A Good Kind of Trouble

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. George Floyd’s murder in 2020 was the catalyst for numerous protests across the United States against racial discrimination and unjust policing practices. What was the incident with George Floyd? How did this tragic incident fit into a longer American history of police brutality?

Teaching Suggestion: Published in 2019, A Good Kind of Trouble was written prior to George Floyd’s murder but still in the midst of the rapidly growing Black Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Matter was formed in 2013 in response to another incident of police brutality: the murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager in Florida. From the start, one of the primary goals of the Black Lives Matter movement has been to eradicate The Pervasiveness of Racial Bias, particularly with regard to police brutality against Black people and other people of color, which has a long history in the United States. George Floyd was a Black man who, in May 2020, was murdered by police officers in Minnesota after a store clerk accused him of using a counterfeit $20 bill. The incident was an egregious use of excessive force by police officers, and as such, Floyd’s murder became the instigating event that ignited another wave of Black Lives Matter protests across America. A subplot around police brutality is woven throughout the narrative of A Good Kind of Trouble.

• The Marshall Project’s “How Policing Has—and Hasn’t—Changed Since George Floyd” looks at the various reforms made to the police force since 2020.
• In “George Floyd and the History of Police Brutality in America,” the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, a division of Harvard, takes a look at the history of police brutality in the US.

2. Born in 1940 to sharecropper parents in Alabama, John Lewis was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the US House of Representatives from 1987 until his passing in 2020. In 2018, he tweeted, “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” What do you think is meant by this quote? In your discussion, talk about the life and legacy of John Lewis, particularly in the area of fighting against racial injustice.

Teaching Suggestion: The title of A Good Kind of Trouble is, in part, an homage to this famous quote by John Lewis, in which he refers to political activism and social justice as “good trouble.” This prompt will get students thinking about not only The Pervasiveness of Racial Bias but also how Authority Can Be Flawed. Throughout the book, Shayla comes to realize that the social forces of authority that control her life— from her school’s administration to the police force in Los Angeles—are corrupt. Lewis would consider standing up to these authorities, as Shayla’s sister Hana does, as “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

• Mashable’s “‘Good Trouble’ and Beyond: 9 Powerful John Lewis Quotes You Should Know” is a collection of quotes that are representative of his beliefs around life, society, and racial injustice in America.
• The Library of Congress’s “Remembering John Lewis: The Power of ‘Good Trouble’” is an obituary that provides an overview of John Lewis’s legacy.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

At some point in your life, you’ve probably made a friend or acquaintance from a vastly different background than your own. Reflect upon this friendship/acquaintanceship: What did this friend mean to you? How did they make you think differently about your own life and upbringing? Would you say that you learned something new about yourself as a result of this friend?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt will get students thinking about their own experiences with diverse friendship, which is related to the theme of Expressing Individuality Leads to Belonging. You may wish to explain that it is generally accepted that cross-cultural connection enriches us as human beings and that it is beneficial to have friends from a wide range of backgrounds. Encourage students to consider friends and acquaintances who may practice a different religion, speak a different language, and/or celebrate different holidays.

• The nonprofit Centerstone outlines the importance of a diverse friend group in “The Power of Diverse Friendships.”
• ABC Everyday’s “The Benefits of Making Friends Who Are Different to You” explores how making friends from an array of backgrounds benefits ourselves and our communities.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who may not have had much cross-cultural exposure, you can approach this prompt from the opposite angle. Students will likely have heard the phrase “echo chamber” to describe the deleterious effects of existing in an environment—often via online communities and/or social media—where one only encounters beliefs that reflect and reinforce one’s own opinions. Why are “echo chambers” considered a negative thing? For more discussion on the dangers and problems associated with them, have students read and discuss Harvard Business Review’s “Beyond the Echo Chamber,” GCFGlobal’s “Digital Media Literacy: What Is an Echo Chamber?,” and Brookings Institution’s “Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Ideological Bias: How YouTube Recommends Content to Real Users.”