Fiction_L Archives Racially mixed book discussion Dates: 3/12/03,3:51 PM  through  3/13/03,1:29 PM  (4 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to March 2003 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: EWILKINSON <[removed]@cuyahoga.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 3/12/03, 3:51 PM

Hi, everyone.

I lead a wonderful racially mixed book discussion, group members being
primarily whites and African Americans, pretty well balanced. At times,
especially if the author of the book we are discussing is African American
and there are African Americans in the group, the discussion will veer into
and get stuck in all the atrocities committed by whites towards African
Americans. While this is sometimes part of the book and such discussion is
necessary, it can overpower all other possible topics of discussion. It is
very uncomfortable for the whites in the group, and difficult for me to get
the conversation back on track, especially since most of the whites won't
say anything. Can anyone give me suggestions about how to lead such
discussions, and how to sensitively get things back on track?

Thanks for any help.

Elaine Wilkinson
[removed]@cuyahoga.lib.oh.us

Elaine Wilkinson
Public Services Librarian I
Cuyahoga County Public Library
Maple Heights Regional

"Never apologize for your reading tastes."

Rosenberg

FROM: "Barb Borg-Jenkins, South Haven Public Library" <[removed]@pcpls.lib.in.us>
REC'D: 3/13/03, 9:56 AM

Perhaps gently remind the members that the topic of discussion is the
book and steer it back toward the actual book discussion.

Barbara Borg-Jenkins
South Haven Public Library
Valparaiso, In 46385

EWILKINSON wrote:

>Hi, everyone.
>
>I lead a wonderful racially mixed book discussion, group members being
>primarily whites and African Americans, pretty well balanced. At times,
>especially if the author of the book we are discussing is African American
>and there are African Americans in the group, the discussion will veer into
>and get stuck in all the atrocities committed by whites towards African
>Americans. While this is sometimes part of the book and such discussion is
>necessary, it can overpower all other possible topics of discussion. It is
>very uncomfortable for the whites in the group, and difficult for me to get
>the conversation back on track, especially since most of the whites won't
>say anything. Can anyone give me suggestions about how to lead such
>discussions, and how to sensitively get things back on track?
>
>Thanks for any help.
>
>Elaine Wilkinson
[removed]@cuyahoga.lib.oh.us
>
>
>Elaine Wilkinson
>Public Services Librarian I
>Cuyahoga County Public Library
>Maple Heights Regional
>
>"Never apologize for your reading tastes."
>
> Rosenberg
>
>
>......................................................................
>Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
>Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org
>
>
>
>

FROM: "christine jeffords" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 3/13/03, 10:06 AM

>From: "Barb Borg-Jenkins, South Haven Public Library"
><[removed]@pcpls.lib.in.us>
>Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>Subject: Re: Racially mixed book discussion
>Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:44:50 -0600
>
>Perhaps gently remind the members that the topic of discussion is the book
>and steer it back toward the actual book discussion.
>

That was about what I thought. Perhaps better yet: agree, as a group, on a
signal--a code word, the ring of a tea bell--that will mean, "People! We're
off topic! Please stop!"

_________________________________________________________________
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FROM: David Wright <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 3/13/03, 1:29 PM

One thing that may give you comfort is that
it shouldn't really matter WHERE you're straying
away from the book - refocusing the discussion on
the book itself is always appropriate. Of course
this won't work if more comfortable kinds of
digression are left alone - if Mrs. P can link
any and every book to, say, her ungrateful
granchildren or her Peace Corps experience, and
only sensitive or uncomfortable digressions are
reined in by the leader.
It certainly is one of the challenges that
adhere to Public Library book groups, and one of
the best parts, too: the heterogeneity of the
participants, something you rarely find in
private groups. So you get all the interesting
opinions and experiences added to the mix. But
if a subgroup of the group would rather be
discussing social issues without much reference
to the books themselves, that can be tough.
I've noticed a similar thing being the only
male at many book group gatherings, that the
group would be reading a book with some
troublesome male authority figure - a fairly
standard theme in many book group books - and
then we be off on a lengthy comiseration session,
punctuated by tsks and clucks, about what's wrong
with men and, what they've done to us women,
myself excepted of course. That's all well and
good if it relates to the book, but it would
happen book after book. Some answers to this
have been to vary the reading material more -
including more male protagonists, for example -
and also to try to reach beyond even the very
fundamental particulars of race and sex to get at
the paths and motivations of the individual
characters and how they are universalizable - how
would this apply to me? In what ways am I like
this? Does this have meaning for me? Because if
a book about the lives and struggles of, say,
women, written by a woman, to an audience of
women, is only accessable and discussable by
women, then we don't have a book group here, we
have a women's group. What are the universals,
historically, globally, human-ly?
-thinking aloud
David

=====
David Wright Seattle Public Library

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