Designing Critical Literacy Education Through Critical Discourse Analysis by Rogers Rebecca;Mosley Wetzel Melissa;

Author:Rogers, Rebecca;Mosley Wetzel, Melissa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1244635
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Antiracism: Can Talk be Considered Action?

Tonya's primary critique of Iggie's House focused on the lack of action in the book, the shallow representation of the Garbers (the African-American family in the book), and the predominance of the privileging effect (where White people's emotions are foregrounded over the material realities of people of color). In the book, The Garbers, a Black family, buy a home in the suburbs of New Jersey, where they meet Mrs. Landon, a White woman, who circulates a petition against the Garbers and puts a “go away” sign in the Garbers' yard. Tonya wrote the following in her journal:

It seems to me that nothing was solved in this book. It was just a story about a 12-year-old White girl and her one to two week encounter with the new Negro neighbors, or colored people as they were referred to by the other White characters in the story, and how their “coloredness” affected the lovely neighborhood on Grove Street.

Chelsey, a White woman in the group, challenged Tonya's perspective that “nothing happened” in the book, arguing that a number of actions occurred. Chelsey called on the following examples to make her point. She mentioned Winnie's survey of the community's attitudes toward the Garbers; Winnie's parents' discussion of racism; the Landons' move out of the community, which demonstrated that they lost the battle with racism in the community; and that Blume wrote following the civil rights movement, which meant that writing the book itself could be viewed as a form of social action. The discourse about anti-racism here is that the actions of anti-racism can occur through talking, thinking, and relating to people in certain ways and learning—actions that have traditionally been considered to be in the cognitive domain rather than the material. Tonya, on the other hand, looked for evidence of material changes to determine if anti-racism is present.

Chelsey, Leslie, and Tonya discussed the question of whether anything happened in the book during their book club meeting. Rex was absent from class. Leslie began the discussion by making a personal connection to the main character: “I feel like I am… this little girl.” She then offered an explanation for her identification with Winnie.

(9) Well, (10) because I feel like, um, (12) when she when she talks about like, like um, ok, (13) when she talks about things (14) like people aren't supporting her (15) when she has these ideas (16) and they're not the same as her parents, (17) I feel like that situation (18) is really similar to me sometimes (19) if I try to talk to my parents (20) or like friends, (21) like that aren't in the education program (22) about different like social justice type things (23) they don't really understand it. (24) Especially, like I remember reading, (25) when Dr. Rogers read it [a section of Iggie's House aloud], (26) I felt like (27) “oh, I feel like we're alike,” (28) you know, so…

Leslie explained that she and the character in the book engage with “social justice type things” and most people in her life “don't really understand it.

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