Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Chapters 1-10

Reading Check

1. Brooklyn (Chapter 1)

2. Mira’s father wanted to become an open-heart surgeon. (Chapter 2)

3. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Chapter 2)

4. Ms. Morrel is given wrong directions in the hope that Mira misses her reading. (Chapter 6)

5. Mira realizes that she holds biases about people based on their race (specifically Black people). (Chapter 9)

6. Brown and specifically Indian superheroes (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Z starts asking about being brown and whether his skin color can change. He also asks whether his dad is afraid of him because he is brown and if it is bad to be brown. Mira worries about these questions because it means Z is learning about racism and that people in America are often racist toward brown people like him. She worries about Z having similar experiences as the ones she had growing up. To be able to answer these questions for Z, Mira consults her friends and husband and looks back on her past and the conversations she had about race growing up. (Chapters 1 and 3)

2. Ms. Morrell tells Mira that she and her parents are Americans and to never let anyone tell her otherwise.