Book Club Reflection

BY Sophia Stoddard | She/Her/Hers | Seattle, WA

I joined the YBE book club originally because I really wanted to educate myself on the systemic racism present in our country, and have a safe place to openly discuss it and ask questions. When I heard about the book club, it seemed like a great opportunity to keep me accountable for actually reading and forcing myself to get out of my comfort zone by having open and honest discussions about race.

I think participating really helped to broaden my perspective on racism in our country, especially because everyone in the book club had their own viewpoint that contributed to informing the whole group.

While reading these books on my own would have been very educational, I think being a part of the group made it even more impactful because the discussions showed me things I may have missed while reading, and made me even more attentive while reading because I wanted to find things to discuss as well. I think I took a lot away from this experience, especially the knowledge of how racism operates within the institutions present in this country and how deeply ingrained it is. I also feel much more comfortable discussing race than I was before, which I think is really important because if we don't talk about racism, then we can’t combat it.