Wednesday, November 5, 2014

15 Books You Hated Reading As The Only Black Person In Class

Class discussion? How about not, though?


These are all great books and the value of teaching them is vast, but discussing them in a class where you're the only black student is a much different experience. It can lead to embarrassment and moments where you become the teacher yourself, and may inspire unintentional aggression in defending your POV.


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , by Mark Twain


Any black student whose first introduction to literature also coincided with attending a predominantly white educational setting, more often than not meant they read Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This would also be your first experience of a teacher asking people to read aloud passages so your classmates saying the n-word could be forever burned in your mind.


ebookbees.com


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain


Tom Sawyer is basically a walk in the park compared to having to be the only black person in class when it's time to say "N****r Jim" all seven hundred thousand times it's in this book.


inthecactusgarden.com


Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Uncle Tom's Cabin , by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Everyone loves a story about kind and gentle slaves! So much, that The Economist had to pull a review of “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism” by Edward Baptist, because the reviewer stated: "Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains."


It's really hard to talk about slavery in general in a class discussion, especially when books go to great lengths to whitewash its evils.


beinecke.library.yale.edu




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