne-part jeremiad and one-part handbook. It is by turns mordant and then inspirational, an argument that powerful forces and tragic histories stack the deck fully against racial justice.… White Fragility reads better as evidence of where we are mired than as a how-to guide.…White Fragility may… be too pessimistic as well as too cheery…. But it does much help us to get there.
Los Angeles Review of Books
DiAngelo wants white people to… start uncomfortable conversations with family and friends.… It is easy to overstate the value of "conversations about race" and, in the process, de-emphasize the need for material change. But it is hard to deny that a great many new conversations are likely needed…. The number of conversations coaxed into existence by DiAngelo's work will be a central measure of its success. I hope it is a great one.
Pacific Standard
(Starred review) [T]houghtful, instructive, and comprehensive… primarily intended for white audiences… in order to challenge racism.…[I]mpressive in its scope and complexity… a powerful lens for examining, and practical tools for grappling with, racism today.
Publishers Weekly
[C]oncrete examples of how to move awareness of white fragility into meaningful antiracist action.… [H]elpful for those new to the critical analysis of whiteness… [and] useful refresher to anyone committed to… self-assessment and antioppression work. —Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc.
Library Journal
(Starred review) White Fragility is a book everyone should be exposed to. With any luck, most who are will be inspired to search themselves and interrupt their contributions to racism.
Shelf Awareness
Discussion Questions
Questions are written by Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo and distributed by the publisher.
For more information on gathering people and structuring a discussion, visit
Understanding and Dismantling Privelege
"Calling in: Strategies for Cultivating Humility and Critical Thinking in Antiracism Education"
Robin DiAngelo, Ozlem Sensoy
Open the PDF
RECOMMENDED DISCUSSION PRINCIPLES
Keep the following principles in mind.
You may need to return to them on occasion,
so consider posting them in the room…
or having them available on cards:
1. A strong opinion is not the same as informed knowledge.
2. There is a difference between agreement and understanding. When discussing complex social and institutional dynamics such as racism, consider whether "I don’t agree" may actually mean "I don’t understand."
3. We have a deep interest in denying the forms of oppression that benefit us. We may also have an interest in denying forms of oppression that harm us. For example, people of color can deny the existence of racism and even support its structures. This denial may keep them from feeling overwhelmed by the daily slights or protect them from the penalties of confronting white people on racism. However, regardless of the reason, this denial still benefits whites at the group level, not people of color.
4. Racism goes beyond individual intentions to collective group patterns.
5. We don’t have to be aware of racism in order for it to exist.
6. Our racial position (whether we identify as white, a person of color, or multiracial) will greatly affect our ability to see racism. For example, if we swim against the "current" of racial privilege, it’s often easier to recognize, while it’s harder to recognize if we swim with the current.
7. Putting our effort into protecting rather than expanding our current worldview prevents our intellectual and emotional growth.
CHAPTER 1
The Challenges of Talking to White People About Racism
1. Identify a passage from chapter 1 that invokes any sense of discomfort. Highlight this passage and return to reading it periodically as you work through the book. What does this passage reveal about your socialization into the white racial frame? Does your discomfort shift over time? If so, what supported that shift?
2. If you are working through these questions as part of a white discussion group, how will you keep the discussion on track (focused on ourselves and our own participation)? How will you ensure that when common white patterns surface (distancing, intellectualizing, rationalizing), you will work to identify and challenge them rather than ignore or avoid them?
3. How do so many white people feel so confident in their opinions on racism, even as they live their lives in segregation?
4. How can we make generalizations about what it means to be white when we don’t know each person’s individual story?
5. What are some constructive ways to use your emotional reactions when your opinions on racism are challenged?
6. Explain in your own words the author’s critique of the ideology of individualism.
CHAPTER 2
Racism and White Supremacy
1. What does it mean to say that race is "socially constructed"?
2. What is the difference between racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism?
3. What does the author mean when she says that there is no such thing as reverse racism?
4. How does the birdcage metaphor illustrate oppression?
5. What is scientific racism? Give some examples of how scientific racism is conveyed today.
6. What does Cheryl Harris mean when describing whiteness as a form of property?
7. What is problematic about the idea of the U.S. as a great "melting pot"? How did the melting pot actually work?
8. Discuss Coates’s statement that race is the child of racism, not the father.
9. The author cites Ruth Frankenberg’s description of whiteness as "a location of structural advantage, a standpoint from which white people look at ourselves, at others, and at society, and a set of cultural practices that are not named or acknowledged." Explain each of these dimensions in your own words.
10. How is the author using the term "white supremacy"?
The White Racial Frame
1. Explain the concept of the white racial frame. What are some examples?
2. Take a few minutes to share some of your answers to the reflection questions on pp. 35-37. What surprised you? (These questions can be downloaded as a handout from www.robindiangelo.com.)
3. What patterns in the answers to the reflection questions do you notice within the group?
4. What insights do the answers give you on implicit aspects of our racial socialization?
5. What are some ways in which racism is "deeply embedded in the fabric" of society? Provide some examples.
CHAPTER 3
Racism After the Civil Rights Movement
1. What is the impact of white people not knowing our racial history?
2. What is color-blind racism and why is it problematic?
3. How did racism change and adapt after the civil rights era? Consider attitudes as well as behaviors.
4. Why does the author say that white progressives cause the most daily harm to people of color?
5. Why does the author consider young white people today to be no less racist than white people in the past?
6. How would you respond to someone who says, "Doesn’t it all come down to what your parents taught you?
CHAPTER 4
How Does Race Shape the Lives of White People?
1. The author traces some of the specific ways that her life has been shaped by racism. Consider your own socialization. In what specific ways has your life been shaped by racism? (If you are white, try to answer this question without mentioning people of color).
2. Identify at least three ways that white racial belonging has been conveyed to you in the last week (you might start by opening your wallet and looking at the bills there).
3. What are the earliest racial messages you can recall? Try to move beyond what you were openly told and work to identify implicit messages.
4. In what settings have you experienced the expectation of white solidarity/racial silence? How has that expectation been communicated to you? How have you responded? What consequences have you faced or fear you will face by breaking with white solidarity?
5. The author describes the power of segregation. She argues that this segregation is "active." What does this mean?
6. Discuss how various patterns of segregation across your lifespan shape your racial frame.
7. If you are white, which of the patterns discussed in this chapter have you seen in yourself? Which of the patterns challenge you the most? Why?
8. Consider some aspects of your identity other than race (i.e., gender, sexuality, religion, class, ability, nationality, age). How does race shape how you experience these identities? For example, how might being white shape how you experience disability? Poverty? Gender identity and expression?
9. If you are a person of color, how have you witnessed white people enacting white solidarity?
10. The author states that white ignorance is not simply a matter of not knowing; it is a highly effective response that protects white investments in racism and thus is actively maintained. Discuss this statement.
11. What does the author mean when she says that white people are not, in fact, racially innocent? How can we know much about race if we have lived separately?
CHAPTER 5
The Good/Bad Binary
1. What does it mean to say that racism is "a structure, not an event"?
2. The author suggests that one of the most effective barriers to talking about racism with white people is the good/bad binary. How have you seen this binary underlying common white responses to charges of racism? How might you respond when the binary surfaces in discussions about racism?
3. If you are white, share some examples of the good/bad binary in your own responses to suggestions that you are complicit with racism.
4. When the author challenges the idea that we are all unique and therefore cannot be generalized about, what thoughts and feelings come up for you? How might these thoughts and feelings function?
5. The author lists two types of narratives that are commonly used by white people to deny complicity with racism: color-blind and color-celebrate (p. 77). Which narratives have you used yourself, or still use? If you could speak back to yourself with the voice of the author, how would you counter the narrative?
6. How can a white person still enact racism in a close relationship with a person of color? Doesn’t the close relationship itself prove that the person is not racist? Explain how and why enacting racism in a close relationship with a person of color is not only possible but inevitable.
7. If you are white, when was the last time someone challenged you to look at an aspect of yourself related to racism? How did you feel? How did you respond? What insights did/can you gain from the exchange? If no one has ever challenged you (or not in a very long time), what might that tell you about how whiteness shapes your life?
CHAPTER 6
Anti-Blackness
1. The author claims that in the white mind, black people are the ultimate racial other. What does this mean?
2. What does it mean to say that anti-blackness is present across all communities of color, even within black communities?
3. How does the author make the case that the construction of white identity and white superiority was in fact dependent upon the simultaneous creation of a particular idea of blackness? How are these ideas sustained?
4. What are some of the misunderstandings about affirmative action and what do these misunderstandings reveal about anti- blackness?
5. Why haven’t affirmative action programs changed our racial outcomes?
6. What does the author mean when she suggests that causing pain and suffering for black people rests on a sense of white righteousness?
7. Return to the reflection questions on the white racial frame on pp. 34-36 and answer them while replacing the term "people of color" with the term "black people." What do you notice?
8. The author states that the film The Blind Side is "insidiously anti-black." Using the framework of the book, explain how a viewer can not notice the anti-black messages yet still be shaped by them.
9. Consider the bulleted list following the author’s analysis of The Blind Side. In which other films have you seen these racial scripts?
CHAPTER 7
Racial Triggers for White People
1. Discuss the social taboos mentioned on p. 100. Give examples of each from your own life.
2. Explain the triggers listed in this chapter in your own words and share examples of each in daily life.
3. The author writes that white people have limited information about what racism is and how it works, while at the same time they have very strong opinions about racism. Explain how both of these can be true at the same time. In your own words, practice stating the difference between having information about what racism is and having opinions about what racism is.
4. The author shares the story of Mr. Roberts and lists the ways that the two teachers in the story dismissed what they did not understand. Discuss this example. How have you seen or participated in these forms of dismissal?
5. How does the author challenge the idea that our intentions are "what count"?
6. Discuss Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a way to understand the racial disequilibrium that leads to white fragility. In what ways is this concept helpful in explaining how racial disequilibrium works?
CHAPTER 8
The Result: White Fragility
1. What is the "discourse of self-defense"? Have you ever used it yourself? If so, thinking about it now, how did it function in the interaction?
2. Share a time that you experienced your own white fragility or witnessed another white person’s.
3. What strategies do white people use to reset white racial equilibrium?
4. As a white colleague, how would you explain to Karen (p. 107) what is problematic about her response? If you are a person of color, what strategies could you use to address Karen’s white fragility?
5. Why are questions such as "What is the right thing to say?" or "What am I supposed to say?" the wrong questions? How might you respond the next time you hear these questions?
6. The author claims that white fragility functions as a form of bullying. How so?
7. What is meant by the statement that white fragility is "white racial control." How does white fragility function as racial control?
8. The author ends this chapter by sharing an interaction with a man of color who, when asked what it would be like for white people to be open to feedback, replied, "It would be revolutionary." She asks white readers to consider the profundity of this man’s reply. What feelings did you have when you read that response?
9. How might this man’s reply inform how you respond to feedback from people of color, going forward?
CHAPTER 9
White Fragility in Action
1. Why are white people more receptive to other white people (rather than people of color) educating them on race? What does this say about the role white people must play in addressing systemic racism in society broadly and specifically in our homes, with our friends and family members, and in our workplaces with our colleagues?
2. What are the opportunities and dilemmas of white people educating each other on racism?
3. Discuss the claims on pp. 119-120. Have you ever made any of these claims yourself?
4. Now consider the assumptions underlying those claims on p. 121. Which ones have you held? Do you still hold some of these? If so, how do they function for you and what would it mean to you to shift them (what do you see yourself as having to "give up")?
5. In your group, take turns speaking back to the assumptions your group members shared in question 4. Which speak backs were the most effective for you?
6. What is the language of self-defense and why is it problematic?
CHAPTER 10
White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement
1. The author presents a set of eleven "cardinal rules" (pp. 123-24) when giving feedback to white people regarding racist assumptions and patterns. For each rule of engagement, provide an example of the rule in action.
2. What assumptions do these rules rest on?
3. DiAngelo presents these rules in a language of critique in order to reveal how they function. Of course the "rules" are rarely explicitly expressed this way. Consider what you hear white people say that communicates "do not give me feedback under any circumstances" etc.? Go through each of the eleven rules and share how you have heard these rules expressed in practice.
4. How would you rewrite these rules from an antiracist framework? (A worksheet for rewriting the rules of engagement can be downloaded from robindiangelo.com/resources.)
5. In your own words, what is problematic about common guidelines for building trust in discussions about racism (e.g., "don’t judge")? How do these guidelines function? Who are they for? Whose comfort do they protect?
6. The rules of engagement around white fragility have at least three parts: those giving feedback, those receiving feedback, and those witnessing these exchanges. Practice some language for each by preparing your own "sentence starters" such as the silence breakers above. How might you begin to give feedback? How might you respond to feedback given to you? What might you say as you witness an exchange of feedback?
CHAPTER 11
White Women’s Tears
1. The author opens this chapter with the story of a woman of color in a multiracial group stating that she did not want to be subjected to white women’s tears. Why were white women asked not to cry in the group?
2. The author argues that emotions are political. How are emotions political?
3. There have been social media critiques of white feminism. What are some examples of "white feminism"?
4. What does it mean to take an "intersectional" approach? Provide some examples.
5. Throughout the book the author reinforces the idea that we "bring our histories with us." What does this mean and why is it so important?
6. White women often assume a shared sisterhood with women of color. What is problematic about this assumption?
7. Discuss some of the ways in which white men’s fragility manifests. What is important for white men to understand about the impact of each of these behaviors?
8. The author writes, "Since many of us have not learned how racism works and our role in it, our tears may come from shock and distress about what we didn’t know or recognize. For people of color, our tears demonstrate our racial insulation and privilege" (pp. 135-36). Discuss this passage and the ways that white emotional distress and shock (tears, defensiveness, anger, grief) shape conversations on racism. What do these dynamics reveal about the sociopolitical function of emotions?
9. Consider how emotions function in public space. For instance, how do white people often read the emotions of women of color, and peoples of color generally? Consider how emotions are read racially by white people with cultural figures such as Serena Williams, Nicki Minaj, Cory Booker, Maxine Waters, and Mazie Hirono, as well as the way that institutions (like media) respond to emotions in racialized ways. Conversely, how are the emotions of white people read (and the intersections between race and gender in all readings)? Consider cultural figures such as Christine Blasey Ford, Elizabeth Warren, Brett Kavanaugh, Lindsey Graham, and Donald Trump.
CHAPTER12
Where Do We Go from Here?
1. Using an antiracist framework, how would you respond to a white person who said, "You just want me to feel bad and guilty about something that I had nothing to do with"?
2. Very little if anything in society at large supports us to persist in the work of antiracism. In fact, much pressures us not to continue the work. Because of this, we need to set up support for ourselves to continue. How will you set up support for yourself to stay on the journey? How will you resist complacency? Consider both in-group support and racially mixed group support networks. How will both settings be important in different ways?
3. The author states that it isn’t enough for white people to be nice and that, in fact, racism depends on white people simply being nice. Discuss this statement. How does niceness alone uphold the racial status quo?
4. If we accept that racism is always operating, the question becomes not "Is racism taking place?" but rather "How is racism taking place in this specific context?" How does awareness of that change how we think about our lives and our actions?
5. Why must white people resist cynicism and remain hopeful? At the same time, what are the pitfalls of hopefulness? What is the difference between hope and denial?
6. The author shares a time that she perpetrated racism toward a coworker and the steps she took to repair the damage. Identify the underlying antiracist assumptions listed on pp. 142-143 that are demonstrated in these steps.
7. Discuss the suggestions for continuing the work of antiracism. Which are the most challenging? How can you meet those challenges?
(Questions are written by Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo and distributed by the publisher.)