Clint Smith’s poem captures what it can feel like to be the only black student in an otherwise all-white class.
Tag Archives: racism
Black in a White World
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class", Clint Smith Comments closed
Harper Lee’s Book Became Less Honest
“Gp Set a Watchman” is not as polished a book as “To Kill a Mockingbird” but it is more ambitious and more honest. Something important got lost in the editing process.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged American South, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Comments closed
Reading Poems to Protest Donald Trump
A student attending a Donald Trump rally staged a silent protest by reading the poetry of Claudia Rankine. The collection of poems could not have been better chosen.
Children Lit’s Changing Racial Landscape
My mixed race granddaughters have children’s books with protagonists of color. It’s a far cry from the Dick-Jane-and-Sally books of my childhood and of the reality described by Toni Morrison’s “Bluest Eye.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bluest Eye, Childhood, Children's literature, segregation, Toni Morrison Comments closed
Milton’s Satan Invades Charleston
Once again, light has attracted darkness in America with the Charleston church killings. John Milton describes how this dynamic works in “Paradise Lost” and Leslie Marmon Silko does so as well in “Ceremony.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ceremony, Charleston killings, domestic terrorism, Dylann Storm Roof, Emanuel AME Church, John Milton, Leslie Marmon Silko, mass killings, Paradise Lost, white supremacy Comments closed
The Color Purple and a Texas Pool Party
The out-of-control police officer at an African American pool party brings to mind a scene from “The Color Purple.” We’ve made progress, however, since the days in which the novel is set.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alice Walker, Color Purple, police violence, Texas pool party Comments closed
Protesting Baltimore’s Racial Divide
The racial divide we are currently seeing in Baltimore was noted by Countee Cullen in 1925.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Incident", Baltimore, Countee Cullen, killing of unarmed black men, police brutality, social unrest Comments closed
How to View Prejudice in the Classics
How to handle instances of prejudice in the classics? Let the values battles fly.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged D. H. Lawrence, Dion Boucicault, Heidi, Johanna Spyri, John Milton, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Octoroon, Paradise Lost, Prejudice, Rabelais, Sexism, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf Comments closed
