Between the Covers discussion

Well this book certainly caused a lively discussion in our group meeting last night. Several members admitted to being reluctant to read it, it was hardly a light hearted Christmas read!! However everyone of us found that it certainly made us think and question.

One member in particular was affronted by the author as she took it very personally and felt excluded from the outset. However, surely this was one of the author's points, white people become defensive and/or apologetic.

Generally we thought that this book taught us about the British civil rights movements and along with the author we too felt that we were much more familiar with American history in this area. We focussed mainly on the structural racism aspect of the book and talked about how although it is legislation that has the 'clout' it is a long process and the cultural elements of racism remain for a very long time.

The conclusion was that we need to be much more aware of racism in our culture and be more reflective about our own attitudes.