Insider or Outsider

When looking at diverse and multicultural literature I am sometimes stuck as Patrick Shannon is. I am a white, female elementary school teacher. What do I know about literature that is written by or about different cultures and races than mine? The fact is that I know a lot. During my time in Radical we would discuss literature that was mainstream, which was controvercial, but we also read books that was very diverse. This short, nice, shy school teacher actually knows somewhat about multicultural literature. But the real question of today's post is, can you really write a book on someone elses cultures and customs being an outsider, or do you have to be an insider, and have experienced this first hand. My personal belief is that you can write from either. However, if you are writing from an outsiders perspective, you better know exactly what you are talking about. There is absolutely no reason to provide sub-standard multicultural literature for children. For some children growing up in isolated communities, these books are the only thing that they have to judge other people on. They have no first hand experiences, so they rely on books to tell them. So if you are an outsider writing about someone else's culture, you need to have done your research. As we were able to see from Claire's collection last week with her Indian American literature, that at least with her collection, we are lacking insider's perspectives. They are there, and some will argue that these perspectives are more trustworthy, but there need to be more. If you are writing on the inside perspective however, you need to think of the audience that will be reading the story that you are putting out there. The audience will need to understand certain things about one's culture, traditions, celebrations rather than just slapping it on a piece of paper and saying that its finished.
I think when looking at my argument overall, I think there is a need for both insider and outsider authors. However, I will STRESS my beliefs that the piece of literature that you are putting out for the public to read needs to be truthful to the situation that you are writing about. There is absolutely no need to put incorrect literature into the world, which will only increase others misconceptions.

Heart of a Chief

We were to have read Heart of a Chief, by Joseph Bruchac for class last Wednesday. I had read the book and written my discussion paper on why Bruchac chose to underlay the more serious topic of Indian casino's under Chris's school project on changing the name of the schools mascot. Before I had read this book I was indifferent on whether or not mascot's should be changed. Coming from Ann Arbor, I heard about Eastern Michigan University changing their name to the Eagles when I was younger but didn't really think anything of it. There is this one quote in the book, from page 128 when they introduce the project as "what team are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?" " I'm for the New Jersey Negroes" and "I'm for the Jacksonville Jews." As soon as I read this quote, I decided that all schools should change their mascot's name. There is no way that we would be allowed to go around saying those types of things, so why are we allowed to call someone the Chiefs, when that degrades what American Indian people to be their leader and someone they look up to. I might just think something like this because I'll admit I'm a liberal, but seriously think of what you are saying to a race that we as a nation has oppressed for the past five hundred years, that we don't care about the way that they live their lives or their beliefs? I would hope at this day and age that it wouldn't be the case. However we watched a movie in class entitled In Whose Honor (I think) and all we saw was ignorant people who believe that the tradition at their school is more important than upholding someones beliefs and religions. They believe at Illinois that they are honoring the American Indian people, but if they would just listen to the people who were saying anything at all, they would realize that they aren't. I think that it's absolutely ludicrous. I commend Iowa for not booking any school (besides Illinois since they have to play inside the conference) that has an Indian mascot. I may sound radical for saying all of this, but think of the people you are affecting, and the children you are affecting. Let's make it so the next generation ration of children grow up in a society that is less prejudiced than its predecessors.

First Post

Hi,
I just wanted to introduce myself. This blog is part of an ongoing project for my Diversity in Adolescent Literature class at Michigan State University. Throughout the semester I will be posting on things that are happening in my class, as well as my ideas and comments about my class, and the articles and books that I am reading. A little bit about me. I am a senior at MSU and am graduating during the first week of May. I'm majoring in elementary education with my concentration in language arts. There is nothing else that I would rather do in life over teaching. I love children, and cannot wait until next year when I have my own classroom. One of my passions is children's literature. Ever since I took my first children's literature class my sophomore year, I have re-fallen in love with children's books. I was a member of RADICAL for two years which was a book club of sorts that read and discussed children's lit and how we should implement it into our classrooms. Jackie LaRose who was my 448 teacher and who was the faculty member of RADICAL has inspired the way that I read and teach children's books. I already have over 350 books in my classroom library, what can I say, I love kids books. I am anxious this semester to explore diverse literature, and hope that it will teach me valuable lessons that I can implement into my teaching and classroom.