Good White Racist? by Kerry Connelly

Author:Kerry Connelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611649901
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

White Power and Huckleberry Finn

A practical example of this is what happens in a classroom when a curriculum includes books such as Huckleberry Finn, a work that uses the N-word over 200 times. There are so many dynamics to consider here, the most important being the impact this has on Black students, especially those in predominantly white classrooms led by white teachers. I’m torn on whether the book should be taught. As a writer, I’m aware of both the importance of the literary canon and its racialized and gendered exclusivity (which I find obnoxious, at best). I don’t like censorship, and the brutal truth of the book can do a lot to enlighten students about our not-so-awesome American past. But harm is harm, and it’s important to not just be aware of that, but to take responsibility for that and to do something about it. Ultimately, I think it should be left up to Black educators to decide whether the book should be taught as written, and how.

That said, for the bravest of teachers (and hopefully, well trained and antiracist), an exploration of this text could be part of a new way to educate children for the purpose of deconstructing whiteness and leveling power differentials, rather than reiterating them. Imagine if a teacher were to teach Huckleberry Finn alongside works by BIPOC authors such as Frederick Douglass to demonstrate power dynamics, to humanize those who have been dehumanized by the power of language, to empower those who have been left out of canons, silenced and marginalized. Imagine if white teachers openly discussed and taught students about the history of the N-word, about its power and its ownership and why it is a word that white people should never use. Imagine if white teachers helped their white students actually see whiteness rather than get lost in it and helped them understand the way it operates in literature, in the classroom, and in the world.

Perhaps if white teachers could use their explicit authority in this way to deconstruct whiteness—to make visible what has been to white people invisible and to BIPOC communities a figurative—and at times, very literal—noose around their necks, perhaps then we might finally have a chance at a future without racism.

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