Updated, updated first post: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

[Kristie in Florida]

My daughter is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and she has questions about African Americans that I don't know the answers to. I'd like to ask them here without sounding disrespectful. I think disrespectful is the right word. I'm also probably very ignorant but I'd like to be more informed.

 

First question: Are African Americans still called negros? She didn't know what that word meant and I said that that was the term that used to be used to describe those with black skin. She wishes to know if that term is still used and if not, when did it stop. I also explained that there is another word that starts with a N that is very bad, worse than the F word even, and we absolutely never use it. She understood.

 

Second question: If black people were hated so much, why did they cook food for white people? She couldn't understand why and I've never given it much thought.

 

I'm very nervous to post this.

 

Edit: updated issue in post 30.

 

Edit2: Thanks everyone. She has decided to put down Roll of Thunder and chose to read The Help instead. It is more enjoyable to her and we are having the types of discussions that I wanted to have before. I feel more informed for those discussions because of this thread, so thanks again.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Kristie in Florida

[sarahmama]

Talking about race is the only way we eradicate racism, so it is fine to ask questions. As a general rule it is considered rude to refer to people as negro, however, when the US Census Bureau tried to remove it as an option a few years back they found that a sizable number of older people still self-identified that way. As far as taking on the positions they did, at least some of it is that those were the jobs available to them and to eat you had to work. Hope that helps!

 

 

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[Ailaena]

Do you mean why did white people hire black people to cook for them, or why did black people consent to work for white people? And I'm assuming that the question comes from the time period of the book (depression-era, right?), and not from the time of slavery.

[Butter]

1.) According to http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/negro-word-historythe use of the term negro fell out of favor in the 1970s.  Negro was only discontinued in the census a few years ago.

 

2.) Blacks were considered inferior and so only good for menial tasks such as cooking.

[Kristie in Florida]

Do you mean why did white people hire black people to cook for them, or why did black people consent to work for white people? And I'm assuming that the question comes from the time period of the book (depression-era, right?), and not from the time of slavery.

She asks, "if white people treated black people so badly and they thought that blacks were inferior, why would they want them cooking their food?" She wants to know about the book's time period and the time during slavery.

[Kristie in Florida]

She thinks that cooking and caring for children is so special, so she doesn't understand why blacks had to do it for whites *because* they were inferior people.

[MedicMom]

She thinks that cooking and caring for children is so special, so she doesn't understand why blacks had to do it for whites *because* they were inferior people.

I don't think you should be concerned about posting this. I think the very fact that this is confusing to her and she had to ask says a lot about how far we've come.

[Ewe Mama]

My dd Joy, who is black, is also reading Roll of Thunder right now. We were just talking about the book and she looked flabbergasted when I told her that situations such as those represented in the book were very common. She thought it was pure fiction.

 

Your daughter is asking some great questions.

 

Joy never used the word negro until she encountered it in her Spanish lesson. That's still the only time she uses it. She calls herself brown or AA, although that one is falling out of usage, too.

[Entropymama]

I'm very interested in the responses here. We're reading Bud, Not Buddy and while I'd like to be having some good conversations about what it was like to be an African American boy in the 1930's, I find I have no background to lead these conversations, not even from my reading. Any insight would be appreciated!

[MotherGoose]

I'm white, and from the South. I do not presume to understand the experiences of a black person living in the 1930s, but I'll share what I believe to be true.

 

There are definitely complicated issues going on here (my Dd is reading this book now too, and it was one of my favorites from childhood.). Your daughter makes an excellent point, about why would people give such an important job to those they saw as inferior. I think that child-raising, cooking, and cleaning was not seen As such an important job--but was best handed off to someone else so white mom could do something more important as she saw it (whatever that might have been).

 

People who work in day cares or clean houses are still poorly paid. It was traditional in families that owned slaves that black slaves would do these chores. People who are not from the South may not realize it, but there are a LOT of black people here. I've been in some other parts of the country and rarely ever seen someone who is black. So, people who are hired to do any job (now), and more unskilled jobs (then) are more likely to be black than in other areas of the country. There is probably a larger percentage of black people working in unskilled jobs too, not trying to get Into some debate about that. The point I'm trying to make is that in my town (a highly desired public surburban school district that "tests well") there are more people of color than who are white. If I go shopping or to the bank or to a business, the employees and customers are just as likely to be black as white.

 

I think the anger and hatred in the book came from the perception that black people were no longer "in their place." Instead of just being servants and slaves, they were owning land and making money and doing all sorts of things formerly reserved for whites. There was now competition.

 

One of the reasons I liked the book so much as a child is that I strongly identified with the theme of land ownership from my own grandparents, who were in their 30s and 40s in the 1930s. Both grew up as white sharecroppers in the South, and had an enormous desire to own their own land--something their own parents never accomplished and which led to upheaval in living situations in their own childhoods. My grandparents could have been the family in the book, except for the color of their skin, burnings, hatred, and history of slavery. They did eventually buy the land they once sharecropped, and it's still in the family.

 

I do hope I have not somehow offended anyone in this post. These are my perceptions based on a lifetime of living in the South.

[Farrar]

My understanding is that "Negro" is woefully outdated, but not outright offensive assuming a historical context. The United Negro College Fund hasn't dropped it, for example.

 

The cooking thing is interesting... you have to really deeply value it as a hobby, labor of love, etc. to think that it would be surprising that blacks cooked for whites, I think. To most people, cooking is yet another chore. Perhaps part of what she's reacting to is the trust in letting someone make your food and not poison you or spit in it? But that speaks to how ingrained the system of racism was - most blacks wouldn't have dreamed have doing that. The whole system would have been stacked against them. Servant culture in the south is interesting... My mother says she'll always remember that the only time she ever saw her father cry was when his childhood nanny died. She had been "in the family" since she was a young girl and had started out as a household servant to his grandmother. They would go visit her (my grandfather's parents both passed away at a relatively young age) when my mother was a child. It's like, wow, that was a close, intense, family bond. But also, wow, she lived in poverty all her life, was acquired as a servant as a child and never educated - she was never really part of the family at all. It's so completely messed up on so many levels. Welcome to The Help, except way less fun and uplifting, I guess.

 

This is one of the best books... I'd try and push her to see connections to today. There are a lot of big injustices in the book and a lot of little ones. A lot of the big ones wouldn't fly today, but a lot of the little ones would in other forms.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Farrar

[eternalsummer]

I think her misunderstanding (possibly perpetuated by the book, which I am not sure I have read) is that white people hated black people, or that racists today hate black people.  In my (limited) understanding, white people in segregated societies don't hate black people as such; they hate (or just disagree with) the changing social dynamic, where black people started to step out of predefined social roles.  So there's no reason, if you consider blacks an inferior race, to not want them to cook or clean for you - that is their natural role (in your worldview) and as long as they keep to it, all is okay.  It is the contravention of that role and the challenging of the established system of segregation that causes/d the feelings of hate, fear, resentment, etc.

 

[LucyStoner]

My daughter is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and she has questions about African Americans that I don't know the answers to. I'd like to ask them here without sounding disrespectful. I think disrespectful is the right word. I'm also probably very ignorant but I'd like to be more informed.

 

First question: Are African Americans still called negros? She didn't know what that word meant and I said that that was the term that used to be used to describe those with black skin. She wishes to know if that term is still used and if not, when did it stop. I also explained that there is another word that starts with a N that is very bad, worse than the F word even, and we absolutely never use it. She understood.

 

Second question: If black people were hated so much, why did they cook food for white people? She couldn't understand why and I've never given it much thought.

 

I'm very nervous to post this.

1. Not generally. The only organization that uses it (and generally only as acronyms) is the United Negro College Fund. It lasted longer on the census than it did in popular parlance.

 

2. Cooking used to be a very laborious chore. One that if another person does for you, you have way more leisure time. If you don't have to do it yourself, you are unlikely to care who is doing for you so long as they are a good cook. Discrimination is more nuanced than just hate. After the abolition of slavery, many of the jobs open to black people were service or labor oriented- cooking, cleaning, taking care of children or farm labor. It wasn't that white people didn't want to ever see or interact with black people, it was that many white people felt that black people should only do certain sort of work or "stay where they belong". So to that horrible logic, cooking for white people- ok. Becoming a doctor- not unless they only treated black people.

Edited March 31, 2016 by LucyStoner

[Slache]

The only "negros" I've ever met were from South America and quickly began identifying themselves as "blacks" after moving here.

 

I believe that in most families slaves weren't hated, just believed to be animals or at least less than human. I love my dog and leave her alone with my children. If I had a dog that could cook I might be inclined to have her do so. Believing someone is less human than you doesn't make them bad or dangerous or something you don't want around, just less.

 

I'm white, but my family owned slaves and I have lots of old journals and pictures.

[Carol in Cal.]

For people who want some background that is less sanitized than The Help, start with the book rather than the movie.

But then read "In Search Of Our Mother's Gardens" by Alice Walker.

 

[Tanaqui]

You know, people nowadays who handle childcare or who cook in restaurants and the like are seriously underpaid. The truth is, our society doesn't value those jobs. You don't need to be special to do those jobs today, and you didn't back then.

 

Although, with childcare, there has always been backlash against mothers who let other people take over some of the childcare, hiring it out to servants or, in modern times, using daycare.

 

These are very good questions. It's better than you and your daughter talk and think about these things rather than pushing aside uncomfortable discussions. Lots of people like to do that, but it's not the best route.

[G5052]

You know, people nowadays who handle childcare or who cook in restaurants and the like are seriously underpaid. The truth is, our society doesn't value those jobs. You don't need to be special to do those jobs today, and you didn't back then.

 

Although, with childcare, there has always been backlash against mothers who let other people take over some of the childcare, hiring it out to servants or, in modern times, using daycare.

 

These are very good questions. It's better than you and your daughter talk and think about these things rather than pushing aside uncomfortable discussions. Lots of people like to do that, but it's not the best route.

 

I live an area where a handful of people still have full-time cooks, drivers, and maids on their estates. We've had various friends who have worked in that situation.

 

Paid well? Not at all. It's still a very hard career path. You work long hours are are not treated well. There are a lot of labor issues with these sorts of jobs -- no overtime, crazy hours, etc. etc. Sometimes you're told to leave if you don't like the terms. Being private individuals, their parameters are different. 

 

That book is part of a series if you want to read more. I read all of them to my children some years ago.

[Guest]

This might also be a good time to discuss the (false, racist) idea of "the happy negro"--a black person who loved his white master and was happy to be enslaved or was too stupid to function without a master. Think of Mammy in Gone With the Wind. Sadly, there are still people who think this is how it really was.

[elizahelen]

I would keep reading more books to get a variety of perspectives. There are great southern authors, black and white, who give the nuances. William Faulkner and Dilsey (I think) from sound and the fury, for instance. She (Dilsey) saves that family morally, spiritually and lovingly. Hard read though.

Flannery o Connor, Eudora Welty, Langston Hughes, Walker Percy. This is trite but even the yaya sisterhood books had some very accurate portrayals of black-white relations.

Great subject!! Happy reading.

 

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[Slojo]

My daughter is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and she has questions about African Americans that I don't know the answers to. I'd like to ask them here without sounding disrespectful. I think disrespectful is the right word. I'm also probably very ignorant but I'd like to be more informed.

 

First question: Are African Americans still called negros? She didn't know what that word meant and I said that that was the term that used to be used to describe those with black skin. She wishes to know if that term is still used and if not, when did it stop. I also explained that there is another word that starts with a N that is very bad, worse than the F word even, and we absolutely never use it. She understood.

 

Second question: If black people were hated so much, why did they cook food for white people? She couldn't understand why and I've never given it much thought.

 

I'm very nervous to post this.

To answer your first question: Generally speaking, no, they are not still called negroes. There may be a small percentage of folks from my grandmother's generation (give or take 15 years) that still hold the preference (I'm 44, my grandmother is almost 90) - but we're talking pretty elderly. My parents generation came of age in the 60's and 70's, and "negro" was fading fast then, so even 70 year olds (my dad's age this year) would be fairly unlikely to use the term with any regularity. Just about no one my age would use the term, except either in reference to a joke or to mark a historical era long past. Most certainly none of your daughter's contemporaries would use the term, so functionally, she would have just about zero occasion to use it in reference to anyone she is likely to interact with in her lifetime, except if she is referring to a historical era.

 

I think black or African American is fine in the contemporary context. Seeing the later responses, I agree with others that 1) she should understand that cooking, child care, housecleaning, etc... were all considered (and still are) considered menial jobs, and most certainly in the 30's the menial jobs were just about only jobs black people could get (except for a very small black middle class that served the black community and worked in institutions that black people could control - ie., the black church). The pattern of blacks serving whites in these roles was so established that no one questioned them. In terms of why whites would be okay with eating the food prepared by blacks -- well, there has always been a worship of the "leisure class" throughout history, and having your food prepared by others and designating certain jobs as "beneath you" would definitely be a marker that you were part of the leisure class. Blacks, for their part, for the most part would not have dreamed of ruining or poisoning the food. The risk of severe punishment in a system that was clearly stacked against them was too great -- anything from being barred from employment anywhere ever again to being jailed or lynched. During WWII, my grandfather was assigned mess hall duty, and didn't cut potatoes the way a superior wanted him to (whatever the "right" way might have been) and was told he better be glad he was in the army because "they lynch Negroes for less where I come from." And given the more than 1000 lynchings that occurred between 1900 and 1960 that were never prosecuted (no evidence that they even tried, including many for which there was later photo evidence), blacks came to understand that they, well, "could be lynched for much less." So those roles, and having blacks perform them in certain ways, were not questioned on either side. 

 

The relationship between white people of that class and caste from that era and their cooks and servants is some deep, complex psychology indeed -- not that I really understand the whole notion of how you can actively participate in the oppression of someone for whom you'd shed tears for upon their death. There's some deep, complicated psychology right there.  I only know the stories of those who served, not those who were served within such a societal caste system. 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Slojo

[Tsuga]

She thinks that cooking and caring for children is so special, so she doesn't understand why blacks had to do it for whites *because* they were inferior people.

 

These are still pretty low-paid professions. Yes, it's very special when you do it for family, but doing it for pay is not special--it is a very common job that is easy to obtain. I am the only one who can be a mom to my kids, but literally tens of thousands of people in my area could babysit them or cook for our family.

 

Many people do jobs for people they don't like because they need the money to buy food.

 

Slaves work because otherwise they could be killed. They had to smile for their lives.

 

Even today, people who work at restaurants don't ask how we are doing because they care. It is because that is their job. Does someone in your family work outside the home or for a company for a living? Perhaps they can explain the trade-offs when it comes to jobs.

[Slojo]

These are still pretty low-paid professions. Yes, it's very special when you do it for family, but doing it for pay is not special--it is a very common job that is easy to obtain. I am the only one who can be a mom to my kids, but literally tens of thousands of people in my area could babysit them or cook for our family.

 

Many people do jobs for people they don't like because they need the money to buy food.

 

Slaves work because otherwise they could be killed. They had to smile for their lives.

 

Even today, people who work at restaurants don't ask how we are doing because they care. It is because that is their job. Does someone in your family work outside the home or for a company for a living? Perhaps they can explain the trade-offs when it comes to jobs.

 

I agree. Cooking and caring for children are only special in the context of love, connection and, quite frankly, respect. Take those away, and the dynamic changes. Relegate someone to ONLY those roles, and the dynamic changes. Refer to people as "the help," and the dynamic changes. The dynamic doesn't have to be all bad, but it does complicate things and often removes some of the "special."

 

Place those tasks in the context of indentured servitude, pay them low wages that are not family-sustaining, or require such long hours that the person has zero time to care for their own children and families -- all of that becomes not so special and actually a cause of great pain. My grandmother was a domestic in the South until she remarried in her 40's and moved North when my mother was a teenager. My mother and grandmother had to rebuild a relationship because, for the most part, my mother was raised by her grandmother on a day-to-day basis because my grandmother was functionally gone 5 days a week. I remember being a teenager and walking into an argument between my grandmother and mother and hearing my mother say in the heat of the argument, "Well, you didn't really raise me, Big Momma (grandmother) did." That was a very difficult thing for my grandmother to hear, wasn't entirely fair given the circumstances, and yet was absolutely true on an individual level. I didn't fully understand until years later. The caste system of the South at that time affected my grandmother's and mother's relationship -- it just did. They have a great relationship now, but structural racism played a role in their very personal relationship. It took away some of the "special." Now that I think about it, it may have been one of the reasons my mom decided to be a stay-at-home mom because she had the economic opportunity to do what my grandmother could not.  

 

But these are life experiences that your daughter may not yet be able to connect to, which is fine and what education and exposure over time is meant to foster. It's great that she connects those things to "special" - that will serve her well in her personal relationships. And, as she sees more of the world, she will hopefully "see" the circumstances of others. In the last year or two, the New York Times published some of the best college essays about "money and wealth" from high school seniors. It was a very striking set of articles. One of the teens talked about her mother being a nanny, and how one of her memories is of her mother having to work on a day she had a special day at school -- her mother had to miss because the family she worked for "needed" her to help with their daughter's special day and the mom needed the money (couldn't remember what the occasion was and why the wealthy mom couldn't handle it herself). She described in very moving detail the difference between the perfectly done hair bun that her mother put in place for the daughter of privilege while her own father did his best to brush her hair into a sloppy ponytail. Not that she wasn't grateful for the father's presence and attempts, but her own mother wasn't able to be there for "special."  And that story is from today's times.

 

Maybe those stories will help her get a fuller picture of what the dynamic in the book must have been like. 

[umsami]

Your daughter is asking good questions, which is wonderful.

 

As an aside to the book, because your screenname suggests you may be in Florida, have you thought about visiting some historically black colleges in State?

Two that come to mind are Bethune Cookman in Daytona Beach and Florida A&M in Tallahassee. 

 

There's also the Gamble Plantation off of I-75. 

[Kristie in Florida]

Your daughter is asking good questions, which is wonderful.

 

As an aside to the book, because your screenname suggests you may be in Florida, have you thought about visiting some historically black colleges in State?

Two that come to mind are Bethune Cookman in Daytona Beach and Florida A&M in Tallahassee.

 

There's also the Gamble Plantation off of I-75.

That is something that I never thought of. We live near an area that was named after a plantation that was once there. I just did some research and the original maim house is still standing. They offer tours there on weekends.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Kristie in Florida

[Catherine]

She thinks that cooking and caring for children is so special, so she doesn't understand why blacks had to do it for whites *because* they were inferior people.

 

The dynamic of servant help is confusing.  Your daughter sounds like a very insightful girl!!  Caregiving is still unpaid labor in the USA.  There has been a movement to force the US government to accord it an economic value, which would change the lot of SAH parents, but I don't think it's gained much traction. 

 

I think the simplest answer to why blacks did servant jobs is that they were shut out of almost all forms of legitimate employment.  

[lauraw4321]

I'm white and from the South (just declaring my privilege / bias). My grandmother was a solidly middle-class stay at home mom after WW2. She had occasional cleaning and child care help from women of color (probably a few hours a few days a week). She told me once that she would hesitare to hire a white maid and she certainly would never hire a white woman watch her children. In her eyes, women of color were more trustworthy. What I don't think she consciously realized is that the reason she saw them as more trustworthy was because she had huge power advantage over them. She unconsciously knew that her word would always be taken over the help's word by law enforcement. She also knew, on some level, that those women knew serious harm would come to them or their family (or both) if they ever harmed one of her children. She didn't hold that same power over another white woman.

[gaillardia]

My grandmother who was born in the late 1890s, always referred to blacks/African Americans as "colored." This was in Virginia if that makes any difference.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2016 by Gaillardia

[Zinnia]

Even today, all the nannies at the park, all daycare workers, and most people working the line at any given restaurant are people of color, especially low paid places like fast food. I rarely see white people working fast food except for chick fil a.

 

Generational things like this are hard to break out from under. (I know plenty of people of color in white collar jobs, too, but those jobs have a mix of races).

[Bluegoat]

I think that with questions like this, it can be helpful to look around and think about class issues today, both where you live and in other places.  There are actually very few societies with no class divisions, and that is perhaps even more true in societies without some of our modern infrastructure, but a lot of the negatives about them come from our perceptions of value.  There always seem to be people who look at others from a different class background, or in less socially rewarded work, as lesser in some fundamental way.  On the other hand, there also always seem to be people who look at people, no matter what the social value of their work, as being fundamentally other people doing something that needs to be done.  And most people are probably a mix of the two to some extent.

 

I think what I am trying to get at is if class divisions made it impossible for people to live together in a functioning society, we would have imploded a long time ago.  We tend to accept at least some level of class divisions - and I think this includes slavery where it exists - as simply the status quo, something neutral or which we may even disapprove of, but have to exist within to some extent.  After all - where do the clothes and imported foods and such we all use come from?  Why are most of the agricultural workers here Jamaican, or are so many child-care workers Asian?  Do I think those people are wrong to take that work, or their employers are wrong to hire them?  Are the economic and social realities that lead to those things wrong, or just inevitable?  Is it wrong that some people worry about those jobs going to foreign workers?

 

Social dynamics are pretty complex.

[Kristie in Florida]

She came to me in tears after chapter 5 and does not want to finish the book. I'm torn between gently convincing her to finish reading it and telling her that she can stop. I assigned it because she needs to know that things like this happened (happen?) and that things like this should not happen. She is taking the mistreatment of the children because of their race very hard.

[MotherGoose]

She's 12? I personally would encourage her to continue it. Perhaps find a summary online so she can see a general view of what's going to happen? Maybe read it together?

[Farrar]

Another vote for a gentle push to finish it assuming this is your 12 yo. I don't think we do kids any favors when we let them off the hook in facing racism and this book is really made for that age. Of course, every kid is different and you know what yours is really capable of handling.

 

For gentler suggestions if this one is too much, you might try One Crazy Summer - totally different time period, but it touches on different racial issues and also raises lots of good questions.

[Slache]

It's an incredibly difficult topic. If you decide to let her stop you can always readdress it at a later time. She has obviously learned a lot.

[Kristie in Florida]

Yes, it's for my 12 year old. What do I say when we discuss it?

[MotherGoose]

I'm reading it now with my 10 year old. She found it scary because of the burnings in ch 4 but hasn't made it to Ch 5 yet. Maybe my Dd is more aware of racism because of where we live and because of history that we've studied, or perhaps your Dd is just more sensitive. Not a bad thing at all. I remember being horrified about the story too. It is awful, but it is also relatively recent history. Regardless, I would meet her where she is. If this is the first exposure to any sort of racism, share her horror. If she's read about other instances of racism in history, not just white versus black but in other periods of history, try to remind her. let her know that people always manage to divide themselves into classes based on something. Maybe show her some positive things that came out of all this, like voting rights and such. And on how things aren't like this anymore. I find that kids sometimes have a very skewed perception of reality. This isn't going on now, here. More horrible things are going on in other countries, of course, but not this, not here. Make sure she feels safe, and that any kids of color she knows aren't going through this.

[Garga]

I made a rule for myself a number of years ago: no books or movies about the holocaust or unjust racism in America. My heart just can't take it. I end up sobbing through the whole thing.

 

You can make her read it, but there's no law that says you have to. For myself, I'd let her stop. I think the point has been made.

 

Many people won't agree with me, but as someone who just can't take the pain from reading those kinds of books, I'd say let her off the hook. It doesn't mean that she doesn't understand. Her pain at reading it means she completely understands.

 

You can still have discussions about racism and injustice without making her read books that reduce her to tears. Books and movies may be too intense, but as long as you keep the discussions going, she'll learn what she needs to learn.

 

My son is sensitive to these things too and I don't make him read stories that are going to evoke too many emotions. We were just discussing something about race today in history and he was spot on in recognizing racisim so I haven't sheltered him so much that he can't see it happening. I just see no need to be the one to break his heart. I'll let it stay intact for a few more years.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Garga

[elizahelen]

I would stop, too. But, perhaps going and serving in a soup kitchen would be a good way to do something and feel better about humanity and injustice.

 

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[Bluegoat]

y daughter will often get upset part way through books.  However, it seems to help if she knows that things come out better, in some sense, in the end, or even that there is some real point - not just in an abstract way, but within the context of the story.

 

I think because she doesn't see the whole context of the story, reading it when it is sad just seems masochistic. 

[Anne in CA]

As far as finishing the book, I do think that understanding upsetting issues is important. She will be a better person if she is able to think through why these things are upsetting. I read books about the holocaust once in a great while to remember *how* this stuff happens. It is politically important today. Thinking that a candidate and their supporters are simple "nuts" and that they are not a real threat is what got the German people in trouble. Not seeing how their neighbors viewed them got the Jews in trouble. There was a lot of a false sense of security that I think people need to understand that racial/ political situations can and WILL happen again when people aren't informed.

[Farrar]

How's it going for her, Kristie? Did she end up putting it aside?

 

With my kids, I tend to talk about how important it is that they not look away from injustice. Obviously, this is a fictional book and it's historic but I think this is how we get context. I'm white, my kids are white. We've talked a good bit about how we all have the privilege not to look at the history of racial issues or at racism today because of our race. If we choose to, we can ignore it, and society won't punish us. But others don't have that privilege. And to make the world a better place, we should take a role in being witnesses. And for kids, it starts with books, I think.

[Kristie in Florida]

How's it going for her, Kristie? Did she end up putting it aside?

 

With my kids, I tend to talk about how important it is that they not look away from injustice. Obviously, this is a fictional book and it's historic but I think this is how we get context. I'm white, my kids are white. We've talked a good bit about how we all have the privilege not to look at the history of racial issues or at racism today because of our race. If we choose to, we can ignore it, and society won't punish us. But others don't have that privilege. And to make the world a better place, we should take a role in being witnesses. And for kids, it starts with books, I think.

She put it aside, for now. She is interested in reading The Help but hasn't started yet. We put the DVD on hold at the library. She grabbed There Eyes Were Watching God from my shelf and put it aside after a few chapters after she realized it was a love story and said "I have no interest in love stories right now."