Bookstagram Buddy Read - THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS discussion
Week 1 - pp. 1 - pp. 123
date
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Kindle
Leaving through A Burdensome Labor
Audible Audiobook
Chapters 1 through 20
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Here are a few questions to think about when discussing this section. You can of course write about anything you want, but if you want some guidance please feel free to use these! There are also some questions in a different thread you can consider as well.
1) The author uses the term "caste system" throughout the book, something that is not always done in the United States when talking about race. What is your experience with this terminology?
2) What are some of the facts about race relations and the Jim Crow south that are new or surprising to you? Are the facts in the book so far different from what you learned in history classes or other books you have read?
3) In these first chapters, you are introduced to the main players in the book. Which of the three have you connected with the most?
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney
George Swanson Starling
Robert Joseph Pershing Foster
4) What are some of the quotes that hit you the hardest from this section of the book?
If you have suggestions for more questions, please do message me here or on Instagram @kate.olson.reads
Thank you for the chapter marker, Harmony!
My favorite character so far is Pershing. His rebuttal to the man looking for "a nice clean colored girl" was priceless. I don't care how much I hear about the Jim Crow South, I'm always horrified by a new tale. I'd never heard Claude Neal's story until I read it here. The magnitude of the hate had to be suffocating.
I love the mixture of research and personal narratives.
I'm going to have to purchase this book. The thought of having to give it back to the library makes me so sad!
can someone tell me when week 1 ends? I'm trying to catch up
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I'm not sure if I'm unique in this aspect, but the only times I have ever encountered the word "caste" was in the numerous texts I have read about societal structures in India. Reading it here makes me understand just how relevant and appropriate it is in the US too - it really cements for me the multi-generational impacts of slavery and how systemic the racial divides are.
Regarding which character I connect with the most, I think I definitely relate to Pershing the most. I too grew up the child of educators, and I so relate to the feelings of being in the public eye because of this in a small town.
I have more to say, but I'll wait and chime in as replies to others!
I like that she's using the word "caste". If forces us to acknowledge the harshness of the way black people were treated. Castes imply a harshness and lack of mobility that I think is easily glazed over when you use the word class.
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Still making my way through the first 100+ pages, but appreciated this quote from Howard Thurman on why every element of public life was increasingly segregated: "The measure of a man's estimate of your strength is the kind of weapons he feels that he must use in order to hold you fast in a prescribed place."
I am loving this book so far. It’s so readable and the stories are very well told. Page 44-45 is one of the best descriptions of Jim Crow that I have ever read. I actually photocopied it to use it with our 8th graders as background information for a civil rights unit I am building. I have only ever heard the word “caste” in discussions about India; I find it apt for discussions about America in terms of race and class, however. I connect the most with Pershing. My dad is a minister and my mom is a teacher and I constantly had that pressure to succeed bc I was their kid.
I'm still a little behind, but I am following along with my book and the audio and I'm really enjoying it this way. I like how there's a lot of important facts and history in the book. So far, I'm liking Ida Mae the most, but this might change once I get further along. I hope to be able to catch up to Week 2 this week. Happy reading and week to everyone!
The start to this book was amazing. I think that showing the Great Migration through the stories of 3 individuals really helps people to connect on a personal level to the experiences that we may or may not be familiar with. I found it VERY difficult to read the parts about lynching but out of respect to the people who endured it, I read it and sat with it with a heavy heart. I'm not sure if I particularly connect with any of the 3 stories but I do love reading about each one of them.
I love that the author chose to center the story on the three main characters. It makes such a huge historical event more human and at the same time makes it more readable. I’m in awe of all the love and work and research that must have gone into this book! One part that stood out to me was the discussion about disciplining children as a way to prepare them for how they were expected to act in the outside world.
“The arbitrary nature of grown people’s wrath gave colored children practice for life in the caste system, which is why parents, forced to train their children in the ways of subservience, treated their children as the white people running things treated them. It was preparation for the lower-caste role children were expected to have mastered by puberty.”
So much of this book is heartbreaking, but I think this really hit me hard because it shows that no facet of life was able to be experienced apart from the prison of the Jim Crow era. Even something as human as raising children was impacted by the white world.
I haven’t identified with any of their characters. I am just swept up in their stories and their backgrounds. This book is just amazing. Sad but enthralling. I’m so grateful to have finally started this book and to understand more about this history of this country. It has gotten me thinking so much more.
George is my favorite character. He was so brave to basically start an orange picker Union. He could have been killed, and almost was. He risked everything to get closer to a fair wage. I wonder how his story will progress.
Krista wrote: "I like that she's using the word "caste". If forces us to acknowledge the harshness of the way black people were treated. Castes imply a harshness and lack of mobility that I think is easily glazed..."I totally agree with you, Krista. The word caste is so striking and so appropriate.
Let’s engage in honest conversations while remaining respectful to all members thoughts and opinions.