Tag Archives: "note to self"

Are the Liberal Arts Automatically Liberal?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2022

Literature, in the current climate, cannot help but be seen as political. That’s because it urges us to consider other views.

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Real Teaching Is Always Uncomfortable

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2021

In the current debates over teaching race history, Lucille Clifton has important things to say.

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Black Women as Saviors? Clifton Objects

By Robin Bates | Published: January 2, 2018

Some are sanctifying black women voters for saving America from itself after Democratic victories in Virginia and Alabama. Lucille Clifton points out that sanctification isn’t much better than demonization.

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On Walls: A Letter to the Incoming Class

By Robin Bates | Published: August 14, 2016

Talk about walls and keep people out of America is beginning to seep down to high schools and colleges. It is therefore important that students understand how walls operate. Daniel Defoe and Lucille Clifton has some useful insights into how walls both make us safe and entrap us.

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Clifton, Ellison Help Explain Whitesplaining

By Robin Bates | Published: February 22, 2016

White politicians, if they want the Black vote, must be cautious about “whitesplaining.” Lucille Clifton gives us insight into the insensitivity in “note to self.” Brother Jack in “Invisible Man” is racially insensitive in this way and may have lessons for certain Bernie Sanders supporters.

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