1. What are the different types of journeys that the author narrates and recounts as she explores the color complex?

2. The author asserts that the idea of Black beauty remains controversial. Do you agree?

3. Although the book is a memoir it touches on politics and history. How does the author frame the discussion in a political and historical context?

4. How does the author challenge and interrogate her own attitudes about color?

5. How do you challenge your own attitudes about color? Did the book challenge or change your views and beliefs about color?

6. The author has described this book as a "communal autobiography." Why do you think she describes the book this way? What does the addition of the interviews and experiences of others add to the recounting of the author's experiences with the color complex?

7. The author writes of her hesitance to re-examine the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God from a perspective that challenged its color representations. Are there books that you feel you might re-examine within this context?

8. What is the significance of the letter that concludes the book?

9. In what ways do Black men and women experience the color complex differently?

10.The author has said that writing the book allowed her to create a liberating way to think and write about the color complex. What evidence in the book supports this assertion?

11. In what ways is the color complex a universal experience crossing boundaries of race and Ethnicity? In what ways is the author's journey the journey of all women?

12. In what ways does the color complex affect relationships in your family or in your relations with others?