LSE AAB Book Club Launch

May 24, 2021

Please note that the following blog post contains some spoilers for Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Nickel Boys.

On 20 May 2021, members of the LSE Alumni Association of Belgium (LSE AAB) gathered virtually to launch its Book Club with a discussion of Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Nickel Boys, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Set during the Jim Crow-era in the southern United States, The Nickel Boys tells the story of a bright young man whose college dreams disappear after he is sent to a segregated reform school, the Nickel Academy, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Inspired by the true story of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, whose real horrors only became known after it closed its doors in 2011, the Nickel Academy is shown to be a nightmarish juvenile reformatory, staffed by racist, violent and corrupt administrators who willingly, even gleefully, hurt the boys in their care. This devastating novel shines a light on America’s deeply troubled racial past, and suggests how unjust discrimination continues to cripple the potential of American youth today.

During its first ever book club, the LSE AAB discussed some of the novel’s more challenging themes, including the concepts of accountability, (violent) masculinity, and the strategies people employ to survive and eventually confront deeply-rooted trauma. The conversation covered not only the plot of the book, but touched on recent history, such as the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, 2020 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The LSE AAB considered one of the most difficult topics to be the readiness of the local community in The Nickel Boys to ignore the harms perpetrated at the Academy so long as it received some benefit. In the novel, young men are “rented” out to members of the neighbouring town for various purposes, provide “Community Service” for more high-ranking civilians, and their personal accounts of violence and corruption are ignored by those whose job is to inspect the school for maltreatment and misuse of funds.

The LSE AAB discussed why society may be willing to turn a blind eye to discrimination today, whether in the United States, London or Brussels, and the reasons why people may still be reluctant to challenge racism worldwide. One participant noted that although racial barriers may disappear on paper, prejudice persists, particularly if neighbourhoods and workplaces remain (informally) segregated. And although Americans live amongst the history that has contributed to the country’s ongoing fight for racial equality, Europe’s colonial past can create more distance in race discussions, even as the toxic realities of discrimination endure locally.

Ultimately, however, despite the bleakness of The Nickel Boys, the LSE AAB felt that there was still a tendril of hope in the novel. Although the protagonist, Elwood, may not have become all that he could have been, his activism and “sturdiness” managed to inspire even the pessimists around him, and made at least one other life better than it otherwise would have been.

The LSE AAB would like to again thank everyone who participated in such a thoughtful and considerate discussion in this inaugural meeting of the Book Club. Please sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to learn about our next book!