The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the
Undergraduate Survey ofAmerican Literature
BY ANNEMARIE HAMLIN AND CONSTANCE JOYNER
12
T
his article began as a series of
conversations between an
African-American student and
a white teacher about Mark Twain's
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(1885), assigned in a ten-week survey
of American literature since the Civil
War at La Sierra University in Riverside, California, a private, Christian
liberal arts institution that serves a
widely diverse student body. Excited
about reading a "great" work of
American literature, but troubled by
the racist language of the young
.southern boy, Constance (the student) began a dialogue with
Annemarie (the teacher) about the
value of this "classic" text of
American literature. We conversed
via email and in person before and
after class about the book's language and the portrayal of Jim, the
runaway slave, for several weeks —
much longer than the class time
devoted to the novel. Constance
felt offended by the book—angry
at the author, at the book's status as a
"classic," and at the fact that many see
the book only as a relic of the past.
Annemarie felt challenged by
Constance's reaction and became keenly aware of the opportunities and perils
associated with her position as a white
teacher. Together we thought we'd try
to write our way beyond the classroom
experience and create something lasting and sharedfi"omthe exchange.
Htickleberry Finn. Some might argue
that Mister Twain is a product of his
environment and is only providing an
enjoyable tale of an adventurous youth
privileged by hue. In reality. Mister
Twain has authored a novel that perpetuates the inexplicable, insidious,
and heinous sense of entitlement that
dominates an entire society, manifested
in the seemingly innate characteristics
and dialogues of the fictional, racist,
child, Huck Finn. Many would take
umbrage at calling the accomplished
should the discovery be made that it
was Finn who aided in Jim's escape.
Even though the words are not visible.
Twain writes between the lines to illuminate the point of Finn's tormented
subconscious as the cerebral wheels
slowly and subjectively turn Jim from
beast to man. Finn's inner demons
continue the ambiguous struggle
between Jim the Slave and Jim the
Family Man. Even though Finn's wild
child existence does not include a pleasurable family experience, he understands the notion of a (white) man
loving his kin and therefore cannot
believe his ears when a Less Than
speaks of such unconditional love
of his own. Finn is incredulous
when Jim shares the ultimate fantasy of familial reunion and kidnapping his children. Finn's socialization deafens the reality of his heart
and causes him to hear only the
militant ranting of an ungrateful
slave. So, like the majority of whites
in the 1800's, whether young or
old, Finn shares the compulsion to save
Jim from self-harm and docs what is
ultimately "best" for the poor, ignorant, African soul. Finn appears truly
sorry for Jim's abolitionist rhetoric and
feels as if it is his duty to protect Jim
from himself and turn him in to the
authorities. After making the ^own-up
decision to follow the letter of the law,
Finn feels immediate relief.
We offer reflections on and
accounts of the series of class
periods on Huck Finn from
two voices, two subject
positions, and the multiple
identities that we represent.
We offer, then, reflections on and
accounts of the series of class periods
on Huck Finn from two voices, two
subject positions, and the multiple
identities that we represent. Some of
these categories overlap: woman,
mother, middle aged, middle class,
reader. Some of them don't:
black/white, B.A.-seeking/ Ph.D.holding, student/ teacher But whatever our similarities and differences, we
each came to a common text with a
host of assumptions and expectations
that we hope to unpack a litde bit here.
What the Huck
Constance Joyner
An unknown author stated, "Racial
superiority is a mere pigment of the
imagination." Nowhere is this quote
more legitimated than in Mark Twain's
NUMBER 80 • RADICAL TEACHER
author. Mister Mark Twain, a racist
and would consider it tantamount to
calling the stars and stripes unAmerican. I disagree. I believe the old
adage: if it looks like a duck and
quacks iike a duck, then it's probably
Mark Twain's rendition of the duck in
question. Huckleberry Finn.
Until adulthood, most children do
not have to suffer the angst and trauma of moral ethical dilemmas.
However, Mark Twain's pre-Civil War
character. Huckleberry Finn, is not
like most children. A product of his
environment, Finn is portrayed as a
rebellious, oft times confused, young
racist child. Of course, living in this
incendiary historical time, Finn's precocious racism would be accepted and
considered admirable to most all of
Twain's white readers.
Twain's character spends much time
pontificating about and offering his
convoluted thoughts on how life
should be. There is a moment on the
river when the teen-aged Finn is completely self-absorbed with thoughts of
how others will interpret his part in
Jim's endeavor for fi-eedom. Twain succinctly illustrates the internal debate
that deluges Finn's sophomoric mind
with questions he believes will be foisted upon him by his white counterparts
Possibly, readers of the time were
made angry by Twain's audacity to
allow Finn to emotionally embrace and
accept the implied humanity of a nigger. However, the true temerity lies in
the faa that Twain does not have the
courage to explore these dilemmas
through an adult prot^onist standing
firmly on land and instead he hides his
personal lack of humanity behind the
eyes of a child precariously adrift on
the river. So, as the tides turn and generations mark the distance between
racial inequality and equal rights, for
me, the perennial classic of the Good
o r South is now just a book that offers
archaic rhetoric that continues to fiael
the subtle flame of 21st century
racism.
For me, analyzing a book that I find
classically racist is much easier to
explain than trying to share the raw
emotions felt while trying to complete
13
the assignment. Being black is only a
challenge on days that end with "y"
and never once have I questioned why
I am black. I know that 1 am black. I
love being black. I know racism exists
and each time this ignorance blocks
my path I am amazed that I am still
caught off guard and shocked when it
calls my name. I never dreamed that
this ugly would find me on a university
campus.
For nearly two decades, 1 waited
semi-patiently for the opportunity to
return to school. The prospect of
resuming the academic journey to
procure a degree in English caused a
giddiness that is unimaginable. The
first time I met Dr. Annemarie
Hamlin I was immediately
^^
struck by her inherent poise
and grace. She seemed to extide
knowledge and appeared ready
to share her academic acumen
were the discussions in class. I could
not believe that my peers did not share
my umbrage or frustration. Only two
of my classmates felt my pain but, of
course, they looked like me. Our white
classmates appeared surprised by our
uniform expressions of disdain. They
also appeared to believe that the novel
was a work of innocuotis fiction, and
that, with the advent of Civil Rights,
Colin Powell, and Soul Train, it offered
no societal relevance today. Dr. Hamlin
braved a good fight by trying to discuss
the disparities, disenchantment, and
ugliness of slavery, but no matter how
hard she tried to connect the pre-Civil
War dots of racism to the Black
American of the new millennium, the
Our wMte
with the same fervor and gusto fio societal relevance
I felt sitting in her class.
Professor Hamlin's reading list
included an inaugural experience, a
classic. Huckleberry Finn was a mystery
to me. I had never read any of Mister
Mark Twain's works. As I held the
masterpiece in my hands, I experienced
a moment of academic awe.
Dr. Hamlin assigned the first 150
pages of Huckleberry Finn and in order
to savor my first classical experience, I
waited until the weekend to start. The
time comes, and I make a deal for privacy with my children. I gather a tall,
iced glass of mango juice, my favorite
pillow and chenille blanket and burrow
into the comfort of my chaise lounge
and begin to read.
By page four and my first nigger, I
realize that maybe this is not what I
signed up for; by page six and seven
niggers later, I realize that I am not
happy. To paraphrase the Honorable
Malcolm X, I felt
'\..bamboozled,
robbed, hoodwinked...." Suddenly, my
life is a cliche and with great crescendo,
"^t* carejul tvhatyou wish for" echoed in
my head. Feeling nauseated and unbelievably sad, I continually asked, how
did this book become a classic?
Several times, as I read the words of
an author who today would be labeled
a racist, 1 kicked the chenille-throw to
the floor and paced in frustration. Yet
more daunting than reading the tome
14
in keeping the races as segregated as
they were in the time that he lived.
The two most memorable discussions shared involved a PowerPoint
presentation of Huck and Jim and Dr.
Hamlin's use of the cruel epithet mistakenly thought of as synonymous
with black people. The PowerPoint
presentation offered dual depictions of
the runaway slave, Jim. Slide one
offered Jim as a buffoon in "black" face
and slide two presented him as a
father-figure
to Huck
Finn.
Surprisingly, the class took offense to
the former and agreed that the latter
truly conveyed Twain's portrayal of
Jim. Again, I was struck by the continued ironic differences between black
and white thought as I believed
the truth of historical consciousness lie with the first slide.
The most calamitous, gutwrenching moment of class
occurred when Dr. Hamlin
calmly allowed the word Nigger
to flow from her lips. Unless
blessed with large amounts of melanin,
one cannot imagine how from zero to
twenty seconds, a trusting smile, willingness to participate, and a steady
heartbeat can turn into a confused grimace, an unwillingness to continue,
and overwhelming heartbreak. Feeling
lost, abandoned and betrayed as the
lone black trio, we looked from one to
the other in utter amazement and shock
that Professor Hamlin had the insensitivity to give this heinous vitriol new
life. Unwittingly, she had empowered
and armed the whites in the class with a
Weapon of Mass Deconstruccion. Not
trusting my own voice, aft:er class, I sent
an e-mail to Dr. Hamlin to remind her
that the damage of a dropped guillotine
is irreversible. The next day. Professor
Hamlin offered a well intentioned don't
do as I do; do as I say speech regarding
the use of the (now) "N-word." I appreciated her effort but it was like relighting the flames of a smoking ember.
Even more amazing, the class did not
seem to understand Dr. Hamlin's n^d
to offer epithetical guidance.
appeared
today.
class failed to see the correlation.
As a black woman offended by
Mister Twain's words, 1 wondered —
where is the outrage of my classmates?
I believe that 21st century whites
spend a great deal of energy, physical
and vocal, distancing themselves from
their predecessors. Many people will
argue that since the 1800s things have
become much better for Colored
People. The reality is that no matter
how many times the fabric of the suit
changes the original pattern remains
the same. To share the daily obstacles
incurred in a black life would sound
like complaining, over sensitivity, and
serious hallucination to people who
have never had to overcome a lifetime
of anything (racially) bad. By the end
of the class discussions, 1 made the
conscious decision to keep my comments to a dull, "outraged" roar. I realized that my classmates would never
feel the visceral, almost palpable frustration I experienced while reading the
racist ideas of a man whose thoughts
have been placed in literary perpetuity.
This assignment could have been the
catalyst for possible enlightenment, a
rare opportunity to provide a small
bridge across the racial divide; instead,
even if only dialogically, in Dr.
Hamlin's class. Mister Twain succeeded
During the entire Twain/Finn debacle, I felt great empathy for the professor as she tried to hit every literary
mark and share every artistic nuance.
On those days where it looked as if the
class would rather actually pick cotton
RADICAL TEACHER • NUMBER 80
than endure another conversation
about those who did. Dr. Hamlin
deserves high marks for her tenacious
and insightful talent to bravely introduce and conjure up new points of
view. Many times, in class, she was the
only white person not afraid to talk
about the African elephant in the middie of the room.
For me, one of the most difficult
parts of the Finn conversation
involved the manipulation and ultimate disintegration of Huck's incremental emotional growth. Mister
Twain reintroduces Tom Sawyer who
manipulates Finn's character into foolish and grossly inappropriate behaviors. If Sawyer had died in the climatic
melee, no one would have known that
Jim was a free man. Despite Finn's
newfound maturity of thought, the
fact remained that Finn never reciprocates the loyal friendship of his black
companion. If Jim had died for crimes
he did not commit, Finn would have
remained silent.
Of course, many ask why expend all
of this energy on fiction. My response
is: exactlf. I cannot hold a precocious
figment of an author's imagination
accountable for my visceral feelings.
But I do harhor ambivalent feeiings
towards Mister Mark Twain. Coming
from a siave owning famiiy. Mister
Twain iived in a worid where he and
his peers believed blacks to be an
inherently inferior species that wouid
iive tragicaily if it were not for the pedagogicai interventions of the White
Man; because I perceive this internalized doctrine, I absolve Mister Twain
and do not hold him solely accountable for the bias used to align his
thoughts. Accountability for perpetrating racism through literature goes to
tho.se who believe that using conscious
ignorance, a young protagonist, and
semantics, i.e. "perennial classic, " will
mask the continuity of prevailing
thoughts of Twain's era as offered cover
for a litany of racial sins that remain
prevalent in today's society.
Finally, I ofter kudos to the remarkable gift of this legendary wordsmith
who has been able to take a string of
words and compel generations of readers to discuss with great volatility the
genteel simplicity of a young boy, his
friend, and their adventures.
book, newspaper reviews, and news
stories of schools' responses to the book
in order to illustrate the debates over
the book in its own time. Next, I
reviewed the major criticism on Huck
Finn ftom TS. Eliot to Toni Morrison
and prepared a handout summarizing
Anne?narie Hamlin
twentieth-century debates over the
About a week before I started the unit book's merits and shortcomings. Most
on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, importantly, I reread the text in
a passing comment from one of my painstaking detail, anticipating and
students gave me an inkling that we noting passages that might prove espemight be in for a rough ride. I had cially problematic for my students.
taught the novel as part of my survey
I thought I was ready for anything.
course for five years without any very Apparently, I was not.
heated exchanges, although my stuDAV O N E : W A D I N G I N T O
dents are ethnically, racially, and socioF A S T - M O V I N G WATERS
economically diverse. I sensed that this
time would be different, however, as Knowing that there were some pretty
soon as I heard Constance's response to strong personal reactions to The
my preview of the reading: "I'm Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I
offended. I'm reading it, but I'm
began with some open-ended quesoffended," she said as she shook her tions designed to encourage a readerhead and rolled her eyes. Given the response type discussion of their
maturity and depth with which she assignment, the first half of the book:
had already responded to the literature "So tell me about some of your reacwe covered in class, I felt a new kind of tions to reading this book." Hands
urgency to understand and explain the shot into the air. The first student
role that The Adventures of Huckleberry related her visceral response to the
Finn has played in American culture, abundance of what 21st century readfor better and for worse. I wanted my ers understand as racial epithets.
students to understand the deep irony Disgusted with the language, she said
that drove Twain's narrative, the lin- she had almost put the book down. If
guistic choices that shaped it, and the Jim died in the end, she warned, she
racial tensions it highlights. I also was going to be upset that her persiswanted to be open about the relation
tence through the jungle of racist
of my white-middle-class-woman-coi- depictions of him clearly would have
lege-professor status to the socio-poiiti- been a waste.
cai machine that created Huckleberry
Another student defended the book's
Finn, using this as a launch pad for a
ianguage as authentic to the time and
discussion of race and power. Given
piace in which the narrative was set.
the informal conversations about
Since this is how anteheiium Southern
biack/white reiations we had before the
white boys wouid have taiked, and
Twain unit even began, and given the
since the text was written through
concerns about ianguage and represenHuck's voice, the language makes the
tation Constance expressed, I became
work more convincing, he argued.
more anxious to teach the novei and its
Severai other students argued that
history weli.
Twain himself was undoubtediy racist
I put aside ail my oid teaching mate- and shouid be heid responsibie for perrials and spent extra time prepping for petuating racist stereotypes of slaves in
his book. The debate continued for
the six hours we wouid spend with
Huck and Jim. First, I prepared a lec- nearly an hour until I switched gears to
ture introducing the social, political my slide presentation for the day,
and scientific arguments about race which began with two twentieth-centhat shaped nineteenth-century atti- tury visual representations of Huck
tudes toward slaves. I collected pro- and Jim. The class (gratefully, I think)
and anti-slavery imj^es firom mid-cen- turned from the question of the
tury literature, line drawings of Huck author's racism to the artists' represenand Jim From the first edition of the tations of the book's central characters.
NUMBER 80 • RADICAL TEACHER
15
Oh Muddy Waters:'
Notes on Teaching
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
Again students offered spirited and
contradictory interpretations of the
images, observing the ways that the
painters played with the themes of the
novel, offering fewer comments on the
representation of race. By the end of
the class period, we hadn't gotten further than the tide slide of my lecture.
DAY T W O : S W E P T I N T O
THE CURRENT
We picked up with the slide lecture
during the next class period and moved
into attitudes about race in the nineteenth century. My illustrations included quotes from early reviews and newspaper stories about the removal of the
book from the library and classroom
shelves, quotes from political and scientific thinkers on the treatment of black
people by white people, and images
from anti-slavery publications set in
contrast to several of the im^es of Jim
and Huck published in the first edition
oi Huck Finn. My lecture also presented
the on-going debate over the book's
racially charged language. Following the
model of a teacher's guide for highschool students, I put on my slide "The
n-word" instead of "nigger."
Given the volatile social and legal history of this word, I never know, in a
classroom situation — or in any conversation about this book or other
works of literature using similar language— whether it is appropriate to
articulate this word or not. As legal
scholar Randall Kennedy says in his
book on the legal and sociological history of the word, "to be ignorant of its
meanings and effects is to make oneself
vulnerable to all manner of perils,
including the loss of a job, a reputation, a friend, even one's life" (4).-^ Like
many Americans, 1 v/as taught by parents and grandparents never to use the
word. It is a repulsive reminder of a
long history of political, social, and linguistic actions that have made a distinct group of people into sub-human
beings. On the other hand, substituting the term "n-word" in a classroom
discussion of a book filled with the
term seems at the same time juvenile
and overly cautious, su^esting a lack
of faith in my students to understand
the academic context in which it is
examined. Nevertheless, given the
highly charged nature of these terms
16
and the complexity of their meanings
in American culture, I have a hard time
articulating the word even in an academic context and have done so rarely
outside of a direct quotation.
But on this day, I dared say the word.
I did so in the context of a lecture on
nineteenth-century whites' attitudes
toward blacks and their attendant
expressions of racism. No sooner had
the word exited my mouth than the
room felt like an entirely different
place. An immediate and profound
silence filled the classroom.
Was it a carefully thought-out
choice? Not entirely. Was it a careless
slip? No. In my mind, I was speaking
from within the context of the nineteenth century, and my lecture was
surely intended to attack the misguided thinking and actions of racist
whites. Nevertheless, the room
remained silent for severai minutes
while I tried to salvage my lecture.
I left that day knowing what had
gone wrong, and the next morning was
greeted by a thoughtful email from one
of my brightest and most articulate
students, a black woman close to my
own age and a mother like myself
will you do me a fiivor?
in class today your handouts
specifically said, "the n-word" but
during your lecture you said, "nigger" out loud...i just about fell our
of my chair...reading it a billion
times in the text is one
thing... hearing it out loud is
another...i have not heard this
word spoken out loud by someone
that doesn't look like me in
years...
the favor:
i know there is an academic reason
behind your usage of this shameful
word...i would greatly appreciate
it if you would possibly preface
your usage...i ask this because
without the preface — you open
the door for the class to follow by
example while i admire a great
many things about you as a woman
and a scholar—i do not think i
could handle your (inadvertently)
leading the class down this
path...not to mention how hurtful
and painful it would be for [the
other African-American students],
and me...
Surely, I hoped, given my other passionately expressed devotion to antiracist beliefs, and my usual careful
choice of words in all other classes, my
students would know that I wasn't
using the word carelessly. Still, my smdent's email reminded me that some
students might take my usage of the
term as an open door to tising it themselves, and I surely wanted to clarify
that 1 would not condone this. First, I
responded to my student:
Thanks so much for your very
thoughtful reply.
I did sense the change in you (and
others) when I used the word 1 did
in class yesterday. For me this presentation and discussion is a constant intellectual and personal battle, and one that I handle differently
and imperfectly every time I teach.
Truthfully, no decision ever seems
right. Language is a powerful tool,
and you're entirely correct, that the
word said by a white woman has an
entirely different meaning than
when said by a black person. Your
point about my "opening the door"
to other students' using it is also
important and one that I had not
fully considered — I suppose
because I assume that we all agree
this is a scholarly context and
choose words for particular rhetorical purposes. I also hope that I
make clear my abhorrence of racist
ideologies and practices, that students will understand the context of
our discussion, recognizing that
words should never be used in a
haphazard way. The balance
between historical and literary accuracy and socially conscious language
is oddly difficult to find. Your comments here are a significant help to
me. Thank you.
Then, 1 spent the weekend thinking
about ways to repair the damage I had
done. In the end, I did no better with a
second attempt during my next class
period.
DAY
THREE:
S I N K I N G OR
SWIMMING
In light of the bombshell of the previous class period, I thought it appropriate to begin the third day of our unit
on Huck Finn with an articulation of
RADICAL TEACHER • NUMBER 80
my stance on racist language and the
use of "nigger" as appropriate only in
extremely rare circumstances. But
wanting to avoid using both "ni^er"
and its candy-coated cousin "the nword," I wound up using vague and
awkward ianguage to deiiver a brief
statement on the advisability of avoiding language charged with racist connotations. It obviously didn't work
weil: toward the end of my remarks, I
watched one student lean toward the
girl next to him with a confused
expression and ask, "WHAT is she
talicing about?"
In the subsequent class discussion
most white students argued that Twain
was just using the ianguage of his day
— he wasn't racist, just writing racist
characters. Students of color expressed
more complex reactions to language,
arguing that some formerly offensive
terms (such as those in Huck Finn)
have been appropriated into expressions of famiiiarity and affection in
some contexts. We ieft the conversation with no singie, convincing argument. I left class that day feeling beaten and exhausted, assuming that I had
failed to make a viable argument for
the ironic and anti-racist nature of
Twain's novel. I even began to question
that argument myself My reaction was
partly emotional: I felt that the lived
experience of racism expressed hy some
of my students needed to overshadow
my academic preparation in history,
theory, and criticism. The potential
offenses the book couid pose to my
students at that moment seemed more
NUMBER 80 • RADICAL TEACHER
important to avoid than the iessons to
be learned from it. On the other hand,
didn't something productive come
from even having this conversation?
After all, understanding the relationship of langui^e, race, power was one
of my stated objectives for the unit.
S E E K I N G THE
CURRENT AGAIN
So what next? Abandon Huck? The following year I took a break from teaching Huck Finn, but I didn't want to shy
away from the issues that the book
raised. So, I assigned Toni Morrison's
The Bluest Fye, a work that addresses
race as a constructed and performed
identity in ways that 21st century students seem to "get" right away. My students quickly recognized Peccola
Breedlove's internalized beiief in white
superiority as the damaging resuit of
historical practices of slavery and subordination of blacks by whites. The book
also raised questions similar to those
raised with Huck Finn, questions about
linguistic choices, tone, and how
authors represent race. We read works
by numerous non-white authors, and as
this course always did, examined questions about race, ethnicity, ciass and
privilege in the United States.-* But to
be honest, i felt that by not teaching
Huck Finn, I was running away from
the controversy and a potentially productive learning experience about race
embedded in the novel, and that engaging students in contemporary arguments about race couid have more
depth if we could reach back to some
literary precedents grounded in earlier
iiistorical periods. I am not wedded to
the designation of Huck Finn as "great"
literature, and undoubtedly, it contains
racist characters and language.
However, I do think that examining
how "great" works are evaluated and
folded into literary canons can be a
valuable lesson in hegemony and race
politics. Having this conversation
requires that as teachers we must be
willing to expose our own complicity in
the process, however, and doing so creates moments of real discomfort.**
Beyond cririquing its persistence in
academic reading lists, students of
Huck Finn can begin to see the social
construction of race and its impact on
blacks and whites through the novel's
narrator, especially when the narrative
is placed alongside something more
contemporary like Morrison's work.
Twain's novel emerged at the historic
moment when the I4th Amendment
declared black and white people politically equal, and the Supreme Court
maintained their "social" inequality
through Plessy v. Ferguson, the legal
decision behind the order of "separate
but equal" and Jim Crow. Racism had
become embedded in religious and scientific theories of racial hierarchy and
in the social practices of the United
States. Similarly, the notions of black
inferiority internalized by the young
girls in Morrison's novel expose the
long-term effects of institutionalized
racism that are learned by the youngest
children even today. Taken together.
17
these two novels speak to how patterns
of thought, for good or for ill, become
replicated from one generation to the
next and embedded in culture.
Rather than giving up on Huck, I
have since decided to turn instead to a
pairing of Twain's and Morrison's novels
as works by two major American novelists written roughly a century apart.
The Bluest Eye powerfully challenges the
white racist subjectivity of Huck Finn,
but pairing the two novels also allows
for a discussion of how literature helps
to perpetuate or to challenge notions of
race, gender, and class. In my class, we
will continue to interrogate the argumetits of each text, to critique the language used to convey the narratives,
and to examine the works' positions visa-vis dominant ctilture and the literary
canon. I've also determined to continue
to allow my own vulnerabilities and
privileges to enter into the conversation
about color and privilege in the United
States. It doesn't make me comfortable,
but I believe that the potential for
learning—my students' and my own
— in my classroom is great. I'll keep
you posted. 053
NOTES
1
2
The title of my article comes from
a song in "Big River" (1985) by
Roger Miller, a musical based on
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn.
See Kennedy, Randall. Nigger; The
Strange Career of a Troublesome
3
Word. New York: Vintage Books,
2003.
Derek Bok's usefuJ discussion of
anti-racist ped^ogy and ways to
create an open discussion in a
racially diverse classroom is available on line: http://i5ite5.
harvard.edu/f^/html/icb.
topic58474/TFTrace.httnI.
Paul Lauter's work on canon formation and inclusive literature has
been immensely helpful to me as a
teacher of American literature. See
especially "Race and Gender in the
Shaping of the American Literary
Canon; A Case Study from the
Twenties." Feminist Studies., 9:3
(Fall 1983), 435-63. Jane
Tompkins' Sensational Designs: The
Cultural Work of American Fiction,
1790-1860. Oxford: Oxford UP.
1985 has also influenced my
teaching of American literature as
a window into historical periods
and patterns of thought.
RADICAL TEACHER CALL FOR PAPERS ON IMMIGRATION AND EDUCATION
In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that undocumented immigrant children are entitled to free public education. Since that narrow vote, the place of immigrants —
documented and undocumented—in the educational system has remained a hotly debated issue, as battles over
bilingual education, multiculturalism, and immigrant eligibility for federal education grants and in-state college
tuition rates all attest. In the current, post-9/11 moment,
when anxiety about immigration is at a fever pitch in
many places around the country, schools continue to be
one of the places where government policies, public sentiment, and immigrant realities intersect. How are progressive educators confronting the current challenges, pressures, and possibilities of teaching about immigration
and/or teaching immigrant students? How are radical
teachers and educational activists working within and
against contemporary institutional and legislative frameworks, which set an often punitive context for immigrant
students? What kinds of pedagogical strategies and
alliances have radical teachers developed to meet the particular needs of immigrant students, who frequently speak
English as a second language, are new to the United States,
and come from poor and working-class families? Radical
Teacher invites essays that address these and other questions about immigration and education in the contemporary U.S. We are seeking essays addressing K-12 as well as
university-level education. Topics might include:
• new, progressive methods of teaching about immigration
• an analysis of the Development, Relief and Education
for Alien Minors ("DREAM") Act and/or other legislative and political changes to educational policy and practice concerning immigrants
18
• conflicts and/or collaborations in the classroom between
native-born and foreign-born students
• refugee studies
• the situation of undocumented students in the educational system, K-12 or college
• immigrants and adtilt education or other forms of nontraditional education
• specific institutional struggles to assist immigrant students and/or to improve their access to education
• the effects of globalization andyor the "war on terror" on
educational policy and/or immigrant students
• the challenges and opportunities of teaching immigrant
students
• the ways in which new paradigms of immigration and
migration in an increasingly "globalized" world are altering curricula and teaching (including, for instance, the
benefits and/or limits of "internationalizing" the curricuItim)
• racism of and/or directed at immigrant students, including name-calling, bullying, as well as more subtle forms
of bias and discrimination
Queries, proposals, or manuscripts (12-15 pages, written
in reader-friendly prose) should be addressed to Joseph
Entin ([email protected]), Susan O'Malley
([email protected]), or James Davis ([email protected]). Founded over 30 years ago, Radical
Teacher is a socialist, feminist, anti-racist journal on the
theory and practice of teaching. For more information,
including submission guidelines, visit our web site:
www.radicalteacher.org.
RADICAL TEACHER • NUMBER 80