Obama’s affinity for reading is well publicized. He is touted as a role model who could motivate more minorities to go to college, work hard and graduate.
But, ironically, his visibility might also make some educators and students less likely to pursue race-based topics in reading and writing, which implies the election somehow negates any need to examine race.
Recently, a Baylor colleague mentioned to Pittman having assigned his class to read Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, earlier in the year. “He said if he’d known the election outcome, he would have chosen something else,” she says. “In my mind, I screamed.”
Myree-Mainor worries that because students aren’t moved by racism experienced by literary characters, their apathy shadows them through life encounters. One African-American student casually mentioned to her that his White coach told him to “run like the police are chasing you.”
Because the student took the comment in stride, “he accepted as a value that Black men are criminals,” Myree-Mainor says.
Pittman says since November’s election, she has tried impressing upon students that many Blacks don’t have the same opportunities Obama has had. “We don’t all get to go to Harvard and Columbia [universities].”
Their response so far?
“One did rethink his position, but not the rest,” she says. “They just want the pain of racism to go away.”
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