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Reading Group Guide

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This reading group guide for The Black Girl Next Door includes, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Jennifer Baszile. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Discussion Questions

1. Why would Jennifer's classmate's father make the claim that "black people have something in their feet to make them run faster than white people"? Is this perpetuation of a myth rooted in racial ignorance, jealousy, or malice?

2. When young Jennifer senses falsehood in this claim, she feels compelled to expose the classmate's father and her teacher. What is the significance of a child challenging an adult? Is it easier or harder to fool a child?

3. Baszile writes that in her family "integration was a form of competition." What do you make of the Basziles' strong drive to surpass and exceed expectations? What triumphs come out of this motivation? What tensions does it create?

4. How did you respond to Jennifer's imitation of her grandmother? What purpose does parody serve, and when does it go too far?

5. What does Grandmother Rose mean when she tells Jennifer's mother that her children are "just like perfect little white girls"? Is this a compliment, and if so, to whom? Is the goal for Jennifer's parents to preserve or escape their black identity?

6. Discuss the theme of alienation in the memoir. Why does Jennifer think of herself as "The Other One," and how does this shape her personality and the choices she makes?

7. Jennifer's Aunt Frenchie keeps a scrapbook for every member of the family, paying tribute to their accomplishments. Jennifer suspects that there's more to the story, though, and asks, "How much were her albums and photos a mirage?" Do you believe Frenchie's process of selective documenting serves the family well? Is it representative of their story through the ages? Does suffering and failure deserve to be remembered alongside success?

8. Jennifer loves the photographs of her ancestors her mom displays in the house, particularly the one of her great, great grandmother Mary Dean Ballard. She says the pictures, "made me feel less isolated. I was a daughter and a sister, but I had also become a great granddaughter. For the first time, we had ancestors to watch over us, which made it seem as though I could feel the roots of our family tree." How strongly do you feel rooted in your family's lineage?

9. Why is Rosa Parks a more acceptable hero for the school parade than Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass in the eyes of Jennifer's teacher and mother?

10. Jennifer undergoes a few major transformations in the story - one at the department store cosmetics counter, and another when she gets her hair straightened for the first time. Why is the lure of a "new and improved" self so strong? Who creates the ideal for Jennifer? For young women today?

Enhance Your Book Club

Ancestry and family history plays a large role in this story. Ask your book club members to bring in some of their treasured family photos to share.

Complement your discussion by reading other memoirs that grapple with racial identity like The Color of Water by James McBride, Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams, Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, and Black Ice by Lorene Cary.

Food plays a major role in the book. Invite book members to bring in their favorite childhood food or snack.