Chanel Miller's KNOW MY NAME--Kids find it disturbing, compelling, important

This blog post is for people looking for a nonfiction text about an important issue to add to the mix for seniors

While my AP  Lang seniors are doing the final few weeks of power prep, I have the non-testers read a memoir as a small group--they have several activities, discussions, and a final writing along the way. Several students choose Chanel Miller's KNOW MY NAME, an account of her sexual assault by Brock Turner, a successful swimmer at Stanford--the campus where the attack took place.  This traumatic experience led to a well-publicized case during which Miller was insulted and blamed and emotionally dismissed. Not only did she deal with the devastation and fear of having been attacked, she also endured more than one painful court hearing while attempting to get justice. 

My high school readers find the sad book eye-opening: if you haven't read it, it's both painful and hopeful. One girl wrote, "The reader knows--it's not the victim's  fault. Turner made a choice, not Chanel."  It's comments like these that encourage me to keep using the book with students. (There are student comments below.)

The last student comment is from a boy named James. He was certainly a pretty enlightened guy going into the book. I was kind of by taken by how surprised he sounded in class discussions as well as in his essay. Like the men in my life I care most about, he is a feminist and "one of the good guys"--like the two Swedes on bikes that chased after Turner and took him down. I am 60 and was assaulted at 27. I think it makes me connect to the book in a different way. However, the variety of student responses below show me they also  leave the book with feelings worth honoring. 

In some ways, I don't know why I'm including this one. I read my husband some of their responses, and he felt like my readers would already know all this. I think he's right. The ideas that the students shared are not a shocker. But the book impacted them and helped them either develop some compassion or anger. Kids don't know everything we know, and gaining some empathy is always a win. Either way--I encourage you to read it, and offer it as a small group selection.

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One senior girl offered a response showing how it affected her personally. I was kind of worried about her reading it as she is a very religious and pretty sensitive. She seemed to appreciate Miller's honesty.

        "Miller states, 'Denying darkness does not bring anyone closer to the light.' Towards the beginning of the book, I felt annoyed that Miller would choose to include so many graphic details of the attack, as I believed they were not necessary. But as I continued to read, I came to realize  that she needed to share her full burden. This book is one of the most thought-provoking, powerful books I've ever read. It made me uncomfortable in a necessary way, helping me to understand on some level the feeling of the victim in a sexual assault."

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Another AP Lang student had a more political response:

"One person sent a letter to Miller making inappropriate jokes about sexually assaulting women, with the infamous quote: 'Grab them by the pussy.' How should victims feel when a convicted felon and rapist is the president, for the second time? All rapists should be held accountable no matter how important or successful."

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This girl's response was complex in a different way--she was a bit judgmental, but also empathetic. I think it was definitely impactful read for her, and she in her final essay seemed to be trying to sort things out.

"Miller writes of the location of the rape, 'This? This is where my whole life was defined...' When I first read that statement, it bothered me. I know people who have been sexually assaulted.  They created a new life, turning their misery into beautiful things: ministry, jewelry making, and public speaking,  not about their assault but of hope for the future. Chanel, in my controversial opinion, took something so evil and dwelt on it....Sure, we all deal with things differently, but to say her whole life was defined in the yard behind the fraternity is a stretch for me."

But later in the essay she shows she gets the reality and danger of sexual assailants: 

"It does not matter what a woman is wearing. If you are "modest" in dress, then it will be "less likely" you will be attacked. In reality, modesty does not actually reduce assault. So not matter what a woman, or even a man, wears, or how they act, or how much they drink, sexual predators exist and will prey on whoever they find."

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I'll end with James's response which I mentioned in the opening.

"I needed to read this book. I am a six foot tall broad-shouldered man, and I don't think twice about going on walks alone at night. I don't worry about people in cars following me home, I don't fear alleys or unlit walkways; they're not things I'm taught to be wary of. The fact that women are taught to fear and be wary rather than us as a society working on preventing sexual assault is devastating. What made me angriest are the things Brock Turner's father said at the sentencing. That his son didn't deserve to have his life ruined for 20 minutes of action. It is people like Brock Turner's father that should read this book."

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I think James's response is powerful! Another girl thought assault victims should read the book; others felt "everyone" should.