A few days ago, I wrote about my dismay at finding racist language in Jack London’s Call of the Wild after I assigned it to a sixth-grader I tutor, and I ended by asking whether there is any value in continuing to teach books that contain outdated racist content.
When I met with my student, however, he was confused. He’s Asian American, and he had never heard the n-word. He had no idea that it was an insult that is now considered so bad that we don’t say it or write it out. I felt a little silly defining a word that I hope he never uses, but we talked about how common such language was during London’s time.
On the other hand, anyone who hopes to understand American literature and culture must grapple with our nation’s ugly racial history. Racism continues to affect the daily lives of millions, and even a sixth-grader can grasp the importance of understanding and debunking it. A class discussion about the harm such language can do raises the awareness of all students, regardless of race, and helps them be prepared to confront it when they encounter it in real life.
Of course, so far I’ve been talking about what it’s like to read racial insults when neither I nor my student belong to the race that’s being insulted. It’s completely different to consider teaching books with the “n-word” to students who are African American. Back in the 1990s, I would read the n-word aloud if it came up in a text (think Huckleberry Finn), but then it hit me that I had no right to inflict it on my black students. It would be as if a male teacher read out a passage containing derogatory words about women.
Not saying the “n-word” when it appears in a text now seems like an appropriate way to handle the existence of a word that’s been used for centuries to dehumanize black people. However, it remains important to notice it when it appears--if only to point out how absurd it is to have to confront racism when reading about plants.
Elizabeth Breau, Ph.D., is a private English tutor and the author of History According to SAT: A Content Guide to SAT Reading and Writing. Her website is historyaccordingtosat.com, and she can be reached at elizabeth.breau@gmail.com.
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