When They Call You a Terrorist Discussion Questions

What is the importance of “stardust” as described in the introduction to the memoir?

In the introduction of When They Call You a Terrorist, Patrisse Khan-Cullors refers to a video of astronomer and author Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) in which he describes how humans are composed partially of stellar matter, or “stardust.” Khan-Cullors comments that she watched this video shortly after the 2016 electoral victory of Donald Trump and that the message resonated with her during this frightening time, reminding her that her life is special. Although all humans and all organisms contain “stardust” in their material, she emphasizes that Black people, too, are made of stardust, as a way of reinforcing her book’s central message: that Black lives matter. As she describes the phenomenon, not only are she and those she cares about one with and part of the universe, but also “the universe is in us” eternally.

She continues to recount how the history of Black people in America, from slavery to Jim Crow to the systemic discrimination of contemporary times, is then doubly outrageous given that they always have been made up of stardust. She writes she is not surprised to learn of the stardust in her body because she has seen “the magic, the stardust we are” in the indomitable will to survive and persevere against all adversity in her family, friends, and neighbors. She asks, “What could they be but stardust?” referring to the people who refused to die or accept that their lives had no meaning. She is not saying that only Black people contain stardust, much in the same way the phrase “Black Lives Matter” does not mean “only Black Lives Matter” or “Black Lives Matter more.” Rather she underlines that as creatures made of stardust, Black people deserve the same respect and dignity as anyone else.

How does race affect interactions with police, as shown in When They Call You a Terrorist?

Patrisse Khan-Cullors makes it clear early on in When They Call You a Terrorist that police treat Black people differently from white people and that Black people must be always aware of and careful around police. She was not born knowing this information but learns it from seeing police hassle and mistreat her brothers for no reason. As a child, she assumes police treat everyone this way and is shocked to learn from a white friend that white children can deal drugs without fearing arrest. It seems impossible and against everything she has ever known that people can live without fear of police.

In later sections, the story of Patrisse’s brother Monte illustrates how police and prison guards can target Black men, particularly large Black men like Monte. Additionally, Patrisse contrasts how white criminals like the “Stanford rapist” Brock Turner and mass shooter Dylann Roof can be treated gently by the police and justice system while Black men who commit minor crimes are brutalized and given the harshest possible sentences. At one point when police raid Patrisse’s home without a search warrant, they claim her husband “matches the description” of a wanted suspect. Patrisse wonders how often this sort of injustice happens to white people and why white people aren’t arrested for superficial resemblances to criminals. Throughout her story, Patrisse avoids police involvement when possible, knowing that the presence of police can be potentially fatal to Black people like her and her family members.

What are Khan-Cullors’s relationships with her parents?

In When They Call You a Terrorist, Patrisse Khan-Cullors spends large sections of the book’s first half detailing her relationship with her multiple parental figures. Although she is the biological daughter of Cherice and Gabriel Brignac, for the first 12 years of her life she grows up believing she is the daughter of Alton Cullors, the father of her three siblings. The revelation that she is Gabriel’s daughter is at first shocking to her. However, her brothers and Alton all reiterate that they consider her family nonetheless, and Alton in particular shows surprising vulnerability as he admits he fears losing her as a daughter.

Alton fades out of the narrative after the first few chapters, and Patrisse’s relationship with Gabriel gains primacy. A warm and nurturing father figure while he remains clean of drugs, he is a more present and reliable father figure than Alton. However, when imprisoned for drug possession, he disappears from her life for years. His death of a heart attack at age 50 is one of the major inspirations for Patrisse’s activism, as she wants to fight for the dignity of forgotten people like Gabriel.

Patrisse’s relationship with her mother is mostly positive, but moments of tension occur, such as Cherice slapping Patrisse shortly before she meets Gabriel. Patrisse also demonstrates some anger toward her mother for her unfailing loyalty to Jehovah’s Witnesses, even after being thrown out of the church. Although her parents are not always available or present, Patrisse maintains unconditional love and respect for them, seeing that they struggle and sacrifice to give her a better life.

What is the economic significance of the incarceration system to the United States?

In When They Call You a Terrorist, Patrisse Khan-Cullors uses the stories of the incarceration of her brother Monte and her father, Gabriel Brignac, to show how the prison system in the United States is both biased against Black Americans and a major component of the economic system. She describes Monte’s early stays in juvenile detention as “apprenticeship” to the prison system. This terminology is important, as it suggests the economic incentive for the justice system to provide a steady supply of cheap prison labor through strict policing and harsh sentencing, particularly where Black youths are concerned. Patrisse describes the prison system as a modern reinvention of slavery, whereby Black people are used as labor “even cheaper than offshoring jobs to eight-year-old children in distant lands.” During Gabriel’s second stint in prison, he volunteers for the dangerous work of fighting wildfires, risking his life to shorten his sentence. The problem with such a system is that rather than incentivizing and rehabilitating inmates, it incentivizes keeping them locked up. In the memoir, Patrisse explains after Gabriel’s death how he was more useful to the United States economy as a prisoner than as a free man.

How does the memoir describe the BLM movement and its goals?

When They Call You a Terrorist is at once an account of Patrisse Khan-Cullors’s life and at the same time a defense of the Black Lives Matter movement’s goals and reason for being. At multiple points in the book, Khan-Cullors outlines the goals of the movement, which include an end to violence against Black people, dignity and respect for Black people, the eventual abolition of prisons and the carceral system, and a wholesale cultural shift toward a culture less violent and more inclusive of different groups. She underlines the importance of Black Lives Matter as a movement inclusive of queer and transgender people and a space where misogyny is not tolerated. She recognizes the tension between these progressive forces and more traditionalist elements of Black culture, as seen when she worries the pastor of a major Black church will take issue with welcoming trans and queer activists. Largely, however, she presents the movement as harmonious.

Khan-Cullors is forceful in rejecting accusations that Black Lives Matter engages in “terrorism.” She argues instead that police forces that surveil and brutalize Black populations are the true terrorists. She acknowledges that some individuals in protests act violently but argues that they are a minority of the movement, that the police by contrast are always violent, and that the media often ignore police violence. Most important, Khan-Cullors wants to show that Black Lives Matter is a necessary movement, for in its absence no one would speak up when Black people are victimized and discarded.