I find it silly to stop teaching about classic books about slavery, or the n word. Every race has been a slave to someone at one point and time in history, every race has been shown as ignorant and stupid at one point. The African American people have the N word, the White people have "Cracker" and various other names but the point is, if you just ignore it, then the children will not learn it is a racist word and then use it without the whole story of why it is bad and shouldn't be used. As long as parents talk with their kids and explain that this was the perception of a certain race of people back in the day and then inform them that this was a sterotype and a wrong sterotype at that then there shouldn't be an issue, we are doomed to repeat the past if we do not learn it and learn from it. These classic books should be taught, it doesn't just teach about what the past was like but it teaches a moral story, and if due to racial slurs (which are wrong and shows ignorance) is the main reason to ban books, then why don't we do the same to the bible and other great books that were written in the past. Kids are a lot more intellegent then we give them credit for but it takes guidance for the most part parents but the school system as well. But also it does take each race to not use the word themselves as slang, if an african american says the n-word then it is fine, and sometimes considered a compliment, but if any other race says that to an african american they are beaten up or worse killed. You can't have a double standard and expect everyone to know it, if it is not taught and understood that racism is bad, certain words are racist and are not to be used ever then you will just never take a step forward, instead you will be going backwards and that is something we as a human race do not need to do. Everyone just has to remember that every race has been a slave, had words that are demeaning towards their race, had stories that depict them in a bad light, but that is the learning process. The past is the past we can't change it, we can only attempt to make the future better, so teach kids the difference between what was "acceptable" back in the day vs. what is acceptable now, have them learn that what was in the past was wrong but we can change the course of today and have more respect, give them the tools to be better then their past relatives.
- 1
- 2
Rethinking Race In the Classroom
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
In some sense, I suppose having those conversations is a kind of progress. After all, we don't have White History Month—it's just part of what kids learn all the time. But I could have never imagined this moment as a fifth-grade student whose class assignments included writing letters to our local officials demanding that Martin Luther King's birthday be made into a national holiday. Or even as a high-school student just happening upon "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" at a friend's house and wondering why I had to introduce myself to such a complex, controversial and fascinating figure.
And as a lover of books, I personally can't imagine missing the opportunity to savor rich characters like "Mockingbird's" Boo Radley or Atticus Finch, particularly since Finch ultimately became a hero on the issue of race. Besides offering Mark Twain's ironic take on slavery—Huck feels he is immoral for not turning in the escaped Jim—"Huck Finn" was a foundational novel for much of modern American literature, "Mockingbird" included. "We don't give children the credit they deserve for being as smart as they are,'' says author Terry McMillan. "Yes, it is a new day, but a classic book is forever—no matter the day and no matter what's changed.'' Fiction transports the reader back into the space and time of a story, McMillan says, helping to put real feelings behind real events. "The characters in those books make whatever the issue is all the more tangible for the reader," McMillan says. "They do what a PBS documentary can't—whether it's talking about Abraham Lincoln or slavery.''
Boyd, the USC professor, says he still gets a chill up and down his spine when he shows the explicitly racist film "The Birth of a Nation,'' to his students. The 1915 movie that endorses the Ku Klux Klan is widely considered a movie masterpiece, particularly for its day. "I personally hate that film and all that it represents, but I can't deny my students a chance to see it,'' says Boyd. "It's a part of history that can't be ignored and shouldn't be.''
Of course, much depends on how this kind of material is presented and what context it's given. "I have no problem teaching 'Huck Finn' and explaining that this was a particular period of time in America," says Rita James, an African-American 10th-grade English teacher in Dayton, Ohio. "I think some of my white counterparts have a problem discussing this type of subject matter because they have no point of context for teaching without trying to defend it. I don't defend it. It is what it is and was what it was.''
There's also a case to be made that, in the age of Obama, it is more important than ever to study works like "Huck Finn." "These stories let kids know just how amazing it is that this man is president right now,'' says Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African-American studies at Duke University.
But as adamant as some African-American teachers and professors are about keeping the books in the classroom, some black parents feel very differently. Thirty-four-year-old LaTice Atkins of Orlando says she knows quite enough about the days of "colored only'' and sitting at the back of the bus, and has no desire for her sons, ages 4 and 6, to be reminded of that time. "I'm not really interested in my sons learning that black men were being called 'n––––r' 100 years ago because they're likely to get called it now,'' says Atkins.
As much as I loved to devour any book as a kid, I too was no fan of "Huck Finn" and tuned out the week it was taught by my beloved teacher Mr. Buzzell. (I did the same thing in calculus, but somehow I doubt that subject is in jeopardy of not being taught.) In the end, parents, teachers and mentors are all responsible for arming students with the right tools for the future. And when our children end up learning only half the story, no one wins.
© 2009
- 1
- 2
Discuss