6/9/2021

Discussion Director
Dear Martin

Meeting Date Pages Read Student Name

6/9/2021 50 Salsabeel

Brief Summary:

The story begins when Justyce McAllister, a seventeen-year-old black kid, goes to save
his very drunk ex-girlfriend Melo Taylor from driving herself home at 3 a.m. Melo spills the
contents of her pocketbook and spits up on Justyce's hoodie as Justyce tries to get her into her
Mercedes-Benz. He must take her up and place her in the back seat of her car, where she falls
asleep almost instantly. Justyce tries to make it appear that Melo wasn't intending on driving
herself home when the cops come. However the cops misunderstood the situation. The cop grabs
Justyce, handcuffs him, pushes him to the ground, hits him, and swears at him. Officer Castillo
assumes that because Justyce is black and wearing a hoodie and Melo is beautiful and looks
white that Justyce is trying to take advantage of a girl who has accidentally locked her keys in
her car. After all that happens Justyce writes letters to Dr. King, to whom he refers simply as
“Martin.” In his first letter dated August 25, he introduces himself and talks about the night he
was arrested. A couple of days after the incident, Justyce and Manny hung out in Manny’s
basement, and talk aboy how Melo and Justyce have gotten back together. Manny calls the
relationship toxic, pointing out that Melo cheated on Justyce and has now gotten Justyce in
trouble with the police. Afterthat Manys mom gets a call saying that Mannys cousin got arrested
because he apparently killed a police officer. After all of this, Justyce and his pals have a
Halloween party in which they dress up as stereotypes to demonstrate that racial equality exists
in America. Justyce disguises himself as "the Thug," and someone from the "black jihad," a
gang, begins a fight with them and everything. In Chapter 6, Justyce finds out he’s been accepted
to Yale and calls to share the happy news with SJ, SJ is Justyce is debate partner who will be
attending Columbia, only an hour and a half from Yale.

list DEEP THINKING (open ended) questions:

● Why does Manny spend time with white friends who disrespect black
people and yet believe equality exists between the races?
● What is the main difference between Justyce and Manny? How does
this influence the way they are treated at school?
● What other method or strategy do you think Justyce would do to cope
if he wasn’t able to write about his problems to Martin Luther King Jr?
● Does Justyce have feelings for SJ?
● Do you think Justyce and Melo will break up because Manny believes
their relationship is toxic?

Group Discussion:
We discussed and evaluated the deep thinking questions I supplied as a group.
We discussed how Justyce not only writes to Dr. Martin about his concerns but
also how this is a coping mechanism for him. Not only to cope but to one day be
like him and look back on his journal to see what he went through and where he
ended up today. We also believe that Dr. Martin is his role model and someone
who he aspires to emulate in the future. We also talked about racial equality as a
group. We believe that people of all colors should have equal opportunity. In
other words, institutions are to provide individuals with legal, moral, and political
equality regardless of physical characteristics such as skin colour.