Questions For Zero Tolerance

In preparation for our meeting on July 7, please think about the following questions:

1.  What are some details from Zero Tolerance that remind you of your experience in middle school? In other words, what are some things that do not seem to have changed in the past thirty years?

2.  What are some details from Zero Tolerance that seem different from your experience in middle school? In other words, what are some things that do seem to have changed in the past thirty years?

3.  How do you feel about Sierra's father as a character? Does he seem real? Do you empathize with him?

4.  How do you feel about Principal Besser as a character? Does he seem real? Do you empathize with him?

5.  Does Zero Tolerance provide you with any insights into ways in which the American education system is well designed or poorly designed? 

6.  In general (not just in the context of middle school), are you in favor of zero tolerance policies? What are the advantages and disadvantages of "no exceptions"? 

7.  In your own experience, what are some times when children and/or adolescents respond well to strict rules? What are some times when children and/or adolescents respond better to a more lenient, compassionate approach?

   AND SOME QUESTIONS THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR ANY YOUNG PEOPLE WHO JOIN THE FIRST PART OF OUR DISCUSSION:

8.  Does Zero Tolerance provide a realistic depiction of middle school life?  Which parts of this book feel real?  Which parts don't feel real?  Are there particular characters or scenes that are well written or well explained?  Is this book going to help your dad understand what it's like to be a middle schooler or teenager in the year 2021?

Henley Middle School in Crozet, Virginia

Questions For Our Meeting

1. Trevor Noah begins Born a Crime with an anecdote about being thrown from a moving car. Why do you think he chose to begin the book with this anecdote?

2. Patricia Noah's faith is an important theme of the book. Her faith was strong and unwavering, even in the face of great adversity. Trevor Noah has more doubts. Where are you in terms of your faith/religion?

3. Trevor Noah speaks multiple languages. How does his knowledge of language affect his view of people and culture? How does it help him move between worlds? Are you satisfied with the American approach to teaching and using multiple languages? If not, what would you change?

4. The stories and reflections in this book are rooted in South Africa. What are the ideas/lessons/questions we can take away from the book, when we think about issues of race and racism in the United States? 

5. This book deals with topics that aren’t funny: apartheid, racism, poverty, and domestic abuse. And yet, parts of this book are really funny. How do you think Noah is able to maintain such a good sense of humor about these circumstances? How do you, personally, maintain a sense of humor when our lives can be both hard and sad?

Reflections: South African History

I did not know that the Dutch were the first Europeans to colonize South Africa. I had erroneously believed it was the British. I also found it surprising that the Dutch were more racist than the British in South Africa.

Also, I was surprised to learn that South Africa had indigenous people prior to Europeans settling there - I had been told that there were no people in South Africa prior to the European settlers.

Sentences That Made An Impact

Tim: (1) The only way to make apartheid work, therefore, was to cripple the black mind.

(2) That's what apartheid did: it convinced every group that it was because of the other race that they didn't get into the club."

Goger: Seeing him had reaffirmed his choosing of me. He chose to have me in his life. He chose to answer my letter. I was wanted. Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.

Olav: More than a sentence, what really struck me was page 75, about the different ways in which Chinese and Japanese were treated. It shows just how calculated the whole set-up was, and could lead you to think that apartheid was more based on financial incentive rather than actual hatred of other races.

Sam: While most children are proof of their parents' love, I was the proof of their criminality.

Jay: I don't regret anything I've ever done in life, any choice that I've made. But I'm consumed with regret for the things I didn't do, the choices I didn't make, the things I didn't say. 

We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection, but regret is the thing we should fear most. 

Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. "What if..." "If only..." "I wonder what would have..." You will never never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.

Porter: In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn’t merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent. Race-mixing proves that races can mix – and in a lot of cases, want to mix.

Walker: There is something magical about Soweto. Yes, it was a prison designed by our oppressors, but it also gave us a sense of self-determination and control. Soweto was ours. It had an aspirational quality that you don't find elsewhere. In America the dream is to make it out of the ghetto. In Soweto, because there was no leaving the ghetto, the dream was to transform the ghetto.

Reflections: The Complexity of Conflict

I received two reflections about the multiple racial distinctions under apartheid:

 

Before reading the book, I thought the race conflict in South Africa was binary as it is in America; white v black. But Noah educates us that there was/is conflict between a multitude of skin colors, tribes and ethnicities. 

"That's what apartheid did: It convinced every group that it was because of the other race that they didn't get into the club." 

This problem seems infinitely more complicated than what we have here in the US. 

I wonder how many conflicts in global history are similar to apartheid in having multiple groups all fighting against one another. When I think about major challenges it is most often a two-party issue: Christian v Muslim, Axis v Allies, French v English, Protestants v Catholics, Dems v GOP.

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It was interesting and new to me to know that there were three basic categories during apartheid, i.e. not only black and white, but also colored.

Beverage Possibilities

Reflections: Dude Was Seriously Alone

Items that I found interesting about South African culture:

1. Learning about the differences between the Zulu and Xhosa ethnic groups, and how they view and treat each other.

2. The classification of a Colored person in South Africa and the restrictions under that label. Noah explains how his mother had to hide him in White South Africa as her son, and his grandmother would not let him play outside in the Townships. Dude was seriously alone and did not have a group he could relate with.

3. The practice of foreigners paying for black prostitutes to live in the white part of town. Lot of issues with this; not sure where to start.

Reflections: The Intentionality of Apartheid; Race in America

I learned a ton about apartheid. 

I had no idea how intentional it was, like a master-planned community. I assumed it was a causal result of colonial racism and white superiority. Learning how directed it was really surprised me, and I feel that it is even more insidious. 

It also made me realize how one group of people can control another group overtly and also subtly. My mind is now going down a track of how this plays out in America, in our schools -- the guilt of white privilege, etc.

Welcome To The Blog

Hi guys,

I hope that everyone is well. I'm using this video as an introduction to our first book discussion. 

I'll be sharing more of your reflections, on the blog, in the coming days.

If you have an idea for something additional that we can share, please email it to me.

Your bud,

Walker

PS: Chap, there's an extra assignment for you at the bottom of the blog. Your homework submission was well done but incomplete, thus the additional work.

Reflections: Speaking Someone's Language

My ideas about apartheid were vague. I had no idea about all of the different categories of race within the society or that "colored" was its own category. I thought the vignette about the colored lack of a cultural identity (or heritage that could be disentangled from the Dutch colonists) was maybe the most tragic. 

I love that Indians were their own category too -- they are everywhere, and in sufficient numbers to influence whatever society they join.

Very interesting to think about the siloing effect that all of these constructs have. Also, so many things that get flipped on their heads due to race. In many cases, everyone is living and acting to live up to the rest of the world's expectations for their group -- the jail scene, for example. 

I like the parts where he talks about language, and how "speaking someone's language" is an effective way to break through those barriers. And of course that contrasts with the scene with the girl at the dance that he can't get through to because he doesn't speak her language.

One of the interesting themes of the book was that Trevor's mixed background was something that made him an outsider and isolated wherever he was growing up, but ultimately he seems to use that to transcend barriers and be at home or comfortable in multiple groups.

Learning More: Trevor Noah Interviews His Grandmother

 

Reflections: The Things We Miss

I was struck by the multi-generational household. Not something I experienced growing up.

The closest I came to this would be my Grandmother Smith who lived over the hill at Cardinal Hill and my Grandmother and Grandfather Lyons who lived in West Leigh. We saw them often, but not every day.

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Noah's story about taking a shit in the middle of their “kitchen” was fabulous. 

Also, his realization that he missed sleeping all stacked up on one another, when he and his mother moved into their first place on their own.