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Okay, but a push for more diverse authors into the classroom is not the same as what you are presenting here. What you’ve linked is not saying “we must read th

Okay, but a push for more diverse authors into the classroom is not the same as what you are presenting here. What you’ve linked is not saying “we must read these authors because their skin is black”. It is saying “their black skin has caused them to live a life different from other authors, which has caused them to write something different from other authors, and we want to know about that.” Based on our back and forth here, it seems you have presented a conversation you claim happens “often” that you’ve neither heard personally nor can cite an instance of it. This conversation is a strong caricature of teachers calling parents “racists” for not agreeing with their book choice. Meanwhile the evidence you’ve linked to shows nothing of the kind. TFA doesn’t support it, nor does the article you linked. What the Harvard article says is that the topics contained in literature written by white men who are now dead are not relatable to a diverse classroom. Unsurprisingly, people write what they know, and as is true with all people, straight white male people don’t know a whole lot about the lived experience of people who are not them e.g. gay, black, and women etc. One way to get this perspective is to read books by authors in those demographics. Again, this is not the same as saying “we must read these authors because they are black.” There are many black authors who are not being suggested, and it’s not black authors to the exclusion of everyone else. What they have to say in their books is how the books get chosen. We are talking about content, not color. Does the color of the author change the content? Yes. And that’s the point, but it’s not racist to recognize that and want to learn from it. So again I ask: where is the conversation between parents and students that you’ve heard often happening? I really want to know the answer to this and It’s concerning you are evading that question.

Jensson 5y ago
> What you’ve linked is not saying “we must read these authors because their skin is black”. It is saying “their black skin has caused them to live a life different from other authors, which has caused them to write something different from other authors, and we want to know about that.” Right, and the parents aren't saying "I refuse to let kids read any books by black authors", they are saying "don't put books into the curriculum just because the authors are black". I know the way I presented them wasn't 100% accurate, but I'd argue that it is way more accurate of their position than their representation of the parents position. Now, the point isn't which of those sides are right. The point is that one side here argues that the others should get rejected by society since their position shouldn't be tolerated. I believe that side shouldn't do that. I believe the people who argues like that are way more damaging to society than the side they are arguing against.
- notahacker 5y ago
  When school districts are coming up with lists of books by black authors or with civil rights subjects to ban them and cancelling black author appearances, and parents are explaining that they support such measures because they don't want their kid to feel guilty for being white or that it's all Critical Race Theory, it's a bit disingenuous to pretend that the only objections being voiced by parent groups is that selecting black authors is a bit arbitrary. (Funnily enough I don't see such massive pushback when teachers set kids the objective of reading a book with a European author, or a book written over 100 years ago...)
  - Jensson 5y ago
    > When school districts are coming up with lists of books by black authors or with civil rights subjects to ban them and cancelling black author appearances, and parents are explaining that they support such measures because they don't want their kid to feel guilty for being white or that it's all Critical Race Theory But that is about banning topics, not being upset because your kid came home with a book by a black author. I agree that is bad, but that wasn't what this discussion was about. > (Funnily enough I don't see such massive pushback when teachers set kids the objective of reading a book with a European author, or a book written over 100 years ago...) Yeah, some of the pushback will be motivated by racism, but labelling all pushback as racism wont do you any favours.
    - notahacker 5y ago
      When some parents are banning books by black authors, other parents are getting angry about their kids being allowed to or even encouraged to read books by black authors, and no parents are getting angry at teachers for any reading suggestions not related to things culture warriors really hate like the suggestion that black people are normal and racism is a thing, it seems pretty absurd to suggest that the pushback is unlinked to the parents' views on race. Perhaps a small minority of parents picketing the first black kids to arrive at their kids' school, did so out of sincere belief that race had no more place in determining catchment areas than admissions (and the whole all white status quo from carefully drawn districts was just something they incidentally sought to protect), but anybody arguing that the real intolerance wasn't the people pushing back against black kids arriving at their kids' school but the people who suggested the pushback was mainly driven by racism would obviously be arguing in bad faith...

Jensson 5y ago

> What you’ve linked is not saying “we must read these authors because their skin is black”. It is saying “their black skin has caused them to live a life different from other authors, which has caused them to write something different from other authors, and we want to know about that.” Right, and the parents aren't saying "I refuse to let kids read any books by black authors", they are saying "don't put books into the curriculum just because the authors are black". I know the way I presented them wasn't 100% accurate, but I'd argue that it is way more accurate of their position than their representation of the parents position. Now, the point isn't which of those sides are right. The point is that one side here argues that the others should get rejected by society since their position shouldn't be tolerated. I believe that side shouldn't do that. I believe the people who argues like that are way more damaging to society than the side they are arguing against.

notahacker 5y ago
When school districts are coming up with lists of books by black authors or with civil rights subjects to ban them and cancelling black author appearances, and parents are explaining that they support such measures because they don't want their kid to feel guilty for being white or that it's all Critical Race Theory, it's a bit disingenuous to pretend that the only objections being voiced by parent groups is that selecting black authors is a bit arbitrary. (Funnily enough I don't see such massive pushback when teachers set kids the objective of reading a book with a European author, or a book written over 100 years ago...)
- Jensson 5y ago
  > When school districts are coming up with lists of books by black authors or with civil rights subjects to ban them and cancelling black author appearances, and parents are explaining that they support such measures because they don't want their kid to feel guilty for being white or that it's all Critical Race Theory But that is about banning topics, not being upset because your kid came home with a book by a black author. I agree that is bad, but that wasn't what this discussion was about. > (Funnily enough I don't see such massive pushback when teachers set kids the objective of reading a book with a European author, or a book written over 100 years ago...) Yeah, some of the pushback will be motivated by racism, but labelling all pushback as racism wont do you any favours.
  - notahacker 5y ago
    When some parents are banning books by black authors, other parents are getting angry about their kids being allowed to or even encouraged to read books by black authors, and no parents are getting angry at teachers for any reading suggestions not related to things culture warriors really hate like the suggestion that black people are normal and racism is a thing, it seems pretty absurd to suggest that the pushback is unlinked to the parents' views on race. Perhaps a small minority of parents picketing the first black kids to arrive at their kids' school, did so out of sincere belief that race had no more place in determining catchment areas than admissions (and the whole all white status quo from carefully drawn districts was just something they incidentally sought to protect), but anybody arguing that the real intolerance wasn't the people pushing back against black kids arriving at their kids' school but the people who suggested the pushback was mainly driven by racism would obviously be arguing in bad faith...