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This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

Value and Authenticity:
Young Adult Readers Respond to
African American Literature

presented by
Rashidah Jaami' Muhammad

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Ph.D. degreein Enqiish

 

   

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Mum-9.1

VALUE AND AUTHENTICITY:
YOUNG ADULT READERS RESPOND TO
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

BY
RASHIDAH JAAMI’ MUHAMMAD

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of English

1995

ABSTRACT
VALUE AND AUTHENTICITY:

YOUNG ADULT READERS RESPOND TO
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

BY

Rashidah Jaami’ Muhammad

The purpose of the study, "Value and Authenticity:
Young Adult Readers Respond to African American Literature"
(hereafter known as "Value"), was to discover how four
middle school students take up some traditionally used
classroom novels. In other words, "Value" wanted to find
out what African American students, reading outside the
classroom, would value, question, or believe about some
novels written about "the Black Experience."1 Therefore
the intention of "Value" is to add student voices to the

existing scholarship on The Slave Dancer (Fox), Words by

Heart (Sebestyen), and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

 

(Taylor). If we accept Joel Taxel’s contention that the
textbooks, children’s literature and indeed the social
relations of the classroom are dominated by the perspectives

of those in positions of social and economical authority;

 

1 Generally, the references by authors, critics,

teachers and students, used in this study to "The Black
Experience" acknowledge the common.experience slavery, as*well
as the traditions that came with and grew out of the
enslavement of African American people.

then the
question of readership--of how children
respond to, and make meaning of literary
texts-—is of fundamental importance given
the belief that children are deleteriously
influenced by racist and sexist images in
literature ("Ideology" 255).

Thus, some initial questions that guided this study were:

1) Based on what personal experiences and/or what
stories in the readings do students believe and
perhaps value these texts?

2) Contextually how may these novels force students
to culturally and/or racially identify against

themselves?

3) If students are more willing to actively engage a
novel outside the confines of the traditional
classroom, then why?

Based on open-ended questions, "Value" individually invited
the students to make written and oral evaluations of the
novels. Among the multiple theoretical and pedagogical
conclusions that can be drawn from "Value," perhaps the most
important is that both the curricula and as well as
individual teacher practices must allow space for students

to make personal interrogations of the classroom novels.

Copyright by
RASHIDAH JAAMI’ MUHAMMAD

1995

With Love and Admiration "Value" is dedicated to

my mother, Rosa Lee Gilmore Crosby Reed.

For you Momma, and for all of our students

I tried to put it down easy...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Bismillah ArRahman, ArRahim—-With the Name of God, Most
Gracious, Most Merciful. First of all I want to thank Allah
for Blessing me with the strength to make a way outta no way
and with friends and family to keep me focused. I am
grateful to Imam W. Deen Mohammed for encouraging African
American Muslim women to seek higher education.

When I began to make the list of the people I should
thank for helping me complete this project, I had three
columns: family, friends, and faculty. As the list grew, my
columns merged into one. Thus in the space that follows, I
will try to thank all my fabulous supporters: I want to
thank my husband for staying married to me. Since for the
past few years I have dumped all my frustrations with
graduate school, with writing, with everything on him.

Elam, I love you, honey. We have been blessed with five
beautiful children, who never tired of asking me "Momma,
what page are you on?" Thank you Rafiah, Ruqayyah,
Rashidah, Alim and Abdul-Jaleel for the space, the support,
and most of all your love. We also have six grandchildren
Rodney, Robert, Chanteal, Willie, Reneathia, and Aneesah who
started calling me Dr. Grandma way ahead of time. I am also
grateful for the support I received from my sisters Swiyyah
Ahmad, Carolyn Cloyd, Deborah Crosby and Ariana Hopkins, my
brothers Lemuel Crosby, Leroy Cloyd, Willard Brown and Louis
Hopkins, my very special and very dear great aunts Nellie

vi

vii
Gilmore and Elvira Grant and of course my Uncle Tip, Alvin
Gilmore, and all my nieces and nephews, and Matthew Lucas,
Robert Williams and Angela Moye.

Without friends in the field a project such as this is
near impossible to complete. Here I have been blessed with
colleagues who spoke my language and knew where I was comin
from. A special thank you to Angeletta Gourdine, Elaine
Richardson, Colleen Tremonte, Denise Troutman-Robinson,
Gloria Randle, and Ronnie Hopkins. I also want to extend a
note of gratitude to all the members of the L. Ramon Veal
Seminar on Research in Language who have been supporting me
since I was a first year’s masters student. Thank you
Michael Moore, Linda Miller Cleary, Sally Hudson-Ross, Marie
Nelson, Nancy Thompson, Ken Kantor, Ruth Vinz, Diane
Brunner, and Glenn Hudak (I don't know why I am thanking you
Glenn, ’cept you been one of those voices telling me to get
on with it for years).

I am especially grateful to the young adult readers of
"Value," A.J., Constance, LeTasha, and Maya. You showed me
again what it means to be a student—reader. I am grateful
to you and your parents for your help on this project.

The staff of the MSU English Department is second to
none and I am grateful for your support throughout the
years. Shirley Kirkland, Lorraine Hart, Lilly Curtis, Sharon
Tyree, Rosemary Ezzo, Jill Crane, Angela Sorrells-Jones, and

Patti Wilkins thanks for helping me get it together. Pam

viii
Dismuke thank you for transcribing tapes.

Etta Abrahams thank you for taking time this very hot
summer to read my dissertation. I also appreciate your words
of encouragement in my last writing days.

I can proudly testify that I had the most supportive
dissertation committee in the English Department. I am
truly grateful to Diane DuBose Brunner, William Johnsen,
Geneva Smitherman, and Marilyn Wilson for sharing with me
your time, your energy, and your wealth of knowledge for
more than four years.

Marilyn thanks for the Saturday and Sunday pep talks
that got me through comps and writing my dissertation.

Bill thanks for the hall chats, you always knew what I
should be doing, from the very first moment when you
encouraged me to enter graduate school.

Dr. G. I don’t think that there are words or space to
say how much having you here and working with me has meant
to this project and my life. But you know, and I am
grateful.

Diane, given our personalities if we had met on the
playground as girls I dare say we would have got into a few
scrapes. But we met in the classroom and the issue has been
English education and I can truthfully say, scrapes and all

I found a lifelong friend in my major professor.

PREFACE

I invite readers to share this study on at least two
levels. One as a listener "ease-dropping"2 on, sharing and
empathizing with personal refections. Then on another
level, I would like you to imagine yourselves students who
are learning to give voice to their own understandings.
Because I too am responding out of my readings, in "Value
and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond to African
American Literature," I employ diverse discourse patterns.
Some arguments or discussions may be framed in African
American Vernacular English while others may be in Standard
Edited American English, still others may ring of the
ancient Geechee Momma used when it came time to remind us of
historical truths. Further, I believe that by mixing
discourse patterns my study may be more accessible to
diverse readers, as are the works of my some of my
intellectual heroines bell hooks, June Jordan, Geneva

Smitherman and Diane Brunner.

 

PREFACE NOTE

2 In order to recall and utilize a tradition often used
in my family, I have employed the phase "ease-drop" in place
of eavesdrop. When a story had profound consequences and
Momma wanted us to learn a lesson, she would often say, "let
me put this one down easy." In other words, she wanted us to
pay close attention and carefully consider what she was
telling us.

ix

LIST OF

FIGURES

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B-l

APPENDIX B—2

APPENDIX C

TABLE OF CONTENTS

basic beginnings (mine) ...............
Gut Feelins: Readers Performing
with Texts ............................

Sharing Visions: Movin Beyond
"White Folks, They Can’t Write
Bout Us" ..............................

The Slave Dancer
"the past is not past and
the dead are not dead" ................

Words By Heart

"The words that had been so

beautiful to say, so easy,

turned to stone." .....................

Roll of Thunder. Hear My Crv

"Over the water bye and bye ole man
comin’ down the line whip in hand to
beat me down but I ain’t gonna let
him turn me round" ....................

Discussing Students’ Responses
"Creatin Texts Outta Texts" ...........

Pedagogical Visions for the Future
"Playin like I’m One down" ............

Human Subjects Approval ...............
Parental Consent Form .................
Student Consent Form ..................

Questionnaire for The Slave Dancer....

47

76

113

145

186

211

225

226

229

232

xi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

(continued)
APPENDIX D-l Cover—1 The Slave Dancer .............. 237
APPENDIX D-2 Cover-2 The Slave Dancer .............. 238
APPENDIX E Questionnaire for Words Bv Heart ...... 239
APPENDIX F Questionnaire for Roll of Thunder
Hear My Crv ........................... 246

 

LIST OF REFERENCES ..................................... 253

LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE

Constance’s Drawing of Jessie Bollier working aboard the
slave ship, the Moonlight ............................... 112

xii

INTRODUCTION

basic beginnings -- mine

color-ed people

White

Peculiar color White
It describes no one
It Defines EVERYONE

Black

Peculiar color Black
It describes no one
It Defines my people

It is not a question of
who we are or
what we are made of...

The Question is About Power!
WHO is making you?
WHO is making me?

CHECK the appropriate box:
( ) White of non-Hispanic Origin
( ) Black of non-Hispanic Origin

Appropriate

Peculiar word, Appropriate.
Are you appropriately White?
Can I be appropriately Black?

2

Appropriately Black in ’63 meant stuffing down warm hot
dogs and watered-down orange drinks in the back corner of
the Five and Dime, under a huge neon sign proclaiming that
this is the COLORED SNACK BAR.

Appropriately Black in ’63 meant don’t be sipping from
the White-Only drinking fountain, even if it is next to the
COLORED SNACK BAR.

In 1963, in Spartanburg, South carolina, to be
Appropriately Black meant you enjoyed the day spent uptown
with Grandma. This old woman was so proud to be showing off
her Northern grandchildren, how could I let her know I felt

outtaplace?

3

I recall that during the sixties and seventies, we
marched to protest the Vietnam War, carrying signs that read
"Make Love Not War" and "No VietCong Ever Called Me Nigger."
We marched to protest the fate of Black foot soldiers who
were "given the point" -- ordered to lead patrols through
the mine-rich rice fields of South Vietnam. My own brother
was one of these "grunts" (Marine infantry). He flashbacks:
"Wet, man I was always wet! And I was always scared, scared
of either stepping on a land mine or being shot in the back
by some racist red-neck."

Situated in the ideologies of the Black Power Movement
and Civil Rights Movement along with the majority of the
Black student population, I participated in a two-day campus
sit-in to protest the dismissal of a Black dormitory cook.
While We admonished the administration to implement fair-
labor policies in the campus work-force, they summoned the
National Guard to escort us from their building. Later, we
marched not only to support African Americans working on
campus, but also to proclaim the imperative need for more
African American professors, and for additional courses in
African American language, culture, and history. It can be
said that my thoughts at that time resonated with Robert
Blauner, who wrote: the Afro-American experience has
produced a residue of collective memories: Africa, slavery,
the South, Emancipation, northern migration, and above all,

racism. Racism has consolidated rather than eliminated the

4
distinctive experiences of the past" (352). Were these
actions and reactions just Gut Feelins? Perhaps, in a sense
I came to be by coming to know something of my ancestors.

.My folks, African men, women, and children,
I never really got to know you.
What were your dreams?

Many of you were lost in a Nightmare

beat till yo blood ran like stormy waters,
pressed between blankets of human waste,
chained 24/7 till

till you just couldn’t breathe no moe.
Over 100,000,000 of you were lost

in the.Middle Passage.

I pray your souls found peace.

Those of you who survived

faced the cruelest legislated servitude
known in the history of humankind.

I am truly grateful for your survival...

Perhaps here I harmonize with Maya Angelou, who wrote

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise

I’m a [BJlack ocean, leaping and wide,
welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise (155).
I have re-told these past events in order to share some
Of the early ideologies that have help shaped my thinking

over the years. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. suggests,

5
Telling ourselves our own stories has as much
as any single factor been responsible for the
survival of African Americans and their culture.
The stories that we tell ourselves and our
children function to order our world, serving to
create both a foundation upon which each of us
constructs our sense of reality and a filter
through which we process each event that confronts
us every day (cited in Mullane, 249).
This project, "Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers
Respond to African American Literature," is in many ways a
collection of such stories. Herein are stories four African
American young adult readers created via their engagements

with The Slave Dancer, Words By Heart, and Roll of Thunder,

Hear My Cry.

CHAPTER ONE

GUT FEELINS: READERS PERFORMING WITH TEXTS

The purpose of this study, "Value and Authenticity:
Young Adult Readers Respond to African American Literature,"
is to observe African American readers performing with
African American literature. In other words, this study
seeks to discover how four African American young adult
readers take up some traditionally used classroom novels.

My intention with this study is to add the voices of African

American students to the existing scholarship on The Slave

 

Dancer (Fox), Words By Heart (Sebestyen), and Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor). This existing scholarship,

mostly White academics writing about "The Black Experience"
not only excludes or discounts the voices of Black authors
or critics, it pays practically no attention to the ways
children respond to these kinds of books. Therefore, I
wanted to find out just what do young adult readers think of
these novels. Specifically, what do African American
students value, question, or believe about some novels
written about "the Black Experience?"

How do they read? Do African American young adult

readers bring a "Black Cultural Reading" to the text that

7
may influence their reading? Are their readings based on
their respective socio/economical class? Are their readings
based solely on their teachers' interpretations such that
these readers may feel outta place in terms of their own
historical or sociological connections as opposed to those
presented by the teacher? Do African American young adult
readers allow themselves to challenge the validity of the
PRINTED WORD? For whatever reason, the politics of
schooling, the dynamics of the classroom, or even their own
cultural background, do Black students feel free to say:
"This is not authentic! I just don't believe that it
happened like this in slavery time or any time?" Do the
novels used in this study confirm or discredit what the
African American student reader believes to be authentic
about "The Black Experience?"

While African American literature for children
generally refers to works about African Americans created by
African Americans (Bishop,"Walk Tall" 557), however, for the
purposes of this study African American literature refers to
novels written about "The Black Experience," regardless of
the race of the author. It should be noted that the race of
the author has been a serious point of contention concerning
two novels in this study, The Slave Dancer and Words By

Heart. Rudine Sims advises

 

Controversies and arguments arise because,
given the realities of life in these United
States, fiction about Blacks created by White
authors will almost necessarily be different

8

from fiction created from a Black perspective
("Question" 145).

This issue, the perspective of the author, will be addressed
more fully in Chapter Three on The Slave Dancer, Chapter

Four on Words By Heart, and Chapter Five Roll of Thunder.

Hear My Cry.

The "Black Experience'

Is it possible to describe the "Black Experience as a
single identifying historical moment?" Without being bound
to an essentialist point of view, I still acknowledge that a
common tragedy, slavery, marks African American existence in
the United States of America. Addressing this common
factor, Julius Lester writes in the dedication of his
collection of slave narratives, To Be A Slave: "The ancestry
of any Black American can be traced to a bill of sale and no
further. In many instances even that cannot be done."
Arguably, this may be true in terms of physical lineage;
however in terms of Black culture, studies have indicated
that this is not the case. Molefi K. Asante labels the
notion that Africans and African Americans only share skin
color, nonsense. "There exists an emotional, cultural,
psychological connection between this people that spans the
oceans and the separate existence" (67). In other words
there is a Black culture that grows out of Africa and
African peoples throughout the Diaspora.1 Discussing Black

culture, Jawanza Kunjufu notes much of our culture can be

9
traced to our African roots. Kunjufu continues the
discussion by detailing some features of Black culture:
family values, the belief in the extended family, the
importance of elders, the belief in "we-ness,"
Our allegiance to our culture was once
described for us by one of our heroes,
Marcus Garvey: "Here’s to this flag of mine,
the red, black and green." We have a Black
National Anthem, written by James Weldon
Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." We
have a unique language, not only based in
Africa (such as the Swahili language) but
also our creative Black dialect. We have
our own traditions in literature, authored
by Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, James
Baldwin and many others. Our love for music,
and our gifts of gospel, soul, and jazz are
a part of Black culture which we have freely
given the world (23—24).

Reflecting on the artistic aspect of Black culture
Jawanza Kunjufu adds that the term "innerattainment" is a
part of African culture. Innerattainment connects the
performer to the audience: the drummer plays the people
dance, the preacher preaches the people participate in a
call response, thus there is no separation between the
audience and the presenter (24). This is an interesting
concept, no separation between the audience and the
presenter. How does this concept play out in the reading
process, if the text is the presenter and the reader is the
audience? We will re—dress this issue in later chapters
when we look at the students' responses to the texts used in

this study. However, let’s return to our discussion of

African retentions in African American as well as American

10
culture.

Extensive scholarship has addressed the African carry-
overs noted by Jawanza Kunjufu and Molefi Asante. Joseph E.
Holloway's Africanisms in American Culture features a
lengthy bibliography. In it he discussed Newbell Niles
Puckett’s 1926 Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, an
anthropological study of some 10,000 folk beliefs of
southern Blacks. Puckett found African carry-overs in
African American burial customs, folk beliefs as well as
religious philOSOphy including belief in voodoo and
conjuration (x). On the other hand in his early writings,
Melville Herskovits agreed in principle with his rival E.
Franklin Frazier. Speaking about African American
activities in Harlem in relation to wider society, he wrote
that the total cultural assimilation had already occurred:
"Why, it’s the same pattern, only a different shade" (x).
E. Franklin Frazier, believing that slavery destroyed
Africanisms in the African American, wrote, "...because of
the manner in which the Negroes were captured in Africa and
enslaved, they were practically stripped of their social
heritage" (Holloway ix).2 .A year later, after reviewing
Puckett’s Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, Herskovits
decided that some African culture had survived in America
but only things like Voodoo, which could be practiced in
secrecy (cited in Whitten 25). After extensive research in

many areas of the Diaspora, Herskovits wrote Myth of the

ll
Negro Past which not only confirmed that African customs
have survived the Middle Passage, but that there is a
distinctive African American culture in this country
(Holloway x).

Joseph Holloway’s bibliography of works on Africanisms
in American culture also includes Roger Abrahams and John
Szwed’s After Africa. What should be noted about this text
in addition to detailing African connections to such modern—
day activities as baton twirling, cheer leading, broken
field running (the kind we look forward to seeing on
football Sundays), food production (such as rice, yams, and
sweet potatoes) is the section on linguistic retentions.
Common everyday expressions such as OK, wow, uh-huh, unh-
unh, daddy, and buddy have African roots (xii). Linguistic
expressions have traditionally linked Black cultures
throughout the Diaspora. The following is an example of
the language traditions of the Diaspora: recently when I was
dining on barbecue chicken at a friend’s home, her daughter
asked me if I liked the chicken. I said, "Gurl, yo momma
really stepped on this chicken!" The little girl looked
puzzled but her mother laughed and said: "You know, my
mother from Jamaica, would say to the cook about food that
is really well-prepared: "You put your foot in here."

Accordingly, Geneva Smitherman notes: "Language systems
such as Jamaican Creole or Nigerian Pidgin English are still

in active use today and provide a kind of linguistic mirror

12
image of Black American English in its early stages of
development." Smitherman explains that the Black idiom used
by most Black Americans, at least some of the time, has
allowed Blacks to create a culture of survival in an alien
land and as a by-product has served to enrich the language
of all Americans (Talkin 2-5). Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem
"We Wear the Mask," describes the survival tactics mastered

by African Americans to "git ovuh" (survive).

We wear the mask that grins and
lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our
eyes,--

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we
smile,

And mouth with myriad subtle-
ties.

Why should the world be over-
wise,

In counting all our tears and
sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, 0 great Christ,
our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the
mile;

But let the world dream other-
wise,

We wear the mask! (71)

Confessions or assertions like: "How I got ovuh" or "How I
have survived in this oppressive economic and political

System," often meant and still often means that the African

American person in order to "succeed" must smile in the face

13
of injustice. Geneva Smitherman adds this summation: Both
in the old-time Black Gospel song and in Black street
vernacular, "gittin ovuh" has to do with surviving. While
the religious usage of the phrase speaks to spiritual
survival in a sinister world of sin, its secular usage
speaks to material survival in a white world of oppression
(Talkin 73). Thus, the references by authors, critics,
students and the teachers used in this study to "The Black
Experience" acknowledge that common experience, enslavement,
the subsequent oppression of African Americans, as well as
the rich cultural traditions that came with it and those
that grew out of the slave experience.

Does this mean that there was just one Black
Experience--a core, an essence--that historically defines
what it means to be an African American? While holistically
it may be declared that enslavement defined African American
existence in this country, individuals on various or
sometimes even on the same plantations experienced the
system’s oppression differently. Additionally, it should be
noted that researchers have concluded that, "Not all Blacks
were slaves. Ten percent of the Africans in America have
always been free although their freedom was precarious"
(Jackson 3).

But let us suppose that an African American having
traced her ancestry, discovered that her roots were not in

the slave experience. Would her subsequent life in America

14

have been different? Perhaps a better way to phrase this
hypothesis would be: Would a biological or physically
identifiable African American, without roots in enslavement,
have been socialized throughout the generations, differently
in America? I mean regardless of my proclamation, "The
slaves, they ain't my family," would my treatment
(economically, politically or otherwise) be constructed on a
par with White America or would racial relations for me be
the same as other Black Americans with roots in enslavement?

Will the students of "Value" read from an essential
Black cultural perspective (one grounded in the slave
experience that acknowledges prior and resulting traditions)
or a socially constructed view of race? Contemporary
studies indicate that races exist not as biological
distinctions but as groupings constructed by social and
legal institutions (Ian F. Haney Lopez 1). Ian F. Haney
Lopez indicates in this study on "The Social Construction of
Race," that race manifests itself in our speech, dance,
neighbors, and friends (3). Since race determines not only
our social prospects but also our economic prospects, it may
be to our advantage in this White male dominated culture to
move away from identifiable features of African American
culture. Haney Lopez's study is laden with painful examples

of people "passing."3

Consider the following example:

"I seldom think of my girlfriend, Kathy, as Black.
A lot of times I look at her and it's as if she
is White; there’s no real difference. But every
now and then, it depends on what she is wearing

15

and what we’re doing, she looks very ethnic and

very Black. It bothers me. I don’t like it. I

prefer it when she's a regular, normal everyday

kind of person."

--A White Detroit politician (cited in Haney
Lopez 49).

I really feel for Kathy, in order to stay in this
relationship, it looks like she will have to completely pass
out of Black culture, deny its presence in her life. In
order to be considered "normal," she must move, speak, and
live as a "White" woman. Some readers, as did her
politician boyfriend, may wonder "What's wrong with that?"
Allow me to respond by way of an analogy. Recently a young
man made me recall the scene from the movie Roots, in which
Kunta Kinte is beaten within a inch of death before he
finally abandons his family name and acknowledges the White
slave massa’s name for him, "toby." While the young man who
compelled me to remember this brutal scene was condemning
African American men and women with "blond" straight hair,
blue-green contact lenses, and a "proper" English attitude,
his analogy can also be used to describe people forced by
choice, economics, politics, or history to live "out—side"
of themselves. It may be possible for the Black woman
dating the White politician to live as a "toby." But in
the words of Keith Gilyard addressing Richard Rodriguez’s
(author of Hunger of Memory) cultural alienation from his
family and community: "Rodriguez participated in such self-

annihilation for as long as he did because he thought it

benefitted him personally. It would be tragic, however, to

16
translate his own appraisal of pain into pedagogy" (160-
161).

Students reading society or literature from a social
constructive definition of race may deny the existence of
racial distinctions, i.e. a distinctive Black culture. This
was manifested at a recent campus symposium held at Michigan
State University, to discuss the benefits or detriments of
Black English. A well-articulated African American female
student using identifiable features of Black discourse style
totally dissed African American Vernacular English. "Black
English is not legitimate, I mean it's only for us, they,
the White power structure, are not going to accept it, so we
shouldn't be using it. We are not the only people in this
society. Black English should be banned! If my child came
home from school one day and said something in Black
English, I would CORRECT him" (speaker emphasis). Another
young lady in the audience refuted the first woman's claims,
"To get back to what you were saying about not wanting your
children to speak Black English at all; to be Black and to
not accept it (AAVE) at all means you don't go to a Black
Church, you don't listen to Black music. It's (Black
English) in our culture TOTALLY! How are you going to
expose your children to Black life with out Black language?"
Geneva Smitherman responding to the audience attending this
Black English Symposium, stressed the importance of being

multilingual: "teachers should teach the legitimacy and the

l7
historical origins of African American English and at the
same time teach the language of wider communication
("standard English")." Smitherman went on to cite several
programs across the country that are currently successfully
implementing curricula that validate, value and respect the
language students bring to school, while at the same time
saying, "Let me show you another way to say what you are
saying...."

On the issue of language, Keith Gilyard contends that
the eradication of one tongue is not prerequisite to the
learning of a second (160). In other words, African
American students do not have to commit linguistic suicide,
in order to learn Standard American Edited English. June
Jordan concurs that as children we depend on Black English
to discover our world, then when we grow older we either
hide our original word habits or we surrender our voice
completely ("Nobody" 363). "Surrender," "Alienation,"
"Suicide," are these the conditions to order a life or a
death? So sadly I question whether the linguistic choices
of this young college student are any different from Kathy’s
cultural choices. Both seem to be deciding that since it is
not profitable economically, socially, politically or even
romantically to be Black, that she will just be "White"4

On the other hand a recent article appearing in The New
York Times, "The Loneliness of Being White in the N.B.A.,"

illustrates the other side of this phenomenon that for some

18

White people it is perhaps advantageous to be socially
constructed "Black." Bruce Schoenfeld queries whether or
not the less than 20 percent White professional basketball
players are socially constructed Black:

Over time I learned to group the N.B.A’s

Whites into two distinct camps: those who

freely adopt elements of Black culture,

like Geiger, and those who don’t. Matt

Geiger, 7-foot center for the Miami Heat

believes that he has been profoundly

changed by his immersion in Black culture--

in the way he talks, the clothes he wears,

the music he listens to. Matt observes,

"I have a good relationship with a lot of

the Black players on my team because I think

they realize I have understanding of what it

means to be Black" (34).
Some of the White players do appear to be socially
constructed "Black." But could this be an example of racial
code switching? In other words sometimes the White players
are "White" and at other times they are "Black" or this case
based on social construction, we may be able to imagine a
Third Race: "N.B.A." Okay, work with me here, I am not
being sarcastic! Imagine Vinny Del Nego (White) and two of
his team mates (Black) during a recent road trip out
shopping. All three of them are dressed casually in t-
shirts and sweats. They go into a men's clothing store.
Vinny is waited on first, his team-mates are ignored. They
are ignored until another customer recognizes them as
National Basketball Association players. Now while the

team-mates (Black) have more help than they need, Vinny

(White) is ignored (34). No one thought that he (a White

19
guy) could be a basketball player too. So moving with and
beyond race as an identifiable marker, we have #1) a White
guy helped because he is White, #2) two Black guys not
waited on because they are Black, #3) two Black guys waited
on because they are "N.B.A." players, #4) a White guy not
waited on because he is "black" in comparison to imagined
wealth of the "N.B.A." Poor Vinny, once privileged because
he is White, is now dissed because he is White. Of course,
the clerks’ assistance was based on anticipated commissions
and tips.

Even though this whole scenario may have been
economically underwritten, still based on wealth and the
stereotypes associated with wealth, a new race was
constructed. This scenario also demonstrates James Banks'
contention that American racism is still largely based on
skin color, no degree of cultural assimilation eliminates it
(69). In other words, regardless how much wealth, or how
deeply they had acquired the cultural traits of upper income
Americans, the Black basketball players still experienced
discrimination. Therefore, perhaps neither theory, an
essential Black culture or social construction, can fully
define what African American students may be bringing to or
taking away from the readings. These arguments (social
construction or essential Black Culture) become more crucial
in later chapters of this study as we discuss cultural

specifics and stereotypical mis-representations that may be

20
found in the African American literature selected for
"Value." I am not suggesting that the proponents of social
construction theories deny the existence of Black culture.
I will contend however, that works given to a social
construction theory of race may also be more likely to
employ the negative racial stereotypes that are prevalent in

society.

The Revels

From reading the novels used in this study, which are
all historical novels, will African American students
discover a Black culture? Of course this assumes that
identifiable features of African American culture exists in
these novels. On the other hand their readings could be
shaped by the concept of Black culture that they each bring
to the text? In Chapters Three, Four and Five, of this
study using their words, we will hear the students
performing with the texts. In addition to the students
voices I will provide literature reviews which will include
summaries and critical analysis of each text. However the
main focus of these three chapters will be the voices of the
student readers.

In Chapter Three, we will look at The Slave Dancer. In
this novel, Paula Fox examines life for the Africans, for
the crew, and for a kidnapped 13 year old male flute player,

aboard a slave ship during The Middle Passage-the voyage

21

from Africa to America. Much of the controversy surrounding
this text has to do with questions of perspective (White or
Black), historical accuracy, and use of negative
stereotypes. The following conversation is an example of
the negative stereotypes used in The Slave Dancer to deny
humanity to African people. This discussion took place
between Jessie and one of the crew members just after the
Africans were first brought aboard the Moonlight:

"Why was that man treated that way?" I [Jessie]

asked.

"What man?"

"The one that was forced to drink the rum?"

"Man?"

"That Purvis was flinging about so..."

"You mean the nigger!"

"Him," I said (64-65).
Jessie is thus forced to acknowledge that he shares the crew
member’s belief that Africans are not considered to be
human. Later the crew member affirms his earlier
contention, "They ain’t like us, and that’s the truth"
(65).

Chapter Four is devoted to multiple examinations of
Ouida Sebestyen's Words By Heart. This novel set in 1910,
concerns the fate of a Black family (Ben and Claudie Sills,
their children Lena, Roy and Brother) who moves from an all-

Black southern town to an all White southwestern town. Like

22

The Slave Dancer, this too is a controversial novel. Rudine
Sims charges that like other prize winners (The Slave
Dancer, Sounder, and The Cay), Words By Heart is honored
because of excellent crafting by the author, yet the text is
flawed because it presents an outsider’s perspective on
Black lives and fails to recognize the political, racial and
social realities that shape the Black Experience in this
country ("Black Perspective" 12). For example, re-live with
me Lena's history lesson:

Elsie raised her hand. "Teacher, is that what is

meant by the White Man's Burden?"

Mr. Doans cleared his throat. "Since the Spanish-

American War, the United States has taken eight

million less—advanced people under its

jurisdiction. Yes Elsie, throughout our history

the superior races have necessarily shouldered the

burden of ruling the inferior ones."

Lena raised her hand, "What makes us a superior

race?"

Mr. Doans looked at her for a long time. Somebody

giggled. Then he said, "It is obvious from its

achievements, Lena, that the Anglo-Saxon race is

superior to any other."

"What’s Anglo-Saxon?" Lena asked.

"Caucasian."

"What’s that?" The giggles were growing.

23
"White," Mr. Doans said (97).

In "The Story Behind the Book, Words By Heart" Jean F.
Mercier contends, White author Sebestyen makes the point
that the effects of discrimination on people of both sexes,
any age and all origins are the same (40). At the moment
Mr. Doans announced "White" would any other boy or girl in
that otherwise all-white classroom share the humiliation
Lena felt as the only African American in the school?
Perhaps readers identifying with Lena would feel her
humiliation. Or perhaps readers identifying with Lena would
feel shame and embarrassment that a Black twelve year-old
girl not only would not know that she was being insulted by
her White teacher and classmates, but would participate in
her own humiliation.

Chapter Five concerns itself with a highly acclaimed
young adult novel, Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear
My ry. Joel Taxel writes the following about Taylor's

novel,

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry about Cassie
Logan, a young, African American girl’s
gradual awakening to the brutal reality of
racism in Mississippi in the 1930’s, has
influenced my thinking about the possibilities
afforded by literature to provide aesthetic
pleasure and to raise issues of critical
social and political importance ("Reflections"
301).

Issues of justice and what is "fair" are raised throughout
Roll of Thunder. Following several incidents of

mistreatment (tar and feathering of one man, the burning of

24

another) the Logans and several Black families decide to
shop no longer at the local grocery store owned by one of
the "night riders." On the return trip from the grocery in
a neighboring town, David Logan and his "hired."5 hand are
attacked. Cassie tries to understand the consequences of
what happened:

It seemed to me that since the Wallaces had

attacked Papa and Mr. Morrison, the simplest

thing to do would be to tell the sheriff and

have them put in jail, but Mama said things

did not work that way. She explained that as

long as the Wallaces, embarrassed by their

injuries at the hands of Mr. Morrison, did

not make an official complaint about the

incident, then we must remain silent also.

If we did not, Mr. Morrison could be charged

with attacking white men, which could possibly

end in his being sentenced to the chain gang,
or worse (228).

Selective Tradition

As I previously noted, the books that I selected for
this study address various stages of "The Black Experience"
(the middle passage and slavery, turn of the century share
cropping/tenant farming in the southwest, and the Great
Depression shaped southern African American life). The
historical aspect may be one reason why each of these novels
is a popular choice of middle school teachers. Another
reason why these novels may be classroom favorites for
teachers is that they are all award-winning books.

There are at least three logical reasons why award-

winning texts will be chosen over others: one, it eliminates

25
the need for teachers to shop or research for the ’best’
children’s book; two, the official sanction that goes with
an award-winning text makes it more likely to be bulk
purchased even in a budget restraint crisis; and three, the
more the novels are used the more they are talked about
among teachers, the more additional teachers adopt the text.
It may also be possible that the politics of the publishing
firms influence schools' continued use of these award
winning books by including a re-useable supply of user—
friendly materials (work books, study guides, tests, etc,).
Award—winning texts often become a part of pre-packaged
standardized curricula and teaching strategies.

Michael W. Apple argues that the use of these pre—
packaged curricula resulting in a separation of conception
and teacher execution, is related to external control over
teacher practice. Granted, Apple was referencing the
research that indicates external forces (White male
patriarchy) must control women's work, since 87 percent of
elementary teachers and 67 percent of teachers overall are
women (300). Certainly it is a question of gender and whose
knowledge counts as knowledge. It reads like: "We can’t
have women completely in charge of developing our future
leaders." Statistics like these lead me to wonder why so
many women are currently opposed to affirmative action
programs. Do they imagine that without such programs in

place, their voices would still be heard? The issue,

26
however, that Apple’s research brings to the forefront for
this study is if teachers have less curricular and classroom
autonomy, then will they have the where-with-all to help
each student make "real" connections with the text?
Returning to the discussion of prize—winning texts

children's book author, Sharon Bell Mathis notes "When a
Newbery winner is cited, it is one of the first books school
officials make sure children read" (148). Selected annually
by the American Library Association, the Newbery Medal is
"presented to the author of the most distinguished
contribution to American literature for children published
the preceding year" (Woolman 5). Borrowing from the Newbery
Award Committee manual, Joel Taxel lists the criteria in
judging the nominees for the Medal:

Interpretation of the theme or concept

Presentation of information including

accuracy, clarity, and organization

Development of plot

Delineation of characters

Delineation of setting

Appropriateness of style
Taxel adds that committee members are admonished to remember
that the Newbery is awarded for "excellence of presentation
for a child audience, for literary quality and quality of
presentation for children...not for didactic intent or for

popularity" ("Controversies" 253). However, it seems to me,

27

both as a parent and as an educator, the fact that these
books’ presentations are for children should make for a
closer more careful reading by the award-selection
committees, not an avenue for excuse. Included among the
excuses often offered by students in my classes for pre-
service language arts teachers:

1) It is just a kid’s book.

2) Is just a cute little duck story.

3) Children don’t see race, unless we point it out

to them.

Ironically one of the criteria for the International
Reading Association Children’s Book Award is explicit in
addressing the issues of racism and sexism: "The awarded
book will be non-racist and non-sexist, as far as the
selection committee can determine" (Taxel, "Controversies"
253-54). If the winning book is to be non-racist, non-
sexist, then it is possible that the committee members were
not sensitive to or chose to ignore the apparent racism in
Words By Heart that was noted by critics. If award winning
selection committees are not aware of racist text, if
teachers do not read these books with an eye opened for
negative stereotypes, then will African American young adult
readers know when they (members of their racial group) are
being mis-represented in the books? Will these young
readers then accept and identify with these MIS-

representations?

28

Before adopting African American literature or any
award-winning texts for classroom use, it is important to
consider that piece of literature in light of recent
research. This research indicates the perspectives of
people of color, working class individuals, and women are
often excluded, distorted or mis-represented (Taxel,
"Reclaiming" 111). Violet Harris contends that even though
African Americans have been depicted in general literature
since the seventeenth century, these depictions are
essentially stereotyped pejorative and unauthentic (167).
Thus contrary to the criteria established in principle by
award-selection—boards of governors, a "selective tradition"
may in fact determine which book is designated the "Book of
the Year," "Book of the Month," or "Honor Book." The
concept "selective tradition" is attributed to Raymond
Williams who defines it as a social order that selects
literatures that reflect the cultural values of the society
(52). Citing Raymond Williams, Joel Taxel adds that the
designation of certain groups knowledge as the knowledge for
all is central to the process of social and cultural
definition, thus providing historical and well as cultural
legitimacy for the social order (Taxel, "Reclaiming" 111).

How does the selective tradition play itself out in
terms of African American literature for children and young
adult readers? Violet Harris responds that texts written by

African Americans rarely become designated classics, even

29
though many exhibit extraordinary literary merit, and
provides a forum for voices silenced by mainstream
literature. "The vast majority of students do not read
African American classics such as Roll of Thunder, Hear My
gry because the literary canons in schools have become a
part of the selective tradition" (Harris 168). Adding
numbers to our discussion Joel Taxel notes that in a three-
year period from 1962-64 African American characters were
present in only 349 of 5206 or 6.7% of the books published.
While he acknowledges some improvement has occurred over the
years, Joel Taxel concurs with Rudine Sims Bishop that this
is "another lean period in the publication of books about
African Americans" ("Reclaiming" 114-115). Bishop suggests
that in addition to the need for more books about African
American experiences, there is also a need for culturally
authentic literature. Of 150 African American fiction books
surveyed between 1965 and 1979, the majority were created by
Euro—American writers. While several of these books have
merit, Bishop adds that many have been charged with
presenting a distorted and racist point of view ("Informed
Choices" 41). The nature of the picture painted by
children’s literature is of paramount consideration.
Violet Harris contends that because children’s literature
serves as a mediator between children, cultural knowledge
and socialization by adults, it has both real and symbolic

power. "However, when a tradition is selective or, worse,

30
when it sets up inaccurate and damaging stereotypes, the
meanings and the knowledge shaped by it become significant
because they shape individuals’ perceptions of the world and
their roles in it" (Harris 168). In other words what
children and young adults read in the word may shape their

reading of their past, present and future worlds.

The Participants

The research group that I have selected for "Value and
Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond to African
American Literature" is composed of four (3 females and 1
male) African American sixth/seventh graders. They are
between the ages of 12 and 13. These students attend
various public or parochial schools in a mid-western capital
city. Two of the students attend the same church, but go
to different schools. I will include case—study
information on each student-participant in Chapter Two.
Actually, during the course of this study, we never met as a
group in its entirety. On occasions I met with them in
groups of two or three to chat over dinner. Basically the
students read on their own and corresponded with me by
telephone or fax. Thus, for the students I was able to
reproduce the comfortable atmosphere Mario and I enjoyed
during our work on Children’s Voices: Children Talk About
Literacy (Hudson-Ross, ed.). In other words, just as with

this earlier study, students of "Value" were afforded the

31
space to work through the material and articulate their
views on the reading and writing process.

Of course before the study began I met with the
students and their parents. Even though only the students
would be reading the novels, I needed parental permission
and I wanted parental support. Each student and each parent
completed consent forms detailing the study as well as
acknowledging their willingness to participate in the
research project (See Appendices B, 8-1 for sample
permission forms). In these initial conversations, I
basically detailed the logistics of the study: "Over the
next several weeks, I would like each of you to read these
three novels." (The books were displayed for both students
and parents to look over.) Providing space and opportunity
for their immediate reader responses, I asked the students
to please take notes as they read. "You may use any format
that is comfortable for you, for example you may write in
the margins of the books, or in a notebook (I provided
students with the novel, notebooks, pens and pencils) like a
Dear Diary entry, or like a journal: Today I read in

, about , and I think . Please

 

 

just jot down two or three sentences perhaps a paragraph or

two expressing your thoughts about each day’s reading."
After they had finished each book I invited them to

respond to a specific set of questions (4-5) per book (See

Appendices C, D, E for the question forms). The questions

32
were designed to be open—ended without predictable answers.
Students were free to respond in any manner--with drawings,
poetry, short answers, or even long essays. Following the
reading of all three texts, I individually spoke with each
student based on their responses. These talks in general
provided students a space in which to elaborate on the
written responses. Specifically we just talked about their
reading writing experience with these novels.

Even though these interview sessions were taped
recorded (so that I was able to reproduce a more accurate
account of their thought on the books), students had the
Option of deleting or restating anything that they believed
did not accurately reflect their meanings. On the
transcribed data and the written responses students were
identified by numbers or code names. In the published study
students will remain anonymous, identified by pseudonyms,
unless as some students did choose to use their own first
names.

Modeling the format I used for my work in Children’s
Voices: Children Talk About Literacy, each student
participant in "Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers
Respond to African American Literature" was free to speak
for themselves. My role was that of petitioner, begging
entrance into their worlds. Going into this study I wonder
if only as an observer if I may have membership in the

specially engineered worlds that were crafted out of their

33
individual reading of the novels? Or would they shape their
responses for me as they would any teacher? Even though I
stressed the importance of their voices, their thoughts,
some students would give very tentative responses. This
remained a limitation through out my study. For example
when talking about Words By Heart, one student responded
"Well, I mean its okay, I guess I liked the book." Other
students welcomed this opportunity to freely write their
opinions. In all capital letters one female student said
this about The Slave Dancer: "I HATE THIS BOOK!"

Of course this study will supply numerous opportunities
for reading-intervention on the part of language arts
instructors. Thinking about the authority Mario gave to the
text in our work for Children’s Voices, "Its Mostly After I
Read That I Write," I am concerned how often we as teachers
don’t ourselves question, and surely don’t encourage our
students to question the text. Actually all the while I
read or listened to each students’ responses, I was thinking
of what can I do here to make this a positive learning
experience for African American children who so often feel
displaced by racist literature, and for all students who
have not been taught to interrogate negative stereotypes in
their textbooks and those novels traditionally chosen for
classroom study. In Chapter Seven, we will look at some
positive avenues for teacher intervention that do not erase

but perhaps work with and therefore enhance students own

34

meaning making processes.

Project Details:

We began with Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer simply
because in terms of "Black Experiences" this text by
addressing the Middle Passage and slavery came first (set in
1840), among the books we read for "Value." Basically, I
set aside three weeks to study this book. In terms of
subject matter, chronologically, of the books I selected to
study for Value, focusing on the post-reconstruction turn of
the century share-cropping era, Ouida Sebestyen’s Words by

Heart (set in 1910) came next. For this book I again sought

 

to implement the procedures we outlined for our study of IQ;
Slave Dancer.

The final text for this study is Mildred Taylor’s Roll
of Thunder, Hear My Cry (set in 1933). Following the same
process as with the other books, we divided Taylor’s book
into three parts, designating a one part per week study.
After I had read all the students responses to all three
texts, I met with each student individually to orally
request further clarification, explanation, and/or
elaboration. Thus based on the reading, writing,
interviewing schedule I established for "Value" my original

timetable looked like this:

35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week Reading thes Questions Interviews
One Slave X

Two Slave X

Three Slave X X

Four Words X

Five Words X

Six Words X X

Seven Roll X

Eight Roll X

Nine Roll X X

Ten All X

However, students reading rates outside the classroom
perhaps even in-class reading rates can not be totally
predicted. On any of the given novels, student reading
rates ranged from one day to five weeks. The following
table reflects students reported reading rates:

Novels (Reading Time)

Students The Slave Dancer Words By Heart Roll of Thunder

1. A.J. 3 weeks 4 weeks 5 weeks
2. Constance 2 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks
3. LeTasha 1 week 1 day 3 days
4. Maya 2 weeks 3 weeks 2 weeks

 

Data Collection and Analysis
For "Value" I am moving with and away from the in-depth
interviewing model I employed with Mario in the Children’s
Voices' piece. I am moving with I. Earl Seidman because my
methodology is still socio/cultural phenomemology and my
primary data will still be students’ voices. But in "Value"

the interviews or talks with the students are the spaces for

36

them to elaborate on written responses. Seidman explains
the model:

Although the interviewer comes to each

interview with a basic question that

establishes the purpose and the focus

of the interview, it is in response to

what the participant says that the

interviewer follows up, asks for

clarification, seeks concrete details,

and requests stories (59).
In "Value" rather than all the data being transcriptions of
students’ interviews, I am moving away from Seidman’s model
a bit, in that I want to allow space for written responses.
The interviews were conducted after I had gathered and read
their notes and responses to the questions. The written
responses were important additions to the data because
generally in the classroom students are asked to respond in
writing to a text. In "Value" for some students the written
responses proved to be the preferred space of articulation.

What do I intend to do with this data? The truths

that emerge from this study can only be translatable to the
particular population from which it originates. I do not
imagine that "Value" will provide a blueprint on how African
American students read. This is a qualitatively designed
project. Therefore I am more concerned with the context of
their responses than how many responses. While it may be
significant if all the participants were disturbed or elated
by the same area of the text, I was more curious to know in

each case why that area of the novel generated such a

response. A more detailed analysis of their responses will

37

be discussed in Chapter Six, "Creatin Texts Outta Texts."

For this study analysis followed the "constant
comparative" method discussed in Goetz and LeCompte( ). In
other words I will sort and sift data for patterns and/or
idiosyncrasies among and across participants. Additionally,
I will use a semiotic method of analysis, (reading
relational responses in contexts to produce meanings based
upon ideological codes); e.g., meanings related to racism
based upon the ideological code or view of white
supremacy.6 Though these data are not generalizable,
"Value" does seek to develop "grounded theory" about what
stories African American students bring to the text and how
those stories influence readings and therefore shapes the
stories these students take away from the text (Glaser 31-
34). My approach was to allow "substantive concepts and
hypotheses to emerge first, on their own," this enabled me
to determine if any established theory may help generate
more substantive theories. I have been more faithful to my
data, therefore in using the method; i.e., I have not tried
to make the data fit the existing theory (Glaser 34). For
example, if I had asserted (in a previous study) that young
Black Americans consider it exploitation to find their
established street patterns of discourse in printed texts,
then I would expect readers to be offended every time they
read "nigger" in a book. This was the declaration of one of

my students in that study: "shoot only my homies can call me

38
nigger." However, in that same study, rather than outrage,
other students just attributed the use of the term to the

speaker’s (characters in the story) lack of education.

Children's Voices

The focus of "Value" is the voice of youth: How did
these African American students take up literature in terms
of their own social, cultural, and/or political values?
This leads to another question: are students’ social,
cultural, and/or political values apparent in their
responses? It is my hope that this study adds to the
existing scholarship that has been written about The Slave
Dancer, Words By Heart, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Therefore for educators some questions this study may
address are:

1) How do African American students feel that
their own stories are validated by the use
of these classroom novels?

2) Based on what experiences and what stories
in the readings do students believe and
perhaps value these novels?

3) Contextually how may the texts used in
this study force students to culturally and/
or racially identify against themselves?

4) Are students more willing to actively engage

a novel outside the confines of a traditional

39
classroom setting?
5) If the reader brings a voice other than
standard edited American English to the text,
in terms of understanding will the text-door

be opened?

Readers’ Response

As I was working through a teaching/learning metaphor
for readers’ response I thought of a baseball game. In
order to be in position to score the base runner must first
have made a connection with the ball. But just as quickly
as I was applauding my metaphor, I realized that in all
situations it does not work. A player can indeed reach base
and be in the position to score without ever touching the
ball, if the pitcher is inept enough to throw four wide
pitches. So what does this do to my baseball game metaphor
for readers and books? For teaching and learning? If a
player can be in position to score without hitting the ball,
then is it possible for a reader to circle a book without
making any real social, cultural or political connections
with the text? And if a reader does not entertain such
issues should that reading be discredited? Then the
question may be what marks a substantial reading?

What’s missing here? No thrill of a home run, no
emotions, no passion, no real engagement with/or enjoyment

of the game. John Willinsky would say what was missing here

40

is "any form of encouragement for students to experience the
text in an aesthetic manner, which was, after all, what art
was all about and which in the context of the classroom be
profitably shared, refined, cultivated and still ultimately,
examined (103). Sometimes we teachers forget that it was
the love of the game that first brought us to the playing
field.

Perhaps the larger question that looms outfield here is
do we only value the artistic rendering of a text, while
discrediting the political construction that may in fact
have a powerful on impact the young adult reader? In a
conversation on cultural representation of the text Diane
Brunner reminded me that it is not just the way a teacher
teaches but the way that the author moves a particular plot
or a character artistically through the representation of a
culture, that may shape a student’s reading. In other
words how do we distinguish between the aesthetic value of a
text and what it does in terms of passing along oppressive
images of the dominant culture?

When does it become important to negotiate an aesthetic
reading with a political one? For me the way to begin the
interrogation of the text is to return to those gut feelins
and allow myself to experience the reading. By no means is
this a linear activity in which the text acts on me, and I
simply chart the meanings. Basically by reader’s response

I am referencing the process described by Louise Rosenblatt

41

in The Reader, the Text, the Poem:

The reader, we can say, interprets the text.

(The reader acts on the text.) Or we can say,

the text produces a response in the reader.

(The text acts on the reader.) Each of these

phrasings, because it implies a single line

of action by one separate element on another

separate element, distorts the actual reading

process. The relation between reader and text

is not linear. It is a situation, an event at

a particular time and place in which each element

conditions the other (16).
Echoing Rosenblatt, Robert E. Probst writes the reader
performs with the text. The symbolic dance of words on
paper awakens memories, arouses feelings, evokes thought,
conjures images, but all those memories, feelings, thoughts,
and images are the reader’s as much as--even more than--they
are the writer’s or the text’s (29). In other words, a
reader—response approach would allow students to make
connections with the ball, feel the thrill of the home run
or even the anguish of a ground-out. These individual
experiences with the text can be interrogated on an
emotional as well as an intellectual level.

Here I am in the line—up with Taxel and others who
insist that the text should not be evaluated aesthetically
apart from the social, political, ideological and historical
forces that shape it ("Reflections"). Granted my reader’s
response philosophy begins on an aesthetic level and in a
certain sense remains on an aesthetic level. But just

because I enjoy the game does not preclude me from

critically examining my position from home plate. Paulo

42

Freire provides an excellent analogy that clarifies what I
believe we should be encouraging in the reading process,
"Reading is not walking on the words; its grasping the soul
of them" (18-19). It is a matter of reading the world as we
read the word. "Its engaging the words in a word-world"
(Brunner). The premise of art for art’s sake just does not
work in evaluating historical fiction or novels that purport
to represent cultures and or experiences that have and are
shaping our lives and the lives of our students. Paulo
continues declaring that

it is impossible to read texts without reading

the context, without establishing the

relationships between the discourse and the

reality that shapes that discourse (18-19).
Where or when does this interrogation of relations of power
that leads to recognizing racism or classism occur?

Can this happen? Politically how is the game played in
our language arts classrooms? Do we allow space for
students to interrogate the text, challenge the word, love
it or hate it? Marjorie G. Roemer notes

Whether we (teachers) name ourselves
traditionalists or members of the avant-garde,
more often than not our classrooms communicate
a set of dominate values and manners which the
students transgress at their own peril; that is,
they jeopardize their grades, or feel that they
do if they deviate from the kinds of opinions
and style of speech that we so clearly

privilege (912).

Who holds the power or whose readings matter are

43
questions that often block the successful implementation of
readers response in the classroom. During a book-talk on
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry, a pre-service teacher in my
English Teaching Methods course raved about the book. Using
stories from the text she retold the school bus incident
without mentioning racism, or the fact that only White
children were allowed to ride the bus, and that the driver
purposely splashed mud on the walking African American
students. If this pre-service teacher was not able to use
words like "racism" or "bigotry" with her peers, then
imagine "how" she will teach Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to
seventh or eighth grade students. Rudine Sims Bishop says
what readers experience with this book that explores the
effects of racism and bigotry, may in the words of Louise
Rosenblatt, "Liberate the student from anachronistic
emotional attitudes and even perhaps nourish the impetus
toward more fruitful modes of behavior" (Bishop, "Fifty
Years" 6).

Thus, even though my use of reader’s response draws on
Rosenblatt, Holland, Beach, and others, I am also extending
it through a Freiran notion of reading the word and the
world, which encompasses both an aesthetic appreciation for
literature as art, but does not excuse it because it is art.
My theory of reader’s response does not say art for art’s
sake. It subjects literature to the same sort of criticism

about what its representations mean to children and young

44
adult readers as television, movies and other forms of
popular culture that are not often considered high art. It
is not enough to question the aesthetic value of a text,
each volume must come to the plate and be challenged in
terms of the social, political and cultural representations
that it puts forth. If a text is racist, will students know
what those racist representations are, those very
representations that may be shaping their perceptions of
themselves and the world? If we as educators do not
encourage students to make critical interrogations of the
world of the word what understandings will they take from
the reading experience? Brunner adds that even when
teachers are selecting African American books, given that
these texts are often filled with the deliberate ways
authors have set out to keep people in their place, it is
important to not only look at the traditions in which
African Americans will be seen, but how African American
students will see themselves.7
Throughout this first chapter, I have suggested several
questions concerning African American student readers, for
example: 1) Will African American readers see this book,
this situation, this individual as racist?
2) Will African American students believe this
story?
3) What stories do African American readers bring

to this text?

45

The intention here is not to suggest that African Americans
share one reading. "If a student is Black, then THIS is how
she reads and these are the stories that she will bring to
the reading experience." Clearly this is a very limited if
not racist presumption that no teacher should make
concerning any child. However, it may be equally damaging
to ignore the community of those "cultural specifics" that
African American students may be reading with. Rudine Sims
Bishop says the following are cultural specifics: language
styles and patterns, religious beliefs and practices, family
relationships, and values shared by that cultural group.

While Chapter Two, Sharing Visions: Movin Beyond "White
Folks, They Can’t Write Bout Us" briefly addresses those
cultural specifics that may be shaping African American
students’ readings, this issue is discussed in greater
detail in the concluding chapters of "Value." Chapter Two
is primarily devoted to discussions of 1) what I learned
from various pilot studies that led me to "Value," 2) design
of "Value" and 3) case history profiles of the student
participants. The middle section (Chapters: Three, Four,
and Five) of "Value," following a brief summary and a
review of the academic literature, will be primarily devoted
to students’ performances with each of the texts used in
this study. Chapter Six, "Creatin Texts Outta Texts,"
concerns itself with a discussion and analyses of students’

responses to the books used in "Value." Chapter Seven

46
"Playin Like I’m 1 Down" concludes this look at what some
African American students are bringing to and taking away
from the reading process with some possible pedagogical
visions. Here I entertain the question: What does this
study, "Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond
to African American Literature," foresee in terms of
theoretical and/or practical implications for language arts

instruction?

CHAPTER TWO

Sharing Visions: Movin Beyond
"White Folks, They Can’t Write Bout Us!"

In the fall of 1989 as an undergraduate student teacher
I enrolled in Diane DuBose Brunner’s English course, Women
and Minorities in Adolescent Literature. Brunner designed
this course to force us to critique our own thinking on the
use of multicultural literature in secondary English
classrooms. Therefore we not only read and discussed the
young adult novels but we also read and analyzed essays,
book reviews and professional scholarship. While some of
this scholarship focused on the merits or (dare I say de-
merits) of classroom use for such novels as those assigned
for this course, others addressing issues of race, class,
and gender questioned how these novels reflected the
sociology of schooling.

In keeping with the challenging nature of the course,
some of the material we discussed reflected the disturbing
views of the "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy."8
Masters of linguistic gymnastics, these authors often relied
on twisted language to retain the literary status quo. For
example, Lee Burress wrote the following response to the
Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) initiative

47

48

to change the "all-white" world of children’s book
publishing: "To criticize racist and sexist elements in
given literary works is a legitimate part of the
intellectual life. But to focus attention exclusively on an
evil is dangerous in this paradoxical world" (16).
Dangerous for whom or for what? Imagine with me the
following scenario:

If we could, at this very moment, shrink the

Earth’s population to a village precisely 100,

but all the existing human ratios remained the

same, it would look like this:

57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 8 Africans

14 Western Hemisphere people

70 of the 100 would be non-white

70 of the 100 would be non-Christian

50% of the entire world’s wealth would be in

the hands of only 6 people--and all 6
would be citizens of the USA

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer malnutrition

80 would live in substandard housing

and only 1 would have a university education

(APhA Computer Network).

Since only one would have a university education, would

she (he) automatically be president of our hypothetical

49
village? Whose culture would define this space? What
political economy would govern our town? Again I ask
dangerous for whom? Whose rights are being protected when
we allow racist, sexist and classist educational materials
to go unchallenged?

While it is true that Burress did not suggest that
these works should go unchallenged, however his attaching
warning signs like dangerous to the practice may prevent
serious interrogation of literature for children. Even
though he went on in this English Journal article to condemn
the selective tactics of the CIBC as censorship, Burress
cited research that indicated "Bad books can corrupt a mind
much the same as a good book can impart knowledge..." If
he was concerned about the developing perceptions of school
children, then should he not have been supporting the
efforts of the CIBC?

Indeed although working through the material that
Brunner had selected for this course was not easy, it became
even more difficult when I read White scholars recommending
a demeaning racist text in the face of opposition by Black
authors and critics, "Despite some problematic features, The
Slave Degcer is an outstanding and important literary work"
(Taxel, "Ideology" 218). In condemning the use of The Slave
Dancer, Sharon Bell Mathis wrote that this book not only
insults Black people, it perpetuates stereotypes about

Africa and Black people in general (146). Agreeing with

50
Mathis, Binnie Tate wrote "no matter what the author’s
intent, this book presents grave problems for those of us
concerned with eliminating racism in children's materials
which help perpetuate racism" (149).

Here too I acknowledge that I was angry when I heard my
White classmates in this literature course for teachers,
hold this book out as a "must-read." Why did these
teachers and soon-to-be teachers applaud the use of this
award-winning yet racist text, when clearly The Slave Berger
perpetuates the racist myths, noted by Beryle Banfield, that
were used to justify the plantation slavery?

1) The Black was by intellect and temperament
naturally suitable to be the slave of the
White;

2) Slavery was the natural lot of the African and
so ordained by the Creator;

3) Rigid discipline and severe controls were
necessary and beneficial to the African
barbarian ("Same Old Story" 9).

What effects do the use of these racist myths in texts
and literature have on young adult readers? In I Won’t
Learn From You, Herb Kohl notes what often happens to
students when they refuse to learn racist materials:

Since the students have no way to legitimately

criticize the schooling they are subjected to or

to the people they are required to learn from,

51

resistance and rebellion is stigmatized. The

system’s problem becomes the victim’s problem

(29).
Kohl goes on to cite several of these "victims" like Jamila
L. who spent four years in special ed. classes drinking
orange juice, eating graham crackers and pretending she
couldn’t read. "The whole act was to keep from hitting
several of her teachers who she knew were racist. In fact,
she was an avid reader of romances and black history" (29).
Or the case of Paul Luciano who wrote:

Everything you learn is lies.

It’s their education. Not mine.
It’s their history. Not mine.
It’s their language. Not mine.

A white teacher, he has not lived the life.
He cannot relate any of the things to me.
So I'm bored (30).
Or the case of Paul Luciano’s friend Victor Hernandez Cruz
who tells this story:
George Washington had slaves, man. You know one
time he traded a black man for a pig?...We told
the librarian we wanted a picture of Malcolm X.
We said that we would supply our own picture and
everything. But she said, "No." We wanted his
picture up there with George Washington and Thomas

Jefferson...the librarian said he preached hate...

52

We asked the librarian to get the Autobiography of

Malcolm X. She said, "Some books you have to wait

three years." It’s still not there.
Today Jamila, Paul and Victor are success stories, working
in various educational programs that are designed to empower
students. Are they successful because of or in spite of the
education they received? Victor supplies this answer in his
volume of poetry,
Papo go; His gun:

JHS (Junior High School) was boss

not because of what you taught me

but because of what I learned

which was not what you taught me.

Also in I Won’; Learn From You Herb Kohl discusses his
intention to teach Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He
not only concluded after re—reading the text that racism was
not "just a secondary unfortunate aspect of an extraordinary
piece of writing," but that he should not teach Heart of
Darkness unless he was willing to deal with the racism and
to condemn Conrad (19). Herb Kohl agreed with Chinua
Achebe’s contention:

That this simple truth (Conrad’s racism) is
glossed over in criticisms of his work is due
to the fact that white racism against Africa is
such a normal way of thinking that its
manifestations go completely unremarked"
("Image" 8).

Could the teachers and teachers-to-be enrolled with me

in Brunner’s English course, be so racist against Africa and

53

even against African Americans that they just did not get
it? And if they did not see The Slave Dancer as a racist
text, then how would they teach it? Perhaps, the most
important concern here is if The Slave Dancer and other
books like it bothered me as an African American, then what
would middle-school students (the recommended grade level
for these novels) make of these types of teacher-selected
and imposed bits of prose? The editors of the Interracial
Beeke for Children Belletin discuss some implications of
racism:

For children of the dominated group,

negative portrayals of their group

and superior portrayals of the dominating

group (along with the overall situation

of oppression) lead toward the development

of a negative self-image and self-identity

(10).

Thus, armed with the purpose of finding out if these
texts adversely affected African American children, in the
fall of 1989, I decided to conduct my own "scientific-mini-
study." So I gathered a group of neighborhood teens in a
friend’s basement. My initial question to the group was:
"Are non-Black authors able to write a positive portrayal of
the Black experience in America?’ Even though I had
requested (silent) written replies, the students made loud

vocal responses:

"No! Because they are not able to relate to the
past experiences of Black people in America."

"No, because Whites don’t have a better act
than Blacks."

54

I do feel that they can write positively about
Black people. But I find it hard to believe that
they can write knowingly about our trials and
tribulations, as if they have experienced what we
went through."

Following that discussion, I read aloud the portion of The
Slave Dancer, concerning the very poor sanitary conditions
that spread ’bloody flux’ throughout the ship; a fever-
ridden woman was thrown overboard; and Jessie, the fife-
playing Creole boy expressed his hatred for the Africans not

the captain or the crew members who responsible for this

human misery:

I hated the foul stench that came from the holds
no matter which way the wind blew, as if the ship
was soaked with human excrement. I would have
snatched the rope from Stark’s hand and beaten
them myself! Oh God! I wished them all dead! Not
to hear them! Not to smell them! Not to know of
their existence (Fox 79).

Without revealing if the author was Black or White, I asked

for student comments:

"When I hear stuff like that, I just want to go
out and hit somebody White."'

"I don’t like it because of all the racism and the
cruelty to Blacks."

"You can tell that somebody White wrote that. I
compare the language to Maya Angelou; she uses a
dialect that is real to Black People."

"I don’t think that they can get inside of us and
tell how we really feel. Like Paula Fox, her
people were not slaves, most likely, they were
slave-holders, so she can’t tell how the slaves
musta felt bein treated like that."

55
Emotionally drained and reflective, an eighth grade
student both named and concluded my basement study: "White
Folks, They Can’t Write Bout Us!" Still overall, I must
admit that this early study was painfully flawed. Rather
than address the issue of the effects of racism in young
adult literature on African American youth, my questions
forced the students to focus specifically on the question of
authorship: "Can White people write about Black people."
Later, Rudine Sims expanded my thinking on this issue:
In a democracy, authors can write about anything
and -- in fiction --anyone they choose.
Controversies and arguments arise because,
given the realities of life in these United
States, fiction about Blacks created by White
authors will almost necessarily be different
from fiction about Blacks created from a Black
perspective ("Perspective" 145).

Thus, the following summer (1990), utilizing a grant
from the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement
Program/ Summer Research Opportunity Program, I sought to
re-dress the issue of White authorship of Black texts. The
questions that motivated my research were: 1) Are White
authors’ portrayals of the Black Experience authentic or are
they shaded by negative racial stereotypes? 2) How does the
literature selected correspond with the reader’s
experiences? In this study I shared some select pieces of
African American literature with middle school students
enrolled in an enrichment program at a neighborhood youth

center. My initial question to this class was: "Do you

believe that someone from a different social, economical,

56
cultural and historical background can write about the
African American experiences in this country?"

Although my questions were more theoretically based
than they were in the earlier study, something I was doing
still forced the students to focus exclusively on the race
of the author. I admit that my assumptions going into this
study were naive. I believed that by reading the context
(story) and the content (language/dialect) the students
would be able to identify an authentic text. Yet, the very
surface nature of my research agenda was illustrated when
students rejected Langston Hughes ("One Friday Morning"),
labeling what they believed was his ’passive, our day will
come' approach to social equity, as the writings of a White
author. I then realized that students must be reading
outside the text. It seemed that students of the late
1980’s did not share the same values as writers of the
1940’s. But let us suppose that in place of "One Friday

Morning" from Langston’s Laughing to Keep from Crying

collection, I had shared a piece from Good Morning,
REVOLUTION: Uncollected Social Protest Writings? Amiri
Baraka notes with this work that Langston has moved "into a
militant internationalism embracing the struggles of the
majority of the world’s peoples for liberation with a
stirring and conscious anti-imperialism ("Class Struggle"
7). If I had invited students to "break—fast" with this

selection of Langston Hughes poetry...

57
The boss got all he needs, certainly,
Eats swell
Owns a lotta houses,
Goes vacationin’,
Breaks strikes,
Runs politics, bribes police,
Pays off congress,
And struts all over the earth--
But me, I ain’t never had enough to eat
Me, I ain't never been warm in winter.
Me, I ain’t never known security--
All my life, been livin’ hand to mouth,
Hand to mouth.
If I shared "Good Morning Revolution" with my students
readers would they have been able to imagine a historical
presence in contemporary African American struggles for
equity?

The question I must ask myself is did I program their
responses? Imagine the discussion that could have taken
place had I not forced them to focus on the racial identity
of the author? Given the fact that at the beginning of the
study just a little more than half of the students believed
that White people were unable to write positively about the
Black Experience in this country. However, after an eight-
week study of characterization, language usage, and story

content, in which students participated in role-playing,

58
oral and silent reading and lengthy discussion sessions,
more than 90% were able to ascertain which works were
written by "outsiders." As Rudine Sims illustrated in
Shadow & Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary
Children’s Fiction, "there is a difference between being
talked to and being talked about, being subject and being
audience" (8). This difference often manifested in
children’s literature is picked up by the young adult
readers. As one reader remarked: "Why do the White people
have real names, and we always got to have a nickname-—what
they call us?"

I found the students’ responses to The Slave Dancer
disturbing. In spite of comments like those listed above,
even acknowledging that the book was written from an
outsider’s perspective, the students still accepted this
historically erroneous text as an authentic account of the
slave experience. Their anger primarily resulted from the
fact that they believed the Africans did nothing to defend
themselves from the cruelties of slavery. This response is
evident of their emotions: "Shoot, I would of killed them
all! NO WAY, would I take any shit like that!" (eighth grade
male student response to The Slave Dancer). By accepting

The Slave Dancer as a true story, some of the students

 

viewed their ancestors who were slaves negatively, rather
than the imposed institution of slavery. Responses like the

one above prompted me to label The Slave Dancer a dangerous

59

book for African American children.

l'White Folks, They Can’t Write ’Bout Us!“

Encouraged by my mentor to get conference experience as
well as more feedback on my first organized research
project, I presented my study, "White Folks, They Can’t
Write Bout Us!" at the L. Ramon Veal Seminar on Research in
Language sponsored by the National Conference of Teachers of
English, Conference on English Education, Indianapolis,
Indiana, March, 1991. As a neophyte I received a very warm
reception. So warm in fact it was almost like "if you can’t
stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." In other words, if
I wanted to consider myself a serious researcher, then I
should be willing to interrogate my conclusions. It was
suggested that my labeling a book "dangerous" bordered on
censorship. One professor attending the seminar, said that
my use of the label dangerous made him "nervous. Did I
intend to decide what books African American children could
or should read?" Another professor questioned whether or
not my set of assumptions had not impinged on the students’
readings? I was also advised to conduct in-depth interviews
based on the written responses or the classroom discussions,
to follow—up on the question of authenticity, to allow the
students to be co-investigators challenging the texts based
on their own understandings and life experiences.

With a new resolve, needless to say I returned to the

6O
academic enrichment program that very next summer (1991).
However so many dynamics had changed within the program,
under the new director my reading class took a back seat to
recreation, to computers, to cyclotrons, to photo imaging,
and of course the usual summer family vacations. One day I
would have 36 students, then the very next day only 3.
Although it was very difficult to keep sustained
reading/writing/discussing sessions going, with the various
groupings, we did manage to cover the three texts, I had
selected for the project.

Since The Slave Dancer, Wgrds By Heart , and Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry, have been examined by many scholars, I
wanted to concentrate our studies that summer on these three
texts, in order to understand where African American young
adult readers stood in light of the various professional
assessments.

However, the negative reactions The Slave Dancer
received from the student-readers in the summer of 1990, did
not change during the Summer Academic Enrichment Session of
1991. The following discussion between myself (RJM) and
Sheila an eighth grade female student was prompted by her

reading just a few pages of the book:

Sheila: Are we going to read something else?
RJM: Why?

Sheila: Cause this just ain’t kicking!

RJM: What’s the matter? What’s wrong with

the book?

61

Sheila: Look how they be saying nigger and
stuff. Its okay to say nigger or Nigguh
to your homeboys, yeah somebody you
tight with. But not somebody White.
Somebody White call me nigger they’re
dead.

I was not able to persuade Sheila to read more of The Slave
Dancer. During a later conversation concerning my apparent
teacher-intervention failure, Diane Brunner advised me to
consider the reader, the text and their interactions. She
also steered me to an early draft of her book,

Though I would argue that what readers bring

to texts is by far more complex than anything

which might be reductively determined, still
I would argue that the way a reader reads

against a text ~- especially if an author
represents the world in terms of binary
Oppositions -- is an important part of that
reader’s meaning making process

(Ingpiry 93).

Brunner also reminded me of Robert Scholes' charge to
educators: "Our job is not to produce readings for our
students but to give them the tools for producing their own"
(cited in Brunner Ingpiry 24). What I had failed to realize
was that Sheila was making meaning outside the text, yet in
some ways by way of the text. Still I was very concerned
about Sheila’s reading process. Supposed she was required
to read The Slave Dancer in her language arts class, would
she read it? I mean really read it! Or just skim for
answers to her teacher’s chapter ending questions? All the
while hating the reading experience?

In this case a strict textual reading, without

62
allowing space for individual interrogation, may in fact
open the door to continued racism. Suppose a book "is
written from a perspective outside the cultural experience
it purports to reflect, there will be those from inside the
experience who will rightly or wrongly, question it
authenticity" (Sims, "Black Perspective" 145). I am not
suggesting that White people can’t write authentically about
Black people or vice-versa. I am suggesting that careful
attention needs to be paid to those culturally specific
details that members of that community may treasure, such as
language usage, or religious practices. It takes a lot of
research, reading about the history, talking to diverse
members, and just being with members of that community in
order to reproduce their story to some degree from their
perspectives. On some level, individuals wishing to write
about another community, must assume an acculturation
process. For example, suppose a given community (Town A) is
very successful (economically, socially, and politically).
Town A’s success depends on the efforts of a voiceless
working underclass. This underclass is composed of members
of a different racial community (B). A very successful
author wants to write the history of Town A. Since this
author is a member of Town A’s elite class, then in order
for him to write an authentic text he would have to identify
against himself, by exposing the oppressive practices of his

town. The question is what perspective would this author

63
articulate in his work, one that would applaud the town’s
success or one that would expose the evils of his town’s
ruling class?

This question of perspective was certainly a burning
issue for my students, in that summer (1991), when we read
The Slave Dancer. Early in the novel, on page 22 (1983
Laurel edition), Fox identifies Jessie Bollier as a Creole.
When you say Creole to an African American this generally
means you are talking about a person of color. So at the
end of one of our sessions, I asked my students: What does
Creole mean?" They had various answers all suggesting a
person of color. My homework assignment for them that day
was to ask their parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends,
anyone and everyone they would run into during the course of
a day: "If you are talking about race, what does Creole
mean?" When they returned the next day, without exception
these students all identified a Creole as a person of color.
"In the Black community ’creole’ generally implies some
basis in blackness-—for example, a Black person from a
certain area of Louisiana with creole parentage and who
speaks creole or any white-skinned Black" (Tate 150). In a
recent discussion with a professor of African American
history, I posed the same question: "In terms of racial
identification what does Creole mean?" Her immediate
response was: "Black, some combination of Native American,

French, and African American."

64
If the readers identify Jessie as ’half Black’ as my

students did, then their reading may be governed by that
interpretation. In other words, Jessie’s expressions of
hatred for the slaves represented to the students, the
wailing of a half-Black sell-out. On the other hand, Joel
Taxel contends that "The Slave Dancer is the story of a
white boy. The point is that Fox has not attempted to tell a
story from the black point of view" ("Controversies" 269).
I would agree, The Slave Dancer is not told from a Black
point of view. However, if Paula Fox’s intention was to
write a story from the White perspective, then I would like
to know why did she choose to identify Jessie as Creole?
It should be noted here, that all the readers of "Value"
believed that Jessie was Black. But we will discuss
Jessie’s ethnicity more in Chapters Three and Six. Here
lets examine reactions to the other texts used in "White
Folks, They Can’t Write Bout Us! Part III." Generally, in
Rgll pf Thunder, the students were able to positively
interact with the activist character, Cassie and her
methodology for getting even with Miz Lillian Jean. Yet
they also mourned for the con-artist TJ:

I had to cheat on a test before, when I was too

tired to study. I don't know, man, he shouldn’t

have to die for those White guys crime

(eighth grade male student).

Contrastingly, they found the characters in Words By Heart

65
too passive to be believed:
Shoot, Man! I don’t know why she didn’t turn
in that dude that shot her father. Man I
would of...(seventh grade male student).

With Roll of Thunder, Words By Heart, and even The
Slave Dancer students were making meanings by sharing their
life experiences. So the question may not be what is the
criteria for an authentic text, or who should author texts
for African Americans. The questions may be what values do
the readers bring to the learning experience, how do those
values shape their reading, and how are those values
validated by reading books like those selected for this
study?

In spring 1992, I returned to the Veal Seminar to
discuss the my findings from research the summer of 1991.
While the reception was just as warm as the previous year,
this time I was invited to sit at the "kitchen table."
Invoking a language of possibility and change the Seminar
participants dined well on my findings:

I feel that there is still much work to be done

on the subject of incorporating students voices
into the learning process. With a better
appreciation for the values that students bring to
the texts, perhaps educators would be able to
provide the students with skills to decode and
understand the graphic and text symbols. Students
would be in a better position to challenge,
question, analyze and yes resist the language and
the images that have been historically used to
mis-represent African Americans in literature

(Muhammad "Questions").

Talkin bout a counter hegemonic approach to language

66

arts education! Imagine students having the where-with-all
to challenge, resist and even alter the perceptions of what
teachers put forth as ’must—read’ texts. How will this
happen? How will students develop such cognitive abilities?
If in contemporary American classrooms students are not
invited to entertain texts from their own individual social
cultural perspectives? Diane Brunner advises:

it is not enough simply to offer a language

of identification and resistance to our students,

if we do not also provide them with specific

opportunities to socially construct

understandings--understandings that are based upon

their personal experiences of lives not lived in

isolation but within a network of social relations

("Dislocating" 18).

Brunner then encouraged the use of reflective writing
pieces, an assignment she often uses in her own classroom.
"In general reflective writings are responses to literature
which lead students to question aspects of their own lived
experiences" (19). Incidently, for "Value," I provided
space for students to do reflective writing. We will see it
they were able to respond to the literature through their
own experiences in Chapters Three, Four, and Five.

But to continue our discussion of literature and
politics, if we accept Joel Taxel’s contention that
textbooks, children’s literature, as well as the social
relations of the classroom are dominated by the perspectives
of those in positions of social and economical authority;

then

the question of readership--of how children

67

respond to, and make meaning of literary texts--

is of fundamental importance given the belief

that children are deleteriously influenced by

by racist and sexist images found in literature

("Controversies" 254-255).
If this reads as contradiction, given Taxel’s support of The
Slave Dancer, then we could conclude that he just didn’t get
it. Joel Taxel does not see The Slave Dancer as a racist
text. In his favor, Taxel acknowledges that his reading is
that of an adult scholar and calls for further student
examinations of these books:

There have been virtually no investigations

of the way children respond to the kinds of

books under discussion; to such critical

questions of children’s response to literature

in the course of regular, day-to-day classroom

interactions; or how gender, socioeconomic status,

and ethnicity influence response to literature

("Controversies" 255).

Hence, the creation of "Value and Authenticity: Young
Adult Readers Respond to African American Literature." As I
have stated the purpose of this study is to do just what
Joel calls for, discover how young adult readers take up
some traditionally used classroom novels. I believe that
the title: Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers
Respond to African American Literature, describes much of
what I hope to see happen in this study. In an earthly
sense, value, authenticity, and reader response all evolve
in a circular happening. What we value what we find
authentic in a text may depend on the space we allow

ourselves or the space we allow our students to interact

with the text. Elaborating on Louise Rosenblatt’s

68

"transaction theory," Norman Holland adds
As readers, each of us will bring different kinds
of external information to bear. Each will seek
out the particular themes that concern him (her).
Each will have different ways of making the text
into an experience with a coherence and
significance that satisfies ("Unity" 123).

It appears that Holland locates the majority of the
meaning-making in the reader as opposed to a one to one
continuous exchange between the reader and the text, I would
argue that this is not always the case. Especially in young
adult and children readers, we must acknowledge the power
the written word possess. During my work with Mario for
Children’s Voices: Children Talk About Literacy, he
confided: "I could write, but it’s mostly after I read a
book that I write" (99). If on the one hand we are willing
to acknowledge that literature has the power to change the
world, then we must also be willing to recognize the power
of literature to maintain or reproduce the existing dominant
social, cultural, economical and political structures (at
least in the minds of the readers).

Therefore it is crucial, Taxel adds "given the
potential impact of books on children’s developing
perceptions and values, critics are obligated to evidence
concern for the cultural and historical accuracy and
authenticity of these books" ("Controversies" 248). Since
the "critics" in the name of the American Library

Association and/or the Newbery-Caldecott Committee gave this

book the label of excellence, then it becomes the

69

responsibility of adults who care about the eradication of
racism to reject the purchase and use of The Slave Dancer
(Tate 153). On many levels I applaud Tate’s call to arms;
however I believe given a critical pedagogy, this book and
others like it could be excellent forums for social change.
In other words a critical pedagogy often referred to as
cultural politics not only challenges the existing values

that support oppressive social structures, it affirms other

 

human beings’ sense of history and self (Kanpol 174-5).
Therefore a reader response approach which includes a
critical pedagogical approach to teaching literature would
not only allocate the space, it would encourage individual
students to interrogate their experiences with the text.
Marjorie Roemer adds:

Reader-response theory is a gesture toward

opening dialogue with students and problematizing

questions of authority, but it can only be a

significant gesture when appropriated by teachers

who recognize the forces against which such

freedom must contend (920).

Lets kick the ballistics (discuss the logistics)! When

I invite teachers to establish a pedagogy based on reader
response, I am not talking about textual orgies. "I like
this book, it makes me feel good, it reminds of the good old
days when..." Yes! these emotional connections are
important but that is not all that I am referencing when I
discuss reader response. I am talkin bout establishing a

WORKING relationship with a text. Some attention needs to

be paid to the socio/political context of the novel, as well

70

as classroom use of the novel. In other words, are teachers
using a "language of critique" to engage historical fiction?
(see Giroux and McCarthy). Once back in the day (some time
ago) I coined the phrase "never stifle the storyteller."
Stifling the story teller can happen in one or two ways:

1) we can silence the story teller, when we believe her
responses do not match what we believe to be an authentic

representation of the text, or 2) we do not provide the

 

analytical tools for students to create political bridges
with the text. Regardless of what theory or whose voice we
may wish to privilege, we must allow students space to work
through a text. Kathleen Weiler and Candace Mitchell add to
this discussion on critical pedagogy and practice in Whep
Schools Can Do. They note that a critical pedagogy links
education with an analysis of politics and economics, and
takes as central the belief that schools are the places
where social analysis and the empowerment of students can
take place (2).

This discussion on reader’s response naturally leads to
_ one on authenticity. When I think ’what is authentic’, I
also think of what is involved in physically saying the
word: Authentic. It seems like the first thing I must do is
gather breath from all around me, then once I have sucked
down air, I gotta come up from my gut, then give it teeth,
and only then am I able to push the word out: AUTHENTIC!

Thus, what I am focusing on in "Value" in terms of authentic

71
is what do the students believe to be true based on all that
they have learned in school, at home and in their
communities, and once they have correlated all these
beliefs, I want them to come from their guts, give it teeth
and then tell me what do they feel is right. Will their
readings come from a Black Cultural or a socially
constructed perspective? While I recognize that many of
their responses will be learned representations, what
"Value" is concerned with is what do these young adult
readers believe to be authentic. Will their concerns about
differences in race, gender, or class have any bearing on
their readings?

Perhaps the overriding principle that I learned from my
three earlier studies on "White Folks, They Can’t Write Bout
Us!" and from my work with Mario in Children’s Voiees is to
not only allow space for student interrogation of the text,
but to also only pose questions that will further their own
individual interrogations. I believe that this is an
important consideration, because all too often (especially
in my first two studies) I found my self leading students to
make my conclusions. It was paramount that I make them see
the negative stereotypes, that they read this book or that
novel as a racist text. In essence I stifled the
storyteller. If students read over a particular scene or re-
told a passage without noting the racism, then I would

quickly call their attention to the racist element. As an

72
African American, I believed that if those students did not
see the negative racial images, then it was my duty to point
out how these books was dissin my folks. However, if I do
not create space for students readings then I am just doing
what is traditional done in the academy: "This is the poem,
and this is what it means."

The posture I have established for "Value" is not to
make students share only what I value or what I find
authentic in the literature, but to encourage them to make
these discoveries on their own. Additionally, for "Value,"
I removed the race of the author as a point of contention.
Without focusing on "White Folks, They Can't Write Bout Us!"
the "Value" students were in a better position to go one on
one with each novel under consideration in this study. How
did they score? Following brief literature reviews, we will
check out students’ responses to The Slave Dancer in Chapter
Three, Words by Heart in Chapter Four, and Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry in Chapter Five. Now lets meet the young adult
readers of "Value." It should be noted that the names used
to identify the students were selected by the students
themselves. In several cases, students chose to be

identified in this study by their own names.

A. J.
He is a 12 year-old seventh grader enrolled in an

urban school. Because A.J.’s school is located

73
near a large university, it is populated by
students from diverse cultures. It is also a
professional development school, which means in
addition to the classroom teacher, his classes may
be taught by a student teacher and/or teacher
interns. His class enrollments range from 22
students in his geography class to 33 students
enrolled in his English class. "School is only
okay some of the time, but mostly it is boring."
Having learned to read before he went to school,
currently A.J. spends his free time reading comics
and sports books: "Anything bout kids and
football, basketball, soccer, or karate. And I
like Qege, he is one of my favorites because he is

an African American superhero."

Constance
She is 13 year old seventh grader currently
enrolled in a suburban school of a university
town. Constance learned how to read before she
went to school. In her early days, she would
memorize her mother's words, so on the next
reading she could read by herself. Although her
first experiences with public schools were in
California, Constance also attended school in

Grand Rapids, Michigan, before moving to this

 

74
university town. "In California we went to
school year—round. But I think that the schools
are better here than in Grand Rapids. They are not
rough. You feel safe. You don’t have to feel like
you are going to get beat up. Its just a better
school district here. But we have a lot of
homework. Right now we are working on a Walter
Dean Myers’ project about his book Scorpions and
street gangs." Constance, still an avid reader,
said, "I like reading books about my African

American culture."

LeTasha
She is a 12 year old enrolled in an urban middle
school. Even though she is involved in two
demanding competitive sports, volleyball and
swimming, LeTasha is a very good student: "School
is good. I do good in school, I got all-A report
cards so far, and I am hoping for an all-A report
card this semester. My favorite subject is
English. Right now we are reading a story by John
London. It is a different story, for high school
level readers. But my teacher wants us to read it
now, so we can get an idea of what different
reading is like. For fun reading, I like

mysteries, scary stories and things you have to

75

solve."

Maya
Named for poet Maya Angelou, Maya is a 12 year
old sixth grader. While her older brother attends
a local public high school Maya is enrolled in a
Christian school. "In my school we are allowed to
pray and talk about God. There are a smaller
number of people in my classes. There are not as
many problems like drugs and stuff like that.
Even though it is there, but it is a smaller
percentage, because there is not the same amount
of kids (as in a public school).
To get into the high school you have to be
"saved", you have to be a Christian. As you get
older it gets more strict on how you get into the
school. They don’t want people coming in because
they got kicked out of every other school in town.
They want people who are Christians who worship
God. (In public school) there are more people,
more kinds of people, different religions
everything would be different. In my school its
like everyone is like one person or one kind of
person. In a public school, there would be all
different kinds of people, people who wouldn’t

care about you."

 

CHAPTER THREE
The Slave Dancer
By Paula Fox

John Newbery Medal Winner 1974

All the people of African descent -— the Latin,

the Jamaican, the Haitian, the Brazilian,

the Caribbean, and the African American —-

all must realize that, although they were not

born in Africa, they still are African people and

e11 of us have been through the experience of slavery.
-- D’jimo Kouyate

The past is not past
and the dead are not dead.
-- Julius Lester

Some hundreds of years ago an African was brought to
the shores of North America. That African was my
ancestor, and will always be a part of my heritage.
He was worked and beaten, humiliated and subjected to
the will of people willing to exploit him. I claim
that work, those beatings that humiliation, the pain
of that exploitation. I claim the womenfolk, the
quilts they made, the articles they wrote, their fear
of having their children sold away, their art and
songs. I claim the darkest moments of my people and
celebrate their perseverance.

-- Walter Dean Myers

76

77

The Slave Dancer, a powerful painful novel, by Paula
Fox addresses this horrifying period in human history.
Jessie Bollier, 13 year old boy, pictured as White (on some
book covers), identified as Creole, is kidnapped from the
shores of New Orleans and forced to play his fife aboard a
slave ship. "The scenes in which Jessie is forced to play
his fife to dance the slaves for their morning exercises
become a haunting, focusing image for the whole bizarre
undertaking" (book cover notes of the Dell Laurel-Leaf
edition). Haunting? Bizarre? This was no kid’s game, no
Halloween, no trick or treat. Yet Fox writes the slavers as
business men, tradesmen, who do little more than offer rum,
tobacco and ten bucks a head in exchange for a supply of
sturdy workers. The following statement of justification is
offered to Jessie by Smith, a member of the ship’s crew:

For as everyone knows, our whole country is
for the trade, in spite of the scoundrels who
cry and fling themselves about at the fate of
the poor poor black fellows. Poor indeed!
Living in savagery and ignorance. Think on
this—-their own chiefs can’t wait to throw
them in our holds! (Fox 49)

Interestingly, Paula Fox thanks Willard Wallace,
professor of history, for reading her manuscript of The
Slave Dancer. However either Fox’s historian did not do his
research or she chose to re—write history. Rather than
limiting the blame for this horrendous period in human

history to African chiefs and warring African tribes, why

didn’t Paula Fox consider the extent of the European

78

involvement in the slave trade?
During that time (1619 to 1855) the terrible
trade in human beings plunged west Africa into
chaos. Europeans brought their guns into the
ports of Africa and attacked small villages.
They provided weapons for Africans who were
willing-~sometimes to avoid slavery themselves
but often out of greed-~to start wars against
their neighbors in order to supply captives for
the waiting ships. Local governments fell,
unable to defend their people against European
guns. Entire villages were forced to leave their
traditional lands to avoid manufactured wars
(Myers 10).

An earlier count indicated that references to sole
African responsibility for the slave trade appears no less
than five times in The Slave Dancer. For example: "The
native chiefs are so greedy for our trade goods they sell
their people cheaper than they ever did to tempt us to run
the British blockade" (Fox 30). Another example of African
responsibility for the slave trade which may negatively
affect young adult readers: "The chiefs kidnap the children.
The slavers give good trade goods for them because they
fetch such high prices in the West Indies" (63).

Of this children’s book that absolves Whites, Masha
Kabakow Rudman writes: "There is no indictment of Whites’
role in the institution of slavery. One could believe that,
if African kings refused to supply their people for the
slave trade, it would stop" (206). Historically, we know
that was not the case. In To Be A Slave, Julius Lester

writes that it is true that some White slave traders formed

alliances with some Black African tribal chiefs; this was by

79
no means the only method of capture. Melville J.
Herskovits describes other means of procuring Africans for
slavery:
Falconbridge repeatly stressed enslavement by
kidnapping, and also describes the method called
boating, whereby sailors would put off a small
boat from their ship, load it with supplies, and
sailing up the rivers, take on whatever natives
came into their hands whether by sale or by
capture (108).

Joel Taxel also addresses this issue: "the suggestion
that the burden of guilt rests primarily on the Africans is
misleading and unfortunate. The simple fact that the
Africans would not have had any market for their "wares"
without first the Europeans, and then the Americans speaks
to this point" ("Controversies" 268). Thus, additional
questions for this study may be:

(1) How will young adult African American readers

adjust to the "human commodity" factor in The

Slave Dancer?

(2) How will they take up the notion of ancestral

betrayal?
Given that these youth generally are fiercely loyal to their
families, and to their 'homeboys’(close friends) will they
accept what is put forth in The Slave Dancer, that Africans
were responsible for slavery?

In "Using Children’s Literature to Teach Black American

History," Nancy Anderson calls attention to this historical

inaccuracy: "After reading the story, children should be

80

encouraged to discuss whether one man has the right to sell
another into slavery" (88). I would suggest, however,
before we encourage our students to get into a spirited
pro/con debate, should we not address economical issues,
political issues, cultural issues and maybe plain old
fashion common sense? Given that even with the British
anti-slavery patrols, cargo stealing pirates, and the 1808
U. S. Congressional ban on importation, American slavers
still risked everything to bring Africans into this country,
for oppressive inhuman servitude. Why? Could increase
wealth mean so much to these early "business men" that they
would sacrifice their existing finances? Yes!
Accordingly, Edward M. Jackson describes their money hungry
mind-set:

Human beings were defined in the European

mind as commodities. They were brought as an

investment and sold to make more money. It is

not hyperbolic to suggest that the rise of the

capitalistic system of the western world was

based on the slave trade (1).

Another issue comes to my mind that we should explore
before giving our students over to a discussion of "rights,"
that is language differences. Acknowledging that the
European Americans did not share the language and the
culture of the Africans, then how did the slavers
communicate to the chiefs the purpose for trading people for
goods? That the African chiefs really didn’t know the

depths of American inhumanity, is not inconceivable as it

sounds. More that a hundred years later with sophisticated

81
cross—Atlantic communication systems, how many Jewish people
did the world allow to be exterminated, because we just
didn’t believe human beings would do that to other human
beings? If the African chiefs who were involved in the
trade did not know about the American system of slavery,
then should African American young adult readers be led to
believe that their own ancestors were responsible for
Africans being enslaved?

"Therein lies the problem of the book (The Slave
Dancer)," says Masha K. Rudman:

White readers may be moved to feelings
of guilt, sympathy, or indignation.
Black readers may be moved to anger,
empathy, or possibly shame. If the
author chose to present this situation
as the central theme of her book, she
should have also recognized that its
impact would be of mixed value. She
fails to articulate any opinions or
evidence to counteract the crew’s
distorted view of the slaves and the
slave trade (207).

Children’s book author, Binnie Tate writes, aside from
the constantly repeated racist implications and negative
illusions, there is a question of The Slave Dancer’s
historical accuracy. Condemning the book, Tate notes that
certainly there is not enough evidence that African chiefs
were primary force in the slave trade to allow for
consistent projection of theme (153). Another historical
inaccuracy in the novel noted by Tate is that there some

question about the slaves being ’Ashantis captured in tribal

wars with the Yoruba'(Fox 63). "I can find no evidence of

82
these being warring peoples" (153).

On the other hand Myra And David Sadker applaud the use
of this book in American classrooms. They claim that the
"power" of The Slave Dancer is its graphic descriptions of
the intolerable conditions of the slaves on the ship. The
Sadkers then imply since the book won the coveted Newbery
Medal, it should not be open to attacks by critics. Is it
possible that as educators, as parents, as readers we should
not view this work through historical, cultural, and
political lens, simply because a select committee deemed The
Slave Danser worthy of praise?

Adding to their discussion of the novel, the Sadkers
noted that although these faults (The slaves are depicted
as dirty, ignorant savages, scurrying about the ship like
rats and all too willing to sell each other into bondage),
do detract from the book, The Sleve Dehger still provides a
poignant insight into human degradation, both white and
black, of the slave trade (145). Myra and David Sadker
conclude that this story is "a moving account of an unhappy
chapter of American history" (145). Despite its (The Slave
Dancer) value as story from an innocent "White boy’s
perspective," Joel Taxel declares, "we clearly need a novel
which will allow young people to bear witness to the ways
that millions of African people themselves struggled to
retain their dignity and humanity in the face of barbarities

to which they were subjected" ("Controversies" 271).

83

I have listed these diverse readings of The Slave
Dancer to do just that-—illustrate diverse readings. As I
mentioned earlier the works that I have selected for this
study have been the subject of much scholarly debate. But
practically no attention has been paid to how students are
reading these books. After reading the novel will African
American children reject or adopt The Slave Dancer as a
historical truth? Will they feel inferior or bad about
being Black? Will they hate White people? Will all this
translate into how they feel about their opportunities in
today’s society? Therefore the balance of this chapter is
devoted to how Maya, A.J., Constance, and Le Tasha, took up
Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer. Generally, I let the
individual students' enthusiasm for the novels guide me in
ordering their narratives. Maya was especially taken with
The Slave Dencer, so I began the student section of Chapter
Three with Maya’s story of Fox’s novel.

The data for the students’ section of this chapter
comes from 1) the participant’s reader response notes, 2)
written responses to the open-ended questions, 3) tape-
recorded interviews with each student, and 4) tape-recorded
dinner conversations. Please see the Appendices C, E, and
F, for complete listing of the questions used in "Value."
Because I want to retain the sense of a whole narrative,
even though the data comes from three or four sources, I am

not going to display the sources individually, i.e. "This

84
response came from A. J.'s journal or this response came
from a dinner conversation with Maya." What follows here
are their own words. Citing Lev Vygotsky’s work Thought and
Langhage, I. Earl Seidman notes the importance of retaining
the individual student’s words: "Each word a participant
speaks reflects his or her consciousness" (87). Earl '

Seidman adds that

_ w--"|‘fl

The participant’s thoughts become embodied in
their words. To substitute the researchers’
paraphrasing or summaries of what the participant
say for their actual words is to substitute the
researcher's consciousness for that of the
participant (87).

 

In other words I would be undermining the intention of
"Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Response
(emphasis mine) to African American Literature" if I did not
use the actual words of A.J., Constance, LeTasha, and Maya
Another issue of importance that may guide the
students’ readings is the book cover. Generally speaking we
can agree that the cover is one of the first things that
either engages or distances the reader from the text. Valid
or not: We often judge a book by its cover. Thus, in
addition to their responses to the questions, students were
asked to comment on the two different book covers.
Currently it is possible to purchase two editions of The
Slave Dancer with the same text. However, the Laurel-Leaf
edition first published by Dell in 1975 has smaller print
(text size is 4 x 7) and a different cover (Please see the

Appendix D for copies of the different covers. For the

85
purposes of identification, this 1975 edition will be cover
#1). It should be noted that this is the edition currently
being used in many local area schools. The Dell-Yearling
edition first published in 1991 has a larger print (the text
size is 5 x 8) and a different cover. (This edition will be
known as Cover #2). We used Cover #2 for "Value." I did
not expose the participants in "Value" to the different
covers until the interview stage of the project. An
important point of consideration is even though The §lave
Dancer is available with both covers, the 1991 printing date
of Cover #2 indicates that much of the early scholarship
(Aitken 1988, Banfield 1980, Mathis 1974, Muhammad 1989,
Sims-Bishop 1980, Tate 1974, Taxel 1986, 1988) was written

with Cover #1 in mind.

 

Maya on The Slave Dancer

Wow! Shew! That is an excellent book! I think every
African American and Caucasian American child alike should
read this book. I am overwhelmed and just plain speechless.
I like how the excitement builds up, then the book kind of
gives you a cool down period. I can’t believe how they
treated the slaves. I almost started to cry when the storm
hit and they just threw the slaves overboard. It touched my
heart how Jessie cared about Ras. How he made sure he was
okay. I could feel, see, smell and hear the environment of

the hold when Stout threw Jessie’s fife in and you could

86
imagine the stench of those bodies piled together with not a
single inch of space to spare. I felt like I was there and
a part of Jessie’s life throughout the book.

I got a good description of the way it was in 1840 on a
slave ship. On the way over to Africa before we picked up
the slaves, I wouldn't like it all. The crew would despise
me [be]cause I’m a child and they are big men. I’m just a
little brat in their way and I had one reason to be there
and that is to and dance slaves. And that’s all I do with
them and when I'm not doing that I’m doing work and be
simply doing what they say. And the mate would beat me too
[be]cause he didn’t much like anybody, any of the crew
members. The captain would probably try to avoid me and
wouldn't want to talk to me or look at me because I’m a
little child, and only have me on the ship because I have a
special talent. I would probably get along with one or two
of the members who had sympathy for me being a child on this
ship.

Life aboard the Moonlight (the slave ship) would be
smelly and stinky. The smell of all of the naked bodies was
disgusting. The trip would be long and it would be like, I
would never get back home. If I was Jessie I would feel
sorry for the slaves and kind of hate my country, [be]cause
to me it is unfair and mean. I would feel really guilty I
mean I wouldn’t want to be part of country that’s taking

people and putting them all together in holds of ships. And

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it would be scary. I would try to be the friend or whatever
or get along with the slaves. I would be totally sorry for
them and try not, try to just do my job and avoid like
talking to them or avoid contact with the slaves.

When you think of slavery you think of the people who,
like the slaves who are on the plantations and they were not
paid and they were beat if they didn’t do what they were
suppose to do. Otherwise you don’t know. Because in
history books they don’t tell about that and slavery is a
main part of African history. But its not told how we get
over here and you know about the slavery. But how we got
over is the main part of the, that’s a big part because its
sad. But you don’t think of how they got here or how bad it
was on the ship and this story explains it to you in detail.
It doesn’t cut corners or glorify it all. Anyone White,
Black or anyone should read it because then you can see what
Black and White, what they went through to get were they are
today. Because I mean you don’t read about that in the
history books or I mean everything was so glorified and made
to seem like it wasn’t that bad. But it really was that bad
so. So I think that this book is was really good in
explaining how slavery was. I really didn’t know (about
slavery). I knew that we came over on ships, but I didn’t
know we were in shackles and naked and we had use in buckets
and shackled for days until people like Jessie would come in

and throw it overboard. (I didn’t know) that it was dark,

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that there were hundreds of naked bodies in this one small
place and that is gross. This is overwhelming, I can’t even
imagine it!

Back in Africa their normal lives would be a lot of
family meetings and tribal sermons and things like that.
They were probably really happy and they would have course
stayed in Africa. They were basically they just had
birthdays and I guess marriages. I think there would be a
lot of wars, a lot fighting and between the tribes. One
tribe was kind of pushing the other tribe out and they had a
war and so they kind of like threw the tribe out and ships
would come by and so the ones the tribes do not want and
that's how they got on the slave ships. .... [Be]Cause they
were fighting and stuff like that. I wasn’t too clear on
how the slaves became slaves and were put on the ships.
Getting out of their own country was hard. But I don’t think
it was better in America. I know they probably have great
dislike or hate toward the White people or other people on
the ship.

The Africans were a very strong people and I don’t
think we owe anything to anybody. We were taught everything
by the White man. When we came here we had to learn new
customs and everything like that. So whatever they taught
us was what we knew to live here. We had no knowledge of
living here. So we learned off them. So whatever we do was

taught to us by them. I don’t mean that we should get a way

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when we do something wrong. But we don’t owe anything to
them because they took us out of our land so they’re at
fault. I mean it is their fault [be]cause they brought us
out and they taught us everything we know now.

Because no matter what you do, how much education you
have in this world its a White man’s world. I mean it is
their country because they founded it. There is no way we
are ever going to be equal because we are not equals because
our lives are not even. This one is White and this one is
Black with the same qualifications, the White person will
get favored because they’re White. It is how America is.

I didn’t get angry reading The Sleve Danger. I was
more overwhelmed then anything else. I was just basically
overwhelmed and amazed. I took pity I guess; I don’t know
if that’s how I do it but I was really sad and I saw how bad
it really was on the slave ships. It just overwhelmed me.
For a White person reading this book they would be ashamed.
Well, they probably would feel a little stupid because their
culture is doing this. They’d have to deny it. You don’t
want to know what your ancestors did to people. I mean you
know it but you don’t want to know it, that your ancestors
were slave masters, but you don’t really want to admit to
it. I’d rather be Black than White, because I’d rather
have my ancestors have been slaves than my ancestors have
been the people who were enslaving people. That’s cruelty.

If you read The Slave Dancer you see that it was not a joke.

 

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It was real and it was harsh. It wasn't like a serving in a
household where the person is treated half-way decent. No!
On these ships, they were treated like things, like little
animals. And that’s not funny. I think if Caucasian kids
read this book they could see that what their ancestors did
to us was not funny and that we did not do anything to them
to hurt them, that they did more to us than we did to them
so.

I think that if people read this book, I’m sure there
are other books like this, they would understand why people
are angry. If you think about it we have a reason to be
angry toward them and we don’t owe them anything and they
don’t have no right to anything from us. We don’t owe them
a thing. Not a thing. Not a sprinkle of dust because, even
adults could read this book and it could benefit them too.
What it shows is that we had it hard, really hard. They may
have it tell us that we had it hard, we hard it rough. I
mean if they could imagine people, how the naked, smelly,
stinky, (human) waste all over. People can imagine that.
Its hard for me to imagine that. I mean its bad. I mean
there is no way that you cannot take pity on people and feel
bad and ashamed of that. (It) is terrible!

If I had to sum up this book, it would sound like this:
The Slave Dancer was about a young boy taken off the shores
of Louisiana and put on a slave ship and used for his fife

playing. He did not want to be there but he didn’t have a

 

91
choice. He had to leave his family and his sister and his
Mom back in Louisiana. He was on this ship and he didn’t
know exactly what he was getting into until they picked up
the slaves. He really felt bad for the slaves once he met
them and he knew that the captain and the crew didn’t care
about him or the slaves. And that they were just using him
because he could play the fife. He did not want to dance
the slaves but he probably get thrown overboard if he didn’t
so he did anyway. He could not wait to get back home. And
he did not enjoy this experience and he did not think that
it was okay at all because of their skin color. Toward the
end of the book there was a storm and he met one of the
slaves named Ras, who he became friends with.

Oh, I think that the Jessie learned a lot and he also
learned to hate the people who did this. I think he grew a
strong hate for that. The ending was good. But I wondered
what happened to Rae, and the old man for that matter. I
think that Jessie looked at Blacks different now and he got
out of the South and moved to Rhode Island so he wouldn’t
have to put his children in that danger. If I went though
that experience I would not want to be around slave markets
and I think I would really fight for an end to slavery.

On the different book covers:
I like the other cover (#2) better cause it shows the
little boy Rae, and it shows the Underground (Underground

Railroad). I think that this one just looks better. (#1)

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The slaves don’t look real, they look like monkeys, so ugly.
And the slaves just look like "Okay I’m just sitting here on
the boat." No! I imagined them as being unhappy and
miserable and just all over each other. This picture
doesn’t really match with what the book says. Jessie looks
very content with what he is doing and he was not content
with what he was doing. He was very sad and he did not want
to do it. On cover #2 it shows that his face is not happy
and he is just there because he has a job to do. He would
have probably gotten thrown overboard if he didn’t do it.
The other one #2 shows the boy (Ras), I got the picture that
they (the slaves) were naked. And here he has clothes on. I
guess cause it was after they shipwrecked. It would change
my reading a lot looking at this cover (#1) cause I always
wanted to know what the boy Jessie looks like. I had
imagined Jessie looking more mature than he does on here (#1
cover), cause he was 13 or 14. He looked very young and
stupid here. And Jessie seemed more mature. He looks very
White on here (#1) and he was Creole. These book covers
look like two different boys, I mean Jessie (#2) is more
mature looking and what he is wearing is not suspenders.
That boy (#1) looks very calm, and Jessie (#2) was very
solemn: "I don’t want to be here, but I’m here anyway."
And his clothes are more ragged and worn (#2). And here (#1)
they are not, this doesn’t look like an outfit the boys

would wear. Here (#1) Jessie looks very neat and polished,

 

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very proper.
White authors of Black texts

I think that it would be glorified, if a White person
wrote about the Black Experience. And I don"t think that
any White person can really write a book about a situation
that is true because they don’t know and they haven’t
experienced it or had anyone who has experienced it in their
ancestors. Even if they talked to some Black people before
they wrote the book, they are going to still glorify it a
tad bit. Because they don’t want to seem as bad as it was,
because it's guilt. You know you don’t want to feel bad
that your ancestors actually did that. You don’t want to
really, really show the true meaning of it because it is
embarrassing. It is embarrassing to be writing a book about
what your ancestors did to people and seeing how cruel and
bad it was. I don’t think that they would talk to Black
people, before they wrote the book. I mean they might but I
doubt it.

I still think that it would be a little glorified, even
if they went to the library and did research. It wouldn’t
be as good as The Slave Dancer. I think that the White
person who wrote The Slave Dancer did a really good job,
and a whole bunch of research. They probably had to do a
lot of research. They had to do a lot of talking to people
and a lot of interviews and a lot of everything because you

can’t just do that raw. You know, you have to have some

94

prior knowledge of something and this person had to be
really modest I think. They had to be a really, really good
person to have written that kind of book, knowing that they
were physically putting, down their ancestors and showing
what they really, really did. They are saying that "I’m not
proud of it." Because it really does hurt to know that your
ancestors did that to people and then once you find that out
you understand why people are the way they are today. And
if people would do more reading and more listening and shut
up and stop talking, and find out about what’s going on,
people would understand more why people are more the way
they are. They would understand why Blacks and Whites are
in the predicament they are in. Because you could think
that we are just making a big deal out of nothing and that
we’re just jealous because we aren’t qualified. Anyway you
slice it, really, I don’t think it’s all our fault that we
are the way we are today. A lot of it is because how we
came up and how we were brought up in society. Before you
can say we’re bad people you have to know, do some research,
read about it, read The Slave Dancer. Find out you know
what happened and why it happened and you’ll understand some
things.

I can always tell other African American children and
White children you know that they need to read it and I
have, I have a lot of friends who I would have love to read

the book who would never do it of course. But I would love

95
them to read because they need to read it. You know, and a
lot of people think well the world is all equal. Well you
know, we wish that’s how it was but if they would read
something like The Slave Dancer, they would really see, they
would really say "Ah, now I see." And they would really,
their eyes would really be opened and teachers would shove
it in their face. I think that teachers really should shove
The Slave Dancer in their face because they need to read
that book. That book is so good and it says so much.

If I was a teacher teaching The Slave Dancer, what I
would do is I would have them reading in groups of kids,
like three kids or something like that. I would include
questions with each chapter. There would be questions like:
"What does it tell you about being Black? About being
African American in this society, what does it tell you
about that. What does it tell you about how they were
treated back then." So kids could really open their eyes
and see this is how it is you know, and this is why, and
this is how it was back then and this is how it is that way
now. I would really make them get into every part of the
book. And it would probably take us like three months to
read the book. I would make them do reports and projects on
different incidents in the book and maybe make them do a
simulation of the slave ship just to get it in their mind.
"What is going on with these people, and the shackles and

the smell and all that stuff?" I would tell them,"Ok

96
everyone scrunch up in one spot and everyone has to find a
place to sit." They would be like, "We can’t fit here."
"Well that’s too bad, find a way to get in it." I would
make them get into the book and figure out how it felt.
I’d probably give them all a free copy to take home to their

parents.

 

A. J. on The Slave Dancer
If I was doing a presentation on this book to my class
it would go like this:
Today I am presenting to you a very historic book
that is mostly true about what happened to us
African Americans it is called The STeve Dancer.
It has passion, romance (well not that much
romance) drama, action and suspense. You might was
well call it a movie. So I suggest that you read
this book. It is our African American duty to read
this book!
There is a person named Jessie. He is 13 years old.
He lives in a one-room apartment with his Mom and his
sister, Betty. I felt just by reading three pages of the
book called The Slave Dancer, it was going to be about poor
people. I feel sorry for the boy [be]cause his Dad drowned
in the Mississippi River. I like the way the author of the

book expressed the way Jessie felt about his father dying.

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I wish that they had welfare back then to help them get
through their bad times. I wish that us African Americans
did not have to go through what they went through, but if
they had given us our 40 acres and a mule at the end of
slavery, like they said...

I feel that it wasn’t right the way they took Jessie on
aboard the ship, without asking him, just making him leave
his Mom, they just threw him the bag beat him down and took
him on the ship. I think that The Slave Dancer was a very
sad book. The way they captured them (the Africans) and
took them on the boat, and the way they starved them too.

On the ship, first I would show them, prove to them
that I could blow my whistle, in this book the flute
(instrument is called a fife). When I would wake up and get
bout a half a bowl of soup, that is not cooked very well. I
probably would be doing a lot of work for my age. The part
in the book about Jessie dumping the bathroom buckets really
bothered me. But it showed what a young person, like my age
would have to do, to show that he could handle his
responsibility among a bunch of men. And I would not like
not being around my peers, being around a lot of people
older than me, instead I don’t think I would feel right. I
wouldn’t have that much freedom on my own. They might just
call me a slave too, you know, [be]cause I don’t hardly get
no freedom around. I don’t get to talk to nobody. All I do

is go sit in this crappy bed, they call a net. And all I

98
get is like soup for all of your food. So you see I think I
would feel kind of sad and lonely I would be starved
probably. [Be]Cause they think it is disrespectful to ask
for little bit more food cause they think little kids can't
eat that much food. Then I would starve to death [be]cause
they hardly ever give you the right amount of food a day.

I would be sad. The Slave Dancer shows how it feels to
get beaten for nothing that you did wrong only [be]cause of
your color. I really hate the way Purvis is treating Jessie
wrong by hitting on him and by trying to strangle him.

I wouldn’t feel right to go out there and help them, the
Caucasian do that, do that bad thing that they were doing.
It would be like helping thieves steal. I think that I would
feel sad right when I seen that girl get thrown off the boat
into the water.

Most of The Slave Dancer was true. Maybe about 75% of
it is true. I mean that they probably did say and do that
stuff back in the old days, like they treated the kid and
stuff. And they probably did have a kid come on board, use
his flute to exercise them (the slaves). [Be]Cause if they
didn't exercise they would be all stiff and they couldn’t
work. I think that it is true that the African Americans
were beaten a lot. The Slave Dancer was about 25% false,
like the kid coming aboard and having a lot of freedom. He
was practically starved to death and still had the strength

to fight the racism he saw in his eyes. I really don’t

99
think that they would have got a kid, I think that they
would have used a grownup that had that talent, [be]cause he
would be stronger. The other thing I think is false is that
the only way they became slaves (being sold or traded by
their chiefs) most of them, I’ll say about 65% were forced
here by the Caucasians and their muskets.

The picture they gave me of Africans, was that they
were having a terrible life anyways. But not the way all
these movies show it. To me they had a good life. All they
had to do was avoid other tribes and that would be cool.

In Africa I see them (the Africans) having fun, just
chillin out, being themselves, enjoying their life. Before
the English men came with the muskets and all and forced
them on the ship, I thought that they had freedom. Living
their lives the way they wanted to, in a free democracy.
Well, I thought they were living perfect. Working in the
fields. They didn’t have to be forced to work to get money.
They got paid for working and they had fun, you know. Have
a little vacation time and stuff. Like our regular lives
are, but a little harder.

Then I see them Caucasians and Englishmen coming with
their muskets, forcing them to get on the ship, sometimes it
was surprise attack and they captured the Africans.
Sometimes the White people would say something like, "come
on we have a party on this ship" or something like that. I

see their (the Africans) smiles turn into frowns. They are

100
very mad and feel like killing them. But they couldn’t
think of a plan [be]cause most of them spoke different
languages. That is what the Englishmen were smart at, cause
they knew they couldn’t come up with a plan by talking to
each other. If we all had our same language we could have
turned our backs and had a good plan and we could have
whipped their butts.

I think it was still worse on the slave ship than in
Africa. Because on the ship they couldn’t move anywhere.
They were stacked up on each other in bunks. One person on
the top needs a bathroom or to go to the toilet, it would
get on the other person. They couldn’t get clean clothes.
The crew would take them out every other day so they could
get exercise.

I felt that the words that were used in The Slave
Dancer seemed like what they would be saying back in the old
days. I think it was kind of written towards young kids so
that we would have an easier time reading. Black folk
language, old Caucasian language -- old English is probably
hard to understand or pronounce. [Be]Cause sometimes they
will leave off letters or something like that and ends like
an. You understand it you would take it as a different way.
So I think it was kind of a strange way. The way that they
put it in to the book sounds like a great idea so that the
people at our age will understand it. But our parents would

have to come in and we have to ask them what this word is

101
and that word. The language in this book like if I was
really on the ship, like Englishmen talking old—English,
Africans talking their language like Swahili.

I think us African Americans have fought hard in the
past to be where we are at today. Even back in the old days
women got more money than that, which they were not very
much respected. I think that the way us African American
are treated today is very much different than the way we was
treated in the past. That shows if we put a lot of heart in
what we want we can get it, like freedom. Racism has
decreased. It is not over, no, never, it probably will never
be. [Be]Cause say Mr. was racist, it would probably
run through the family, like if he is racist, his son will
be racist and his daughter would be racist, it would keep
going and going. But we can teach the people, show them the
light of day, show them the right way. Racism has decreased
but back in the old old days, lets say 15 million
Caucasians, and even some Black people were racist to
themselves. Now since we have some Caucasians and some
Blacks [be]cause of the heart we put in to get racism out of
our blood, and out of our face, push it to the side. Now,
they see we work hard and should deserve freedom and no
racism. Like Martin Luther King, he was a great man and he
fought for the same things us African Americans have heart
for. I respect my ancestors who were slaves very much,

[be]cause if they didn’t stay alive I wouldn’t be here

102

today. If they didn’t come here and make the world the way
it is now, like putting in the seeds we wouldn’t be here.
No African American would be here if our ancestors did not
plant that seed for us.
On the Book Covers

Creole is like Italian and Black or something? I know
that it doesn’t mean all White. Jessie looks like he is

Italian or French with African American blood. He looks

{‘41171—‘h-FITI—r ‘e 35"."

like African American by his hair. He wasn’t treated like a
slave cause he mostly had White blood. And it didn’t show
up as if he was a Black person. But still they didn’t treat
him with as much respect as the other crew members.
[Be]Cause they also knew that he had a little bit of Black
in him. On cover #1, he looks like he is an Caucasian.

This one shows a lot more of what is in the book. The
slaves look like gorillas. This is what I HATE about this
picture: They make it seem like we are animals, when really
we are mammals, people who have come from a far away and we

are Strong .

 

.Le Tasha on The Slave Dancer
At first it was hard to read The Slave Dancer because
it was such a different book. They said a lot of different
things that I didn’t understand. The language was different

and that is the part that was hard when I first started the

103
book. The language in The Slave Deneer was different but at
the same time I think you would have to be on a little
higher level of vocabulary to understand word for word what
they were saying. Because they had different words for the
words we use now. The different language went throughout
the book. So they would repeat it sometimes. And after
they repeat it a couple of times, you figure out what those
words stand for. But this made the book kinda hard to read.
But once you get used to the type of writing it was easier.
But I still understood the majority of the book. I read
basically everyday and then maybe toward the end I might
have skipped a couple of days.

The Slave Dancer was a good book. It had a lot of bad
things that went on that bothered me. Aboard the Moonlight
was terrible. The horror and disgust fills me every time I
read about the awful things they did do to the slaves. When
Jessie was on the boat and they had brought slaves aboard.
They put all the slaves together. They were really mean to
Jessie, and called him names, beat him up and just did
anything they felt like doing to him. I felt really bad for
the slaves, the circumstances that they were in. How they
had to live! Doesn’t seem like they could live in those
circumstances. It was bad. The whole journey I kept
thinking that if I was there I’d jump overboard.

I thought that Jessie was really brave to go through

all those things without like jumping over board, or just

104
lashing out or doing something mean to them. He had to be
brave to just sit there and let all that go by, and being
kidnapped, being away from his family, and then having to go
through all that and he was only a kid. I thought that was
(what is the word I’m looking for? I guess brave) Jessie was
really brave. If someone asked me about this book I would
probably tell them about how Jessie’s life was, about how he
got kidnapped and what happened while he was on the ship.
Having to go all through that and he was only a kid. I
thought that was a big thing. That is what affected me the
most.

The ship’s captain didn’t bother me a lot, he was just
there and in control of all the slaves and everything. But
there was one crew member that just bothered me. He was
always in on something, doing something to a slave or to
Jessie or something to somebody. And he was a really close
friend to the captain. He just irked me cause he never
stopped. I don’t think that he even had a conscious
[be]cause he was just so cruel and so mean to everybody.

We’ve discussed the slaves and the slave trade in
school. But I really didn’t know what was false about The
Slave Dancer. I just read the book and I thought it was
basically true. It was based on a true story. I believe
that the majority of the book is true. I can’t pick out
what is false in the book because I don’t know enough about

slavery to know what is true and false.

105

I didn’t like that part when they slaves were being
sold either or traded. I thought that part was really bad.
I thought it was bad when some of the slaves got sick or
they got too many slaves or something, they would throw
them overboard. And I thought that was like one of the
meanest things they ever did to them to throw them
overboard. At least while they were put together they were
still alive. They just lost their lives like that.

The Slave Dancer tells me that the conditions were
harsher to deal with than they are now for Black people. I
am blessed that I’m able to live at a time where the
majority of the population respects me and that the trading
of slaves is banned.

On the Book Covers:

I don’t know that I really stopped to think about
Jessie being Creole. I think Creole means Black or bi-
racial. Jessie doesn’t look Black and he doesn't look like
White. He just looks like a mixture or something. On this
other cover (#1) he just looks White. If you were reading
this book, you wouldn’t think that he is having a hard time
because he looks White. You would think that he is just part
<Df the crew. But in the book (#2) that I read, he is darker
tihan the crew. The other people (crew members) were White.
You could tell that they treated him a lot differently.
Tflais (#1) does not look like the same boy, (on this cover

##1) the entertaining part just comes out. There’s a guy

106
(captain or crew member) in the background watching him. He
is just sitting there merrily blowing his whistle. It does
not occur to me that something is wrong. And that he was
taken away from his Mom.

The slaves aren’t that happy. The slaves weren’t
happy. But they look happier (on cover #1) than the way
they were in the book. They are not even there (on cover
#2). But even though they are not there when you read in the
book the slaves are not happy people at all. And they look,
they just look happier and peaceful (on cover # 1) than the
other book.

Book Cover #2: Jessie looks very down, he looks sad. I
looked at that cover and I thought what is he thinking and I
just thought if I was him I would probably be thinking of my
mother and wishing I were home and off this ship. I didn’t
know anybody. I didn’t know what they were going to do to
me. What they wanted with me...

Reading this book he (Jessie) is darker than them and
the other people were White and you would think that they
would treat him a lot differently than the other boy (the
"White" Jessie). The story I read matches this cover (#2).
On the race of the author:

If a White person writes something about a Black
person, I just have to say that I would think they should do
some research on it. I mean it doesn’t bother me that much

just as long as they know what they are talking about. It

107
wouldn’t surprise me to find out that The Slave Dancer was
written by a White person. Because of the pirates not
pirates, but the men in the (slave) trading and stuff. I
will be surprised if it was a Black person who wrote this
book. But either one (White or Black) could write The Slave

Dancer .

 

Constance on The Slave Dancer
This was an easy book to read I didn’t have any
problems with the language. It took me about 2 weeks to
read it. I didn’t read everyday, [be]cause I had a lot of
homework. Usually I read on the weekends when I don't have
that much homework.

I didn’t like this book. It really made me mad! It
tells what White people did in taking us over to their land
and how they treated us taking us over. And what it was
like when we were captured. I wouldn’t recommend reading
The Slave Dencer because its very sad. It was really sad
that Jessie and his family lost their Dad by the Mississippi
River. Jessie’s Aunt Agatha, I think is very picky about
things and doesn’t seem to care about people’s feelings.

The White people wanted somebody to serve for them, so
they came over to Africa. And I think that they tricked the
Africans, [be]cause I guess they (Africans) wanted to trade

with them because they had sugar and stuff. I guess that

108
they were going to trade, but I think they tricked them into
coming on board. The White peOple had guns, even though the
Africans made their weapons bows they (the Africans)
couldn’t really hurt them. They were forced to be slaves.

I didn’t like the part when the slaves came aboard the
Moonlight Ship, because the crew members just treated them
so badly. I get really mad every time I think about what
they done to us back then, and we were so helpless and
couldn’t do nothing. I am really mad and upset about how
the White people treated us back then. And they think just
because we’re Black we should be treated like we’re dumb. I
HATE IT! What really makes me mad is that back then we were
treated like animals and talked about very badly and (we)
couldn’t do nothing about it. I don’t like the cussing in it
either.

I believe that the White people came over to Africa and
got the slaves and put them on a ship where they had to sit
together, naked as submarine sandwiches. I also believe
that some of the slaves would try or even jump overboard
because it was so bad. I really didn’t like this book!

This book made me really mad, because of what the White
people did to us back during slavery. They treated us like
animals. It made me really mad because I mean we were all
down there and we could hardly breathe or anything, we were
all squeshed together. I mean, Oh Man! It was just really

Mean! There was this little girl that first arrived on the

109
Moonlight, she was her parents were with all the blood
{bleeding}. Then one of the crew members took her by the
hair (now this is a little girl) and picked her up and threw
her with the other slaves. A man bought on the ship had
covered himself with his arms, and legs (since he was naked)
and one of the crew members, Purvis, came over there and
called for Jessie to bring him some rum. And when he
brought it to him, Purvis forced the man with his hands
opened the man’s mouth and put the rum in, and the mouth of
the man bled. And that’s what "I REALLY HATE"!!!!! Just
how they treated us back then, just made me real mad. I
wish I was back there, so I could beat them up. I remember
in the book how they threw a sick woman overboard. And also
threw a child overboard. It is just so sad to know that our
own kind got tossed over into the sea and nobody cared. All
they worried about was the money, not people’s feelings and
that just makes me mad!

In social studies (in the fifth grade) we did research
on what slavery was like. I saw a picture in the social
studies book, where it showed, like the picture I drew, the
Black people were underneath and they were starving (See
figure 1). Really, I was really mad because what the White
people did to us like they treated us like animals and they
were really making me mad. Because they were all down there
and they could hardly breathe or anything. They couldn’t...

they didn’t... really get... Oh man... It was just really

110
mean how they treated us back then. They showed (in the
social studies book) a Black man jumped off the ship. That
was a sad picture. It was terrible when they jumped over
board, trying to escape, by swimming home, because they
mostly got eaten by sharks. I do believe that back then it
was very cruel on those ships and stuff. So the slaves
tried to jump off to swim away across the Atlantic back (to
Africa) because I know it was really terrible.
On the Book Covers:

Jessie was treated better than the slaves. I disbelieve
that the captain and the crew knowing that Jessie was Black
treated him better than the slaves. Just because he could
play his fife, doesn’t mean he could live in a hammock, eat
better stuff like that. Just because he became friends with
one of the crew members. Well, he looks Black on the cover
(Cover #2). It says in the book that he is a creole. That’s
like mixed or something. But he was still Black. He’s like
still Black but he’s basically ........... still Black. On
this cover #2 he is feeling fair. He wants to get off the
ship [be]cause he wants to go back to his hometown to see
his mom. (On Cover #1) He looks White. I thought he was
Black. Here (cover #1) he is just playing for the Black
people to get them calmed down. They’re all just looking
sad. They just want to have freedom. They don’t want to be
captured like animals cause they want to go back to their

homelands. Just because it is the same words, it is not

111

really the same, the book covers make the stories different.

On White writers of Black Books:

Well, its kind of like they (White writers) don’t have all
the principles of what we went through back then. Because
they can just make up some stuff. But sometimes they don’t
know all the real story behind it because they weren’t there
back then and that’s not their heritage. 80 they don’t
really know what really happened. Its okay with me if White
person writes a book about Black people. No, not all the
time, they can’t get it right, cause they don’t know how it
was. They can’t say that because they were treated fairly.
So they won’t know how it felt because they were White. If
they can get information from a Black person then yeah its
okay for them to write the book. I think they pretty much
got the history right in The Slave Dancer. But wouldn’t

they have to talk to somebody who really experienced that?

 

In Chapter Six, "Creatin Texts Outta Texts," I will
discuss what Maya, A.J., Le Tasha, and Constance’s responses
may mean in light of the questions posed for "Value." In
the meantime I invite you to enjoy Chapter Four, which is

devoted to a discussion of Words By Heart, and Chapter Five,

which discuses Roll of Thunder, Hear My gry.

112

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CHAPTER FOUR
WORDS BY HEART
by Ouida Sebestyen

1979 American Library Association Best Book
1980 International Reading Association Award

"The words that had been so beautiful to say,
so easy turned to stone."

Here is a Brief Plot Summary of Words By Heart.

In 1910 Ben Sills and his family, who are Black
have moved from Scattercreek, a southern all Black
town to Bethel Springs, an all-White southwestern
town. Sills’ 12 year-old daughter, Lena, wins a
school contest (Bible recitation) and otherwise
displays quickness of mind that is disquieting

to local residents. While Sills is mending the
landowner’s fences, he is fatally shot by a poor
white sharecropper’s son, Tater. Tater is thrown
from his horse, and Lena finds her dying father
trying to keep the boy alive. Sills extracts a
promise from Lena to help Tater and not identify
him as her father’s murderer, saying "let God
handle it" (Sims, "Black Perspective" 13).

In addition to being awarded the American Library
Association Best Book for 1979, Words By Heart won the 1980
International Reading Association Award for a Children’s
Book. This award is annually given to a writer whose first

or second published book shows unusual literary promise.

113

 

114
Several journals and children’s book reviewers gave high
praise to this novel.

"Sebestyen plays no holds barred the first chapter
and doesn’t let up ... audiences must meet this
story head—on ... the book is a finely honed
heart-wrencher."

--School Library Journal

"Worde By Heerr by Ouida Sebestyen is a poignant
and superbly written tale ... The characters are
richly portrayed, the action is gripping, and the
message of nonviolence and redemption is moving."
--Learning Magazine

"...poignancy without sentimentality, tragedy
without melodrama. —-Horn Book Magazine

"This is an impressive first novel about race
relations and non-violence, written in an easy,
vigorous style and candid in its depiction of
discrimination ... A most moving story about a
black family strong in their love and pride."
--Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"Everything is present here to make this book not
only to be read once, but to be re-read, studied

 

and shared." —-Catholie Lihrary World
"Re-read, study and share." I agree with the reviewers

at Catholic Library World, that a piece of literature is
truly outstanding if it can prompt readers to engage it many
times on multiple levels. However, when I re-read Words By
heerr, especially the following passage, my agreement with
the Catholic Library World, ENDS. I contend that any
agreement to praise this novel must be tempered by a close

examination of its social and political implications.

use

115
"I got to get you home, Papa. Into the wagon."
"Tater first."
"Papa! He tried to kill you. I can’t touch him. Papa
I can’t. We'll send somebody for him."
"Good Lord already sent somebody"
(Sebestyen 120).

Every time I re—read this part of the book when Ben Sills
forces his daughter to save his assailant, I get a pain in
my gut that just cuts straight through like the most
horrendous form of injustice. For God’s sake did he think
he was Jesus? If he did believe himself to be Christ, then
pray tell whose sins was he dying for? For his own family’s
sake, I just cannot believe that this proud Black man,
husband/father/provider would not do all he could to save
himself! The message that comes from Worgs Sy Heerh is that
there is honor in Black sacrifice. Rudine Sims notes that
in works like The gay and Words By Hear; the "noble" Black
man is a "very expendable literary creation" ("Black
Perspective" 12). Is this what the author would have
language arts teachers share with their students? But that
is the end of the novel let us begin with the beginning of
Words By Heart.

When I first read this book in 1989, I was mistakenly
told that it was written by a Black author. My feeling then
was, "Well, if gurlfriend got it, she sure didn’t write it!"

the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro
soul -- the tom-tom of revolt against weariness

 

(f)

:1).

116

in a white world, a world of work, work, work;

the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain

swallowed in a smile (Hughes, "Racial Mountain"

179).
In this novel, Ouida Sebestyen did not share those "gut
feelings," the pain of slavery, that very real chain
associated with being different, therefore not quite
acceptable by White standards but very acceptable by Black
love. At that time (1989), my student readers concluded
that Words By Heart was written from a "lets get-along—with-
whites perspective. And this book is not a positive
portrayal of African Americans." Mildred Taylor addressed
this issue of the African American portrayal in literature
in her Newbery Award Acceptance Speech:

Books about Black families by White writers

left me feeling empty, not because a White

person had attempted to write about a Black

family, but because the writer had not, in my

opinion, captured the warmth or love of the

Black world and had failed to understand the

principles upon which Black parents brought up

their children and taught them survival (405).

A few years earlier in his essay, "Blueprint for Negro
Writing," Richard Wright defined perspective as "that part
of a poem, novel, or play which the writer never puts
directly upon paper. It is that fixed point (emphasis mine)
in intellectual space where a writer stands to view the
struggles, hopes, and sufferings of his people" (341).
When I first read this section of Wright’s essay I was

disturbed. Although I wasn’t quite sure what was the nature

Of my uneasy feelings, I knew it had something to do with

117
his use of the term "fixed point." Did he mean that there
was only one way to see the African American experience? In
other words if I could not see the Black Experience from
this certain (his) vantage point, then I can not see it,
then it also follows I should not be writing about it.
However Richard Wright’s position is not as stationary as I
was led to believe by his "fixed point" statement. Later in
this essay he notes, "At its best, perspective is a pre-
conscious assumption, something a writer takes for granted,
something he wins through his living" (342). "Something he
wins through his living," I like this reflection because it
imagines a space without defined parameters a space not
conceived out of a single focus a space defined by each
individual’s living experiences.

Yet in the case of Words By Heart, how do I reconcile
author autonomy (the writer’s right to imagine his or
characters) with our quest for authentic representations in
children’s literature? Wright provides some guidelines for
writers that may help us solve our dilemma,

there are times when he may stand too close
(to view his peoples hopes, struggles and
sufferings) and the result is blurred vision.
Or he may stand too far away and the result is
a neglect of important things (341).
Then is it possible for a White author on one level to
objectively view the "Black Experience" then very

subjectively realistically write about it? Several scholars

argued that this could not be done, at least it was not done

118
in Words By Heart. Kristin Hunter in her review of Words By
Heart labeled the novel a "Blurred view of Black childhood."
Echoing Kristin's concerns the Harlem Writers Guild declares
that
Ben Sills could exist only in White fiction. By
creating such a creature the author perpetuates
the myth of the ’docile Negro’ who turns the other
cheek, leaves vengeance to the Lord, etc. This
does a disservice to young readers-~Black and
White alike. It is a danger to young White readers
who may grow up believing such mythical creatures
exist. And it is insulting to Black children who
know instinctively how they would have dealt with
the realities of the situations (cited in Sims,
"Black Perspective" 14).
Later in this chapter we will see how the young adult
readers of "Value" dealt with the reality of the situation
in Words By Heart. Rudine Sims notes what is "at issue is
not simply ’racial background,’ but cultural affinity,
sensitivity, and sensibility (Shadow 13).
Of course we must acknowledge that Ouida Sebestyen
said, that Words By Heart is her family’s story. In a
conversation with Jean Mercier of Publishers Weekly,
Sebestyen said, "Their (my parents and grandparents)
struggles in a tiny Texas community [quite like Bethel
Springs in the story] helped shaped the book. My widowed
grandmother took every job possible to support seven
children. My aunt, her eldest daughter joined in supporting
the family at 13" (40). During her keynote address at the
ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) breakfast

(held annually at the National Council of Teachers of

119
English Fall Conference), Sebestyen reported, that the
model for Lena was this aunt, who began supporting her
family at an early age. It is interesting to note that in
1994 at this conference attended primarily by language arts
instructors, no one made any political statements (that in
and of itself is a political statement). The mood was at
such a height of comradely and celebration, that I dare not
pose a question of perspective. Yet the question remains
"Why did Ouida Sebestyen put her family in ’black face,’ to
tell their story?

Did she believe that it would make the story more
exciting? Perhaps. However, as it is written the majority
of my students found Words By Heart boring. Does she
believe that on some level poverty merges cultural values?
Robert Blauner asserts that poverty is only one source of
Black culture. He further adds that "even the lower class
traits and institutions in Negro life have been modified by
strictly ethnic values" (352). Thus growing up poor, does
not render Sebestyen an authority on Black culture. But the
fact remains what we have here in Words By Heart is a story
aabout "The Black Experience" told from a White perspective.
133m Feelings echoes many scholars concern with this novel,

Why didn’t author write rher (her) story?
That sense of her specific life in White
rural America would have allowed the reader
to find out more about poor Whites, their
class differences, their struggles. I believe
by forcing the story into a Black context the

writer substantially weakened the value of her
work, there had to be distortions and omissions

120
when the book dealt with a Black life style

because the author had not lived it
(cited in Sims, "Black Perspective" 14).

The problems with Words By Heart begin with the cover
description: "Hoping to make her adored Papa proud of her
and to make her white classmates notice her "Magic Mind,"
not her black skin, Lena vows to win the Bible-quoting
contest." Must Lena demonstrate that she is intelligent
despite being Black? How will African America readers
respond to Lena? Will they say: "Are you saying Black
people can not be smart?" Will they ask: "Do you want me to
see you as smart girl but not as a Black girl?" Addressing
this issue Rudine Sims writes one of the problems with the
book’s perspective is "the tendency to associate things
black with negative. There is the minor incident when Ben
takes one look at a new kitten and names him Old Nick
because he is ’a little black devil’" ("Black Perspective"
13). In keeping with the religious theme of the novel, the
non-black kittens are named Faith, Hope, and Charity
(Sebestyen 30).

Sims also points out the historical inaccuracies in
Words By Heart. For instance: Black people did not only
begin to read and write after the Civil War. Not only Black
freed people, but many enslaved African Americans learned to
read and write even when it was illegal. Sims also condemns
the suggestion that African Americans were passive

recipients of post-war gains:

121

And to say about the Civil War, "All

those people fighting for our rights"

(Three, 24) as Sills does, is to minimize

the role Black people played in fighting

for their own freedom ("Black Perspective"

13).
Did Sebestyen forget to consider the efforts of the
countless African American freedom fighters, the Nat
Turners, the David Walkers, the Sojourner Truths, the
Harriet Tubmans and all the others whose stories are only
recorded in the soul of Black America? When writing
historical fiction for children, writers are more obligated
to do extensive research, because in many cases what
.children and young adults and adults read even under the
label of fiction is what they believe to be true.
Concerning African American participation in the Civil War,
the official record of the Union Army indicates that by
war's end 178,985 Black men had enlisted; Black regiments
had participated in 449 engagements and 39 major battles
(Barksdale 247). The fact that at least 37,300 Black
soldiers died fighting the Civil War, should have been
included in Ben Sill’s declaration, "All those people
fighting for our rights." The most heart-warming gem of my
brief research on the Civil War is when Richmond finally
fell in April 1865, the first Union troops to enter the city
were troops of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry (Black),
followed by the troops of the XXVth Army Corps, comprised of

thirty-two Black regiments (Barksdale 247). I am not

exaggerating when I say that my whole body was just consumed

122
with pride when I read this passage. I didn’t know the
extent of the African American involvement in the Civil War.
I wonder just how we can let African American children
believe that their ancestors did nothing to help themselves
out of slavery? How can we let any student believe that
helplessness and passivity define the African American
nature?

A small statement by Lena at the bottom of page 105
further demonstrates Sebestyen use of historical
inaccuracies:

The pumpkin head stared into the sky for them.
A seam of light escaped around the lid. Had
people's lives poured out like that when they
were scalped, she wondered. Back in Indian
times? (Sebestyen 105-106).
Again I must reference historical responsibility in writing
fiction for children, we cannot just leave them thinking
that Native Americans invented and were the sole
perpetuators of this vile act. Research indicates that
scalping dates back to ancient Greek and Persian days:
"Mentions of scalping can be found in the fourth book of
Herodotus" (Miller 211). Richard Burton declared that "It
is generally, but falsely, supposed that only Americans
scalp; but the practice is Asiatic, European, and African"
(87). Also Webster's encyclopedia discusses the practice:
Scalping: the removal of an enemy’s scalp with
hair attached. In North America, the practice
originally limited to the East, spread among

Indians and frontiersmen largely as a result
of rewards offered by colonial governments (808).

123

In Chapter Seven, "Playin like I’m 1 down," we will
discuss some implications this study has for teacher
practices. Right now, lets return to our discussion of
Words By Heart.

Clearly, Ben Sills’ mentality has not moved beyond that
of enforced servitude, the chains have been taken off his
legs (even though Sills was born after emancipation) only to
be locked on his mind. Clinical Psychologist, Na’im Akbar
describes this psychosis:

The slavery that captures the mind and

incarcerates the motivation, perception,

aspiration, and identity in a web of anti-

self images, generating a personal and

collective self-destruction is more cruel

than the shackles on wrist and ankles.

The slavery that feeds on the psychology,

invading the soul of man, destroying his

loyalties to himself and establishing

allegiance to forces which destroy him,

is an even worse form of capture. The

influences that permit an illusion

of freedom, liberation, and self-

determination while holding one’s mind in

subjugation, is the folly of only the

sadistic (2).
What I am suggesting here by including this long description
from Na’im Akbar is that Words By Heart is not only a racist
novel, it seeks to continue the mental enslavement of Black
America.

Ben Sills believed that he lived to serve others, but
all those others outside his family are all White. Sills
chastises Lena, "What is wrong with working for people?

That’s what we are here for to serve each other. The

greatest peOple that ever lived served other people"

124
(Sebestyen 70). Recall that rather than save himself after
being wounded, Sills not only sacrifices himself, but he
forces his daughter to promise to save the boy who shot him:
"I got to get you home, Papa. Into the wagon."
"Tater first."
"Papa! He tried to kill you. I can’t touch
him. Papa-~I can’t. We’ll send somebody for him."
"Good Lord already sent somebody." Papa leaned
his head against the tree trunk, resting, finding
strength for words, the smile. "Heard him yelling,
way off. Got to him, finally, but the horse kept
spooking. Pulled him loose. That was yesterday, I
think. I was ready to start home."
"Papa, why didn't you just get into the wagon
and leave!"
He looked surprised. It had never occurred to
him. He said, "I tried to drag him on the
slicker, but I kept passing out. Haven’t been
much help to him. Just keeping the blowflies off"

(120).

Siii-ill, I question whether African American students will
Isaad this text as racist or will they simply say "That’s the
Way it was?" or "That’s the way that it is." Would they
hMalieve that a man in this case a Black man would risk his

(“Mn life to save the life of the very one who hurt him?

125

Many of the student readers I have talked to over the years,
characteristically change the ending to Words By Heart. It
seems that they are more interested in justice than the
author of this novel.

Along with Sims’ examination of Words By Heart from a
Black Perspective, the Council on Interracial Books for
Children also published a review from a White perspective.

From this vantage point Kathy Baxter takes issue with Words

 

for the damage it does to White readers. Citing its
"muzzling effect" Baxter charges books like Words By Heart
perpetuate racism:
Racism nurtures a spirit of violence
through its suppression of people, ideas,
behavior, speech. White people are just
as surely victimized by the violence of
racism as Black people, for we have paid
a high price for maintaining a racist
society. We have been censored and
repressed so that we would not disturb
the system, our thought and behavior
molded by numerous influences, our
education distorted. . . .(18).
Very likely since religious teachings play an important
Ixole in Words By Heart the Council on Interracial Books for
Cfllildren also invited theologians Glyger Beach and Faye
Vtilson-Beach to examine the text from a religious
Emarspective. They surmise that Words "extols the virtue of
fOrgiveness but not that of justice, the author calls for
FNissivity in the face of injustice. The quest for justice

i4; ignored, as is an authentic use of scriptures" (16).

1¥greeing with Beach and Wilson-Beach, Emily V. Gibbes,

126
executive director of the National Council of Churches,

expresses dismay that Words By Heart received such high

honor:

It seems strange that a book filled with
racial stereotypes, with ignorant, evil,
prejudiced white people and their racist
treatment of their Black neighbors, should be
chosen for special honors by the literary
establishment. The book is plastered with
verses from the Bible--and that is all right!
But all the ’love thy neighbor’ and ’they
that wait upon the Lord’ verses are in the
mouths of the Black people in the story;

the white people continue to break the law
and prosper. We know that this does happen,
but this is hardly the story we want to honor
in the 1980’s (quoted in Sims, "Black
Perspective" 14).

Piggybacking off the Council of Churches’ contention that
situations like those in Words by Heart, do exist, then will
African American students reading this book accept it as
authentic representation of the way it was or the way it is?

Unlike his praise for The Slave Dancer Joel Taxel has
few words of celebration for Words By Heart:

The greatest problem with Words lies in the

fact that Ben Sills is simply not a believable
character. There is a glaring contradiction in
the actions of this man who speaks repeatedly of
his willingness to "wait on the Lord"--and thus
remains passive in the face of the racist hatred
and violence directed at himself and his family--
and the man who has taken his family way across
the country because he was not proud to live in
an all-Black community ("Controversies" 267).

 

Eiills transformation is just not real! Here is a man once
given to forthright action, now in the face of White

Cflnallengers is reduced to a passive recipient of whatever

127

they deal him. Yet, I wonder will African American students
believe Sills? Will they look for some truth of their own
roots in the Sills story? What story will they take from
Worge By Heart? The balance of this chapter is devoted to
how the readers of "Value" take up Ouida Sebestyen's novel
about "the Black Experience" in an all-White Southwest
cotton farming community in 1910.

Concluding his remarks on this novel Joel Taxel writes:

Words By Heart contains some excellent writing.

The account of the Bible recitation contest where

Lena and Winslow Starnes engage in a verbal sparring

match is especially noteworthy. Otherwise the novel

is seriously flawed, and its inadequacies are most

apparent when it is compared to Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry (266).

Chapter Five is devoted to a discussion of Mildred Taylor’s
award-winning novel of Black family life set in Mississippi

in 1933. Right now beginning with LeTasha lets see how the
student readers of "Value" read Words By Hearh.

As with The Slave Dancer, the student responses here

<:ome from three or four sources: 1) student's notes 2)
‘Mritten responses to questions designed for this text
CPlease See Appendix E for a complete listing of the
QDJestions) 3) oral elaborations gathered from individual
iIlterviews with each participant, and 4) dinner
cKlnversations. Again as with their responses to The Slave

IDancer, rather than single out the source of any response, I

 

1'lave grouped them, allowing space for a freer flowing

narrat ive .

128
LeTasha on Words By Heart
I liked Words By Heart, that was my book! This wasn’t
a hard book to read, it wasn’t easy, it was just like an
average book. I read it all on one Saturday. At first I
read about half of it, then I stopped for a couple of hours,
then I went back and finished. But I made myself read it,
[be]cause I didn’t have anything else to do.
I believe that more, about 95 percent, is true in HQEQS
By Heart than in The Slave Dancer. Because I can understand
why things happened in the story a little better than in The
Slave Dancer. I could understand it (WQEQS By Heart)
better, because The Slave Dancer such a different book I
never read anything like it before. I could understand why
things happened in Words By Heart better than The Slave
Dancer probably because of the cruelty. I just thought that
they could have stopped at one point, but they had to keep
on going, keep on doing more things. And in Words By Heart
‘there was something that did happen that were really bad,
iind.sad. But it wasn’t as tragic as the things that
lnappened in The Slave Dancer. In that book there was just
tIDO many terrible things that happened.

If I were in a Bible verse contest, I think close to
tile same thing would happen. The only difference would
probably be that there would be more racial issues being
tiarown out verbally because of my color. If I was Lena it

Vwould have been hard for me to be kind to the man. In the

129
book the prize is a bow-tie, it was supposed to go to a boy
instead of a girl. And to me that’s like saying that boys,
the man was saying boys are suppose to win it or they’re
better than girls because they can memorize something. To
me that’s like saying boys are better than girls at
memorizing something. I don’t like it when things like that
happen it just irks me. So I might have done something, I
don’t know what I would have done, but it would have
bothered me. I couldn't just go home and let it go on by
like she did. I wouldn’t get over that. That’s the
difference I wouldn’t get over it. I really wanted to win
that contest.

I liked Lena. It just seemed like I could relate to
Lena in a lot of ways. She kind has some of my personality.
And we are about the same age. But I probably would have
handled things differently about my Dad.

I have a little bit of a bad temper and if I were her
(when Lena found her father bleeding to death), I would end
up doing something I wished I hadn’t done. What probably
would have happened is: I think that the guy who shot him
was near him or close to him and I probably would have
yelled at him or just done something to him. I don’t know
what but I would have done something. I couldn’t just let
him sit there and my dad die and not do something because I
would have been too mad to stop. I don’t know if I would

have hit that boy or maybe yelled at him. I don’t know I

130
would have to be put in that situation. But I just have
the feeling that I would do something. I have kind of a bad
temper and I’d probably do something.

I probably would have stayed in Bethel Springs even
though they had all those problems. I would have stayed
anyway because it would just be giving up and I couldn’t
give up that easily. I would have to keep fighting and
trying to work hard to be a success. And if they didn't
accept me then I guess they just didn’t. But it wouldn’t
stop me. I would be like too determined to live in a White
town and to succeed. What they wanted is for you to go back
home to Scattercreek where all the Black people were, and I
couldn’t do that.

If I were to present this book to my class, the main
thing I would probably tell them would be about the Bible
drill in the first part of the book. Well, I felt that all
the White people in the audience would look disgusted
[be]cause I was the only Black person in the contest. Then
I just kind of put them out of it and based it on beating
him and I was happy. I was very happy that I won. Oh, I
would probably tell them about Miss Chism. She was
different. I kind of liked her. She was kind of rude, but,
in a way she was like her own person. And she didn’t show
it, but I could tell that she kind of liked Lean and her
family, even though they were Black and she was White.

Because there was just some things in there that I didn’t

131
think any ordinary White person would let happen. She tried
to play it off and acting like she couldn’t stand those
people. But it didn’t work. I saw through her.

Words By Heart told me that it was constantly a
struggle to prove your worthiness or value when you were
Black. Also even though Lena wanted to fight back she
learned that it wasn’t the only solution. And I know a lot
of people should think about that. This book made me feel
and remember that Whites or other races can put us down but
that God doesn’t look at colors and if he didn’t want me to
survive and live in the same area as other races He would
not have put me on this earth in the first place.

I think that this society has too many racial problems
and people try to settle them. I think that people should
just try to get along to help it (society). Because during
the 1950’s (1960’s) people went on all these protests and
marches to try to help the Black people and the White people
and all races get along. And then when people turn around
and start fights or beating up on people because of their
race, it just starts the whole thing over again.

If a White person writes something about a Black
person, I just have to say that I would think they should do
some research on it. I mean it doesn’t bother me that much
just as long as they know what they are talking about. And
that they don’t write from their opinion or point of view or

what they feel is what happens. Because what happened, and

132
they shouldn’t try to cover it or try to put any of their
opinions in it. I think it shouldn’t be that cruel. I
think most Black people would know enough or they would go
and do research on it to write a good book on a Black
person. They wouldn’t want to a write a bad thing and its
about their own race. But it doesn’t bother me that much.
At least now White people may be interested in the Black
race, interested enough to write a book about it.
But I don’t know if I know that much about it to determine
whether a Black person or a White person wrote the book.
Unless something was obvious I’d probably figure it out. If
they put any of their opinions in it. I usually pick out
peoples opinion from actual facts because I write my
opinions on a lot of things and I know when things, when I
write things are true and when they’re my own opinions. So
I think that probably would be easy for me to pick up.

I was surprised to find out a White person wrote this
book. I think Words By Heart was very good! But not to
say White people can’t write good books on Black people.
I’m not trying say that. I’m not racist or anything towards

that.

 

A. J. on Words By Heart
Oh well Lena is doing perfect [in the Bible verse
contest], she is like on a streak, she is hot, she is on

fire, she is saying all the perfect phrases, perfect time,

133
puts them in order! The guy is kinda on fire too; he is
flying in there, but he is not going all the way and then he
messes up. And she caught him. And then she says another
good one to counter that. The sad part came when they did
kind of a sexist thing by giving her a boy prize. That was
very sexist the way they treated that girl. They never
expected her to win. [Be]Cause they thought a woman
couldn’t do it. [Be]Cause back then women were known for
being dumb and like not knowing anything. The didn’t expect
a woman to be a thinker. [Be]Cause women are known for like
to listen and hear but not speak unless they are spoken to.
All women do is stay home and take care of the kids, clean
the house, do the chores and all that. If I was her I would
throw that tie at the kid. No, not at the kid but at the
person who brought it. [Be]Cause I don’t think that they
should have done that, estimated who would win.

I could understand if it was a case of "overdog" and
"underdog," like mostly the overdog wins, but sometimes the
underdog comes back which in this case happened. Like in
the Houston Rockets’ game [1995 National Basketball
Association (NBA) playoff game] they came back on them,
they were down three (games) to one in the series, then they
came back and won it 4 to 3. Now see that’s smart playing.
She [Lena] didn’t let that get to her. She went on did what
her heart told her to do. And not what the other people

kept telling her to do. Like if they said: "Oh you are

134
going to lose, you might as well give up now." She was
like, "my heart tells to keep going and going and going and
going.‘' She let her heart and her senses tell her what to
do. But the people didn’t know what she was doing.

If I was in a contest like the one in the book, I’ll
say something good and then the Judge would say that it is
the other person turn to say something. He would say
something stupid and I would win. I believe the Bible verse
contest to be a true event. In the Bible contest you say
something from the Bible, that is why they call this book
Words By Heart, [be]cause the words were from her heart.

I feel sorry for Lena at the school. But she had
strength, she had power to go in there, after knowing how
Caucasians felt about her. Even though she didn’t know that
much about it [the history lesson] she went in there anyway
and learned stuff that they knew, to show that all African
Americans are not dumb. Now practically 98% of us African
Americans are probably you know literate, not illiterate
like the Caucasians, well not the Caucasians of today, but
of the old days, thought of us.

Well to me, Mrs Chism shows racism to show no trust in
us African Americans, but then later on in the book she
finds trust in Lena to lend her books, even though she
wasn’t never using them. Then Lena has the power to look
through them and learn from them. Some people just look at

books and let it go in one ear and out the other. To me

135
Lena was strong, she might not be physically by looking at
her, she might not be a muscle bound woman, but still she is
very powerful in her mind. This book tells that it is hard
being Black and some people still wish that there was
slavery.

I feel sorry for the poor girl seeing her father die in
her own eyes. If my father died, basically I would go after
the person who killed him, if I knew he would die before I
got him to the hospital. So I would cover his face, do what
a person should do to show respect, say a prayer, close his
eyes. Then I might be going to jail for this but I would
probably go after the person who shot him, even if it was a
Caucasian person. Back in the old days we would have got
hung for that. But to me I think I would do the right thing
take his flesh for my dad’s flesh. I would do what my dad
said and save him [the boy who shot my dad] but I would
still kick the jerk out of him. I think he deserves a
beating, in fact I think he deserves a burning, but I would
help him if my dad asked me to.

She did the wrong thing not telling. If I was the
person, I would say "Tater did it." Cause he deserves to be
in jail, but they probably would not have done anything.
[Be]Cause back in those days they probably got paid for
shooting an African American, like "Oh you shot a nigger,
you get 15 dollars." I think that she should have told the

sheriff but if she knew they would get away with it then I

136
would not have told. But I still would have kicked his butt

though. That’s the part I believe to be false about Words

 

By Heart when her dad said to help the person who shot him
and leave him [the dad] there to die, and she did it.

After her dad’s death they are going to be pretty sad,
and pretty happy. First they are going to be pretty sad,
[be]cause her dad wouldn't be there to see her how she is
now, all mind-build. If I was her dad I would be very proud
of her. The sadness is he wasn’t there to see it. And the
happy part is that she was strong, very strong-hearted. She
didn’t let the people get to her, distract her like they
say: "Oh you’re a nigger, you ain’t gonna do nothing, you as
sorry as a piece of crap." So she let that go in one ear
and out one ear. That is what she did smart, she didn’t
listen to the Caucasians say negative things about her. She
didn’t let herself find negative things inside. She just
kept going, and going and going.

I think that they will make it. It is going to be
harder because of they don’t have an older person who is
used to using the farm equipment. Her mom is probably used
to working in the kitchen, she is not used to working in the
field. That means Lena will have to teach her young
brothers, young siblings to learn from her and to prosper.
[Be]Cause say that they see her doing good, "Maybe I should
be like her." Then they see people doing drugs, dumb stuff,

negative stuff like beer getting high. Then they say: "They

 

137
are dropping out of school, they have no jobs." Now Lena on
the other hand, strong minded probably will get a job in the
future if they let African Americans have work. Then they
think maybe I should be like her, then they push the bad
ones to the side and let her come into their mind, and not
one ear and out the other.

I think that it is a tie between this book (Words By
heerr) and The Slave Dancer. Because this (Wgrde By Heart)
is like a woman-thing. It shows that women have to be
strong, that women have come from a long ways. And this book
(The Sleve Dancer) shows about both races and that we have
come a long way. I am happy about African Americans in
sports. African Americans see Caucasians getting billions
and billions of dollars, they said "Maybe I should be like
that." Take Reggie Miller [professional basketball player,
NBA--Indiana Pacers] for example, he is strong willed,
[be]cause he sees that his team is not doing very good, then
he does better for them. Even though he is not the full
part he is supposed to, or Michael Jordan, M.J. [NBA--
Chicago Bulls], he stays with his team, he knows now that he
shouldn’t have left them. But when he came back, he came
‘back with power, but not as much as when he left. This
shows that you have to keep going. This shows that us

African Americans have come a long long way.

 

 

138
Constance on Words By Heerh
I wouldn’t recommend WorderBy Heerr, it wasn’t

fair at all and it wasn’t really written well. I liked the
Bible verse contest at the beginning though. I liked how
she HAD the contest and was winning, but I really dislike
when she won the contest. They thought, they were all sure
that the boy was going to win, but actually she won and it
was a boy prize, a bow-tie. She was hurt by that. I would
have been hurt and very sad and I think that was a shame.

I liked Lena and her Dad. Her Dad was understanding.
He was wise, he knew what to do. If I was Lena and I found
my Dad shot and bleeding, I would be very sad, and mad at
who ever did it. Also I would be scared. I wouldn’t help
that boy who shot him because I would be mad at him. I would
just leave him there. Maybe tell his folks to come get him.
All the times when they’re mean to us we end up helping them
and then... They don’t pay back or anything. Its not fair.

If I was presenting this book to my class, I would say
that it is a good book to read, it teaches that even though
somebody beats you or things like that you should treat them
right. Treat them right and respect yourself and you are
rewarded by God. I think Lena learned this lesson, but she
was bitter about it [be]cause it was her father who died.
She may understand this when she gets older. Maybe some of
the people will treat them better, help them out since their

dad died. She did save that one boy’s life, that should

139

matter. But I think the family will have to move, too much
has happened to them there. They will just have to move. I
believe that White people hated us very much. Wgrds By Heart
tells me that our Black people had to go through a lot back
then.

It’s okay with me if a White person wrote a book about
a Black person. They can’t get it right all the time
[be]cause they don’t know how it was. They can’t say that
because they were treated fairly. So they won’t know what
it felt like. If they can get the information from a Black
person then its okay with me if a White person wrote about
Black people. But wouldn’t they have to talk to somebody
who experienced it! It wouldn’t surprise me to find out
Worgs By Hear; was written by a White person, because the
father ends up dying, but he ends up saving the White
person. She [the author] kind of knows the history [of
African American people] except that last part of the book.

In our school they teach a little Black history. Like
for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday... You know other
schools get the day off. I don't understand why we can’t
get out on that day. Anyway they will probably show the
movie when King did the March on Washington, DC. We saw it
in our homeroom class and our teacher Ms. C., she is White
and the majority of the kids in my homeroom are White too.
There are two Black students in the class and we were really

focusing trying to see the movie, what happened. But the

140
other kids were looking around, they didn’t really care. I
don’t know why, but every time we saw the movie, Ms. C would
look back at us [the two Black students] and just keep

looking back like something was wrong.

 

Maya on Words By Heart

I have just finished reading Words By Heart. I don’t
believe the story or the characters. I did not enjoy it as
much as the first book (The Slave Dancer). It was not as
detailed as it should have been, for instance the fact that
Mrs. Chism was a Caucasian was never mentioned. I really
didn’t understand why Lena had to skip school to work for
Mrs. Chism. I didn’t understand why Mrs. Chism wouldn’t let
Lena borrow her books other than she wanted her to be
another ignorant Black person. To me that wasn’t fair. She
didn’t understand why a Black girl should be reading and
increasing her knowledge. She was not mean, but she was
just not in favor of Black people. She was kind of like, "I
don’t really like people," so why should I like them.

Mrs. Chism is important to the story because she is the
reason Lean’s father got murdered. Mrs. Chism hired Ben
Sills [Lena’s father] over the White man and that man’s son
got angry and killed Lena’s father. I think in the end she
kind of, maybe she liked them a little bit more than she did
in the beginning.

I would be very nervous being in the contest. Being

141
the only Black person would also be really weird. I would
step up to the mic and I would recite my first verse being
sure to speak my words clearly and slowly so they could be
understood. I would always be reciting verses in my head
and I would feel [sorry] for those who were out. Hoping
that the next one wouldn’t be me. At first I was amazed
about the prize Lena received. This really shows that they
favored the Caucasian boy over any other person in the
competition. I didn't agree with Lena throwing the tie in
his face. I would probably take the tie, throw it on the
ground and step on it. Well, I thought I had to be
drastic, I mean she deserved a prize. But its not my place
to. . . .she’s a child. . .I’ll just take it and throw it
away when I get home, but I’m not going to throw it in his
face. That would be tacky.

The people didn’t expect the girl to win. I also think
that people have a stereotype of Black people that they are
going to get to me. Just take me smiling and you know to be
happy with it would have been more because they would have
been like, she’s suppose to get mad because that’s the
stereotype. Now days if she would have taken it, it would
have been more effective. If she’d taken the tie and smiled
and been happy with it or acted like she was happy with it,
now that would have, WOW, been something drastic! I would
have taken it home and then thrown it away or given it to my

little brother when I got home.

 

142

It would have been hard for me to go and find my Dad by
myself. She had a lot of courage. If I was Lena it would
have been hard to help Tater out. I would be crying. I
would leave Tater out there in the field and quickly got my
father back to safety. At the end I found is sad that her
Dad was killed. And I would have been telling everyone who
killed my Dad. But it was good of Lena not to. I thought
her Dad was very strong. I think he had the right idea
about not retaliating and he letting it go. Because it was
not his place to judge that person. He told his oldest
daughter to go and I feel the same way. She would help him
because she should. I know its hard, he killed her father
and that’s hard to go out and help him so he won't die. But
that's not for her to take care of that. I think I would
have been the same way, would have been really hard to love
Tater and also not to tell people that Tater killed her
father. I mean, I would have been like, "He did it and I
can show you the proof right over here." But it was hard.
Really, really hard for her to sit there and smile and not
tell. But they can make up all kinds of stories. There are
lots of ways to get around what Tater did, they would say he
was drunk or whatever they would say and you know there are
all kinds of reason the guy would retaliate. So he had a
reason to do it or they can go all with the past. But when
it comes down to it, Tater was wrong and her father really

forced to help Tater and go on. He wanted her to do better

Effie-T if. ' '

143
than he did.

The father was a very strong person and he was a pushy
person obviously and when he died it was really hard to love
or hate him. I think a lot of fathers may have not been as
good as he was. People were just cruel to him. They tried
to just crucify him. He was very strong to retaliate

and who was just a boy not even a note [about] who was
saying rude things to him and calling him a nigger and he
took that. I mean he was, I think it would have been pretty
hard for a father today to just let that go. No, I mean in
some ways he had to let things go because the city was all
White and so whatever he done he would not have gotten
support from anyone else because he’s Black. And no one
else is going to support except him, his family and in
society that’s not enough because people aren’t going to be
there for him. So his best support was that he didn’t
retaliate, that was strong on his part.

In the future, I think she’s going to be a very strong
person. Because ever since her father died she has to
survive basically on her own. I think that she will be very
strong as a woman and she will probably go places and be
successful and be known. She’ll probably move out of that
city and go to a city where there are more Black people.

Words By Heart tells me that it is hard sometimes to be
fair. We don’t owe Whites anything. It was hard back then

to be strong, Black and not berated. People had biases like

 

144
about who was going to win the competition. Black people
worked for White people to get money. White people often
hurt Blacks because they a had job and they didn’t. I
think that the book is very interesting. I don’t think it
was that good. It did not explain that time period very
well, and we didn’t get a very good picture of the
environment. Overall on a scale from 1 to 5, I would give

this book a 3.

 

CHAPTER FIVE

ROLL OF THUNDER. HEAR MY CRY
by Mildred Taylor

ALA Notable Children’s Book

Boston GlobeZHorn Book Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Nominated for the National Book Award
John Newbery Medal Winner 1977

New York Times Book Review Best of
Children’s Books, 1970-1980

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Young
Readers Award

And for every thing they took away, we came up

with something new .... We sang some new songs,
and danced us some new dances .... See you can
put a hurting on a body, but you can’t touch the
soul. —- Al Young

"Roll of thunder, hear my cry over the water bye
and bye ole man comin’ down the line whip in hand
to beat me down but I ain’t gonna let him turn me
’round."

Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
features nine-year old Cassie Logan. Cassie tells

the story of a confused and disoriented year as
she is awakened to the cruelties and callousness
imposed by racism in her Mississippi Community.
But it is also the story of a family’s strength
and sibling loyalty as she outgrows her tomboy
role, understands why men sometimes must bend

in order to stand tall, and experiences the
sweet satisfaction that comes when patience

and timing reap deserved retaliation

(Mitchell 96).

 

Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry is a highly honored and

145

 

146
respected book in most academic and family circles. However
this book is not without its controversy. Almost yesterday
in 1993, would you believe that Roll of ThunderLrHear My Cry
was removed from the ninth grade reading list of Arcadia,
Louisiana High School. The authorities charged the book
with racial bias (Doyle). According to this published
report neither The Slave Dancer or Words By Hear; were
dismissed from an American school during the 1993-94 school
year. Ironically if we consult the Council on Interracial
Books for Children’s "10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children’s
Books for Racism and Sexism"(reprinted in Rethinking Our
Classrooms edited by Bigelow et.al.), we will find more
examples of those stereotypes listed by the Council in The
STeyehDehcer and in Words By Heerr than in Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry. For example, the Council advised readers,
teachers, librarians to question the text’s use of
illustrations: "Do all minority faces look stereotypically
alike, or are they depicted as genuine individuals with
distinctive features?" (Bigelow 14). The cover of the Dell
Laurel-Leaf edition of The Slave Dancer published in 1973
pictures all the Africans the same. They all look alike,
they have no distinguishing features. They appear to be
passive recipients of their current situation. Contrary to
that picture Edward M. Jackson provides the following
history lesson:

The Africans were loaded, as many as possible,
into the holds of the ships. Chained together,

147
there was little room for movement. The Africans
wallowed in their own blood, sweat, filth, and
disease. Slave ships were death ships for many.
One of the myths is that the Africans did not
resist the European aggression. Some fought
before they were put on the ships. Some fought on
the ships. Others committed suicide. It is
estimated that thirty million Africans were
transported from Africa. Nearly half of them died
in midpassage (2).
Also writing about the slave trade, John W. Blassingame
noted that Africans rebelled so often that a number of ship
owners took out insurance to cover losses from mutinies (8).
Therefore in reality we know that regardless of how Paula
Fox and/or the publishers chose to have them pictured on her
book cover or what she wrote in her text, The Slave Dancer,
Africans were not passive recipients of slavery.
Interestingly Paula Fox thanks professor of history, Willard
Wallace, for reading her manuscript. This leads me to
wonder that if her book was read in-process by a historian,
then were the historical inaccuracies in The Slave Saheer
deliberate attempts to mis-lead American school children
about the institution of slavery?
Words By Heart also employs many of the stereotypes
listed by the Council on Interracial Books for Children.
For example in terms of standards for success the Council
advises that we should watch for situations in which
"making it in the dominant white society is projected as the

only ideal" (14). This is the very reason the Sills family

moved from all-Black Scattercreek to the otherwise (till the

148
Sills family got there) all-White Bethel Springs. In the
following conversation Ben Sills explains the move to his
daughter, Lena:
"It was easier there" (Scattercreek), Papa said,
"but I wasn’t proud of myself. So we gathered up
our courage and moved on, out west here. That was
our hoping time, our little Exodus. The promised
land, where people would look at us and see he,
not our color" (Sebestyen 25).
I could call Ben Sills a visionary, a man way ahead of his
time to imagine a society in which people would be "judged
not by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character" (King 649). However I believe that Ben Sills is
mis-representation of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s premise.
King never advocated that African American people should be
ashamed of being Black. King fought for recognition of, not
a denial of Black America. During his 1963 March on
Washington Speech King declared:
Now is the time to make real the promises of
Democracy. ...for this nation to live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths
to be self-evident that all men are created
equal." We have come to (Washington D.C.) to
cash this check--a check that will give us upon
demand the riches of freedom and security of
justice" (647-49).

I just want to add one more point about Words By Heerr,
before we resume our discussion of Roll of Thhnger, Heer My
Cry that concerns the name of the towns. Just think about
the names the author chose for the towns, who wouldn’t want

to live in Bethel Springs as opposed to Scattercreek? "In

portraying Scattercreek in a negative way, by giving it a

149
negative name, the author obscures the positive strengths of
these Black communities" (Beach 16).

The question that begs to be asked here is why was 39;;
of Thunder, Hear My Try, removed from the ninth grade
reading list of Arcadia High school, when perhaps more
racist books were allowed to remain on the library shelves?
Maybe I can shed some light on this school district leaders
motivations by way of the following example: Recently,
during Black History Month celebration I led a group of
eighth grade students in a reader’s theater performance of
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. We read the scene in which
Cassie charges the store owner with unfair customer
practices by waiting on every White customer who came into
the store before completing the Black children’s order.

Once out on the street, after being dismissed from the
store, Cassie bumps into a White girl, who makes a big-to—do
about the whole thing. A crowd gathers along with the White
girl’s father and the matter of offering a simple common
courtesy "I’m sorry" becomes one of a person begging from an
inferior position (having been pushed into the dirt road)
for forgiveness, "I’m sorry...M-Miz...Lillian Jean" (116).
Following the reading I invited this eighth grade English
class to share their reactions to this re-enactment from
Roll of Thunder. Before any student had an opportunity to
collect their thoughts and offer an opinion. The classroom

teacher announced: "We don’t treat Black people like that

150
anymore, do we." Whether it was because of their teacher’s
unsolicited opinion or some other reason, the class simply
shut down, they were not willing to discuss this scene from
Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry.

What prompted the classroom teacher’s response? Was
she motivated by a need to maintain control? Control, not
in the sense that the class was unruly or out of order. But
control in the sense she must decide what passes for
knowledge and/or the proper interpretation of literature.
After all she didn’t say anything "real" wrong, she just
told the end before we finished the book--concluded our
discussion before we had a chance to begin it. However, I
would propose that her use of the pronoun "we" suggests a
hegemonic ordering, in which she the classroom teacher is
the locally in-charge member of the dominant society. In
other words, Jane Goldner, a children’s librarian, explains

The dominant society has controlled every
aspect of life so that it can mold the images
needed to keep it cohesive. When its control
is threatened, especially politically and
socially, society denies the validity of the
challenge and then suppresses it. This
phenomenon operates in the microcosm of books
(cited in Tate 47).
Thus, books like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry are banned,
suppressed or otherwise censored, not because they are
racially biased but because they point out this society’s
inequalities. Perhaps we should also consider Pierre

Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and the role of

schools in determining what knowledge merits substantial

151

investments. Bourdieu came upon the notion of cultural
capital in the course of research. He said the theoretical
hypothesis offered a way to explain

the unequal scholastic achievement of

children originating from the different

social classes by relating academic success,

i.e., the specific profits which children

from different classes and class fractions

can obtain in the academic market, to the

distribution of cultural capital between the

classes and class fractions (243).
This seemingly economic theory suggests that beyond natural
abilities and even beyond although associated with the
unequal portions of wealth poured into school districts,
there is another variable that may undermine the academic
achievements of some students. Accordingly, John Gillroy
adds that schools regulate the means of literary production
and consumption. He further maintains that schools

distribute cultural capital unequally (ix-6).

This is why educators should value a novel like Roll pf
SPhunder, Hear My Try because it is an ’in—yo—face-this-is-
fnow—it-was-this—is-how-it-is-now-what-are-you-going-to-do-
Efloout-it-book. And unlike the other two novels used in this
Strudy The Slave Dancer and WorderBy Heerh, Roll of Thunder,
Ekear My Try hollers Black! This young adult novel
Irepresents African American cultural experiences. In the
“Rbrds of one student reader "I know that a Black person
Vwrote this book, [be]cause it just feels Black!" In a

separate interview another student declared: "I wouldn’t be

 

152
surprised if you told me a White person wrote Words By

Heart, but I would be real surprised if you told me a White

 

person wrote Roll of Thunder, it has too many Black things
in it." What were these students referencing? Perhaps
while reading Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
they heard his/her stories that had been previously recorded
only in the soul of Black America. About her novels,
Mildred writes, "It is my hope that to the children who read
my books, the Logans will provide those heroes missing from
the schoolbooks of my childhood, Black men, women, and
children of whom they can be proud" (Penguin USA Children’s
Books 21).
According to Rudine Sims, Black authors tend to focus
on the following:
1) African American heritage and history
2) Pride in one’s Blackness
3) A strong sense of community
4) warm human relationships, especially
within the family -
5) a sense of continuity
6) and the will and the strength to survive
oppression and other hardship.
Within these themes the authors tend to
emphasize or include authentic Black language
in terms of syntax, vocabulary and communication
style ("Strong Black" 27).
I11 Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry there are multiple
Iwepresentations African American culture, history, language,
Gusts, and community spirit. Simply put gurlfriend got it
Snoin’ on in this book. She tells the tale! Masterfully

IWildred Taylor describes racism there in Mississippi in

153
1933, lets you feel it but she don't be beating you over the
head with it. "Ease-drop" on this conversation between
David and his son Stacey concerning a Christmas gift from a
Jeremy (a White boy),
"Actually, he’s much easier to get along with than

T.J.," Stacey went on. "And I s’pose if I let
him, he could be a better friend than T.J."

"Far as I’m concerned, friendship between
black and white don't mean much ’cause it
usually ain’t on a equal basis. Right now
you and Jeremy might get along fine, but in
a few years he’ll think of himself as a man
but you’ll probably still be a boy to him.
And if he feels that way, he’ll turn on you
in a minute."

"But Papa, I don’t think Jeremy’d be that way."
"...Maybe one day whites and blacks can be
real friends, but right now the country
ain’t built that way. Now you could be
right ’bout Jeremy making a much finer
friend than T.J. ever will be. The trouble
is, down here in Mississippi, it costs too
much to find out. . . . So I think you’d
better not try" (157-158).
Zkll the features that Sims mentioned were characteristic of
karican American writing are in this passage. When David
tialls his son that the cost of trying to maintain a
flciendship between Black and White is just too high, many
r‘eaders may feel a genuine loss. We might question what if
it: wasn’t 1933, what if it wasn’t Mississippi, what if
E3ta.cey wasn’t Black, what if Jeremy wasn’t White.

11f}... if.... But this is just the point of Roll of

lflnunder, Hear My Cry; dare we re-write either boy’s life?

 

154
Should we as readers, as writers, as mothers, as fathers, as
educators re-cast this novel as a melting-pot book one that
highlights universalities and ignores differences?
Yet, what I celebrate most about Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry is its fighting spirit. Amiri Baraka terms it the
"revolutionary tradition in Afro-American literature."

Afro-American literature rises as a reflection of
the self—consciousness and self-expression of the
Afro-American people, but to be an Afro-American
literature, truly, it must reflect in the main the
ideological and sociocultural portrait of that
people! The celebration of servitude is not the
ideological reflection of the Afro—American
masses, but of their tormentors" ("Tradition"
244).

By echoing slave narratives, and employing the revolutionary
tradition, Mildred Taylor has created a novel that
celebrates Black America. Adding that her books "are
explicitly concerned with resistance and those who resist,"

Joel Taxel notes that

In treating themes related to the intersection

of race, class, and gender, Mildred Taylor touches
on matters that until recently have been either
marginalized within or excluded from not only

the discourse within and about literature, but
education as well ("Reclaiming" 117).

IXlso addressing the issue of resistance, Diane DuBose

Brunner writes

Roll of Thunder offers a positive view of a
woman, an African American woman, engaged in
resistance to hegemonic forces--both to the
members of the school board and to the tradition
selectively being perpetuated in the social
studies text (Ingpiry 145).

Since Mary Logan was fired for not teaching slavery as it

155
was represented in the school board selected text, Brunner
suggests that we should question the "ultimate effect of
resistance" (Ingpiry 163). The result of Mama’s resistance
would be the appointment of a new teacher who would likely,
in order to keep her job, teach the text exactly as the text
is written. In order to pass the class students will once
again recite the lessons of the dominant culture as dictated
to them by their "voiceless" instructor. And the cost was
not too high! What those children saw, a Black woman
standing up to a White man and saying this is wrong, will
be replayed time and again in their imaginations, until they
are in the position to challenge the system. For, indeed,
as Brunner states explicitly: ". . .the price we pay
personally, morally, and ethically when we don’t resist
powerful arrangements that enact the unconscionable" is too
high! So whether resistance is personal or political may be
less the question than whether we do not resist at all. To
question the ultimate results of our resistance is to invoke
in the words of Cornel West, "[that] as long as hope remains
and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming
oppression stays alive" (23).

Having already briefly mentioned this portion of the
novel, here I would like to look at this pivotal point of
Roll of Thunder in detail. Second only to the school—book
incident which we just discussed this is perhaps my proudest

moment in this novel. Cassie, in a stance of self-

156

determination and fair-play, declares to the White store
owner: "I ain’t nobody’s little nigger! And you ought not be
waiting on everybody ’fore you wait on us" (111). As if
being ordered out of the mercantile wasn't mistreatment
enough, what happened to Cassie once outside the store was
totally humiliating:

It was then that I bumped into Lillian Jean Simms.

"Why don’t you watch where you are going?
Well apologize," she ordered.

 

"What?"

"You bumped into me. Now you apologize"
(Taylor, Roll 113).

At this moment, Cassie handles Lillian Jean one on one, eye
to eye, like any two adolescent school girls involved in a
disagreement.
I did not feel like messing with Lillian Jean. I had
other things on mind. "Okay, I said, starting past,

"I’m sorry."

Lillian Jean sidestepped in front of me. "That
ain’t enough. Get down in the road."

I looked up at her. "You crazy?"
"You can’t watch where you going, get in the
road. Maybe that way you won’t be bumping into
decent white folks with you nasty little self."

"I ain’t nasty, and if you’re so afraid of getting
bumped, walk down there yourself" (Taylor, Rell 113-114).

lHowever, with White and Might (a growing crowd of aggressive
‘Whites) on her side Lillian Jean was able to give Cassie a
troubling history lesson. After being knocked into the dirt

road by Lillian Jean's father, Cassie tries to run for their

157

wagon:

"Stop, Cassie!" Big Ma (Cassie’s grandmother) said.
"Stop, it’s me. We’re going home now."

"Not ’fore she ’pologizes to my gal, y’all
ain’t," said Mr. Simms.

Big Ma gazed down at me, fear in her eyes, then back
at the growing crowd. "She jus’ a child--"

"Tell her, Aunty--"

Big Ma looked at me again, her voice cracking as
she spoke. "Go on, child...apologize."

"But, Big Ma--" [said Cassie]
Her voice hardened. "Do like I say."
I swallowed hard.

"Go on!"

"I’m sorry, Miz Lillian Jean," demanded Mr. Simms.

"Big Ma!" I balked.

"Say it, child."

A painful tear slid down my cheek and my lips
trembled. "I’m sorry ...M-Miz...Lillian Jean"

(Taylor, Roll 113-116).

 

As much as I would like to jump into the story and
compel my students to see that such racist acts must not be
tolerated, instead I must ask student participants to
entertain two questions:

1) Tell me what you see happening here?

2) Why do you think Big Ma made Cassie apologize

to Lillian Jean?

If I don't allow them this space to interrogate the

 

Iw~

158

situation, then I am assuming the hegemonic position of the
one in authority therefore in possession of the right
answer. Then I would not be providing the opportunity for
students to "read their own way into the world" (Willinsky
94). Once home Cassie’s family rallies round, helping her
understand what happened and why things went down the way
they did. Cassie gets advice from her brother, Stacy:
"Cassie, don’t go blaming Big Ma for what she done. Maybe
she couldn’t help it, maybe she had to do it" (Taylor, Roll
118). In a Black cultural tradition Mary Logan both
comforts and advises her daughter with a history lesson:

So now, even though seventy years have

passed since slavery, most white people

still think of us as they did then--that

we’re not as good as they are-—and people

like Mr. Simms hold on to that belief

harder than some folks because they have

little else to hold on to. For him to believe

that he is better than we are makes him think

that he’s important simply because he’s white.

...you just have to accept the fact that in

the world outside this house, things are not

always as we would have them be" (Taylor,

Roll 126—129).

Suppose it doesn't happen like this for my students?

As pointed out by Johan Lyall Aitken borrowing from Jacques
Derrida, the sense of the story is under erasure, that is,
it is present in its very absence (206). Suppose my students
do not have strong supportive families or friends that will
help them feel included when the outside world excludes

them? How will the stories they bring to the text influence

their readings of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

159

Aitken continues, "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a
novel full of values, self-respect, ownership of land... If
literature is supposed to reflect our own economic as well
as political and social selves, a conception I seriously
dispute, then many children regardless of race are bound to
feel inadequate or inferior when they read Roll of Thunder"
(207). Entertaining Aitken’s notion on an economic level I
could gather that the reading enjoined by the young man
sharing a small apartment with a large family depending on
public assistance to eat, to live, would differ from that of
the young lady with both winter and summer homes and throws
away more food than many people can afford to buy. Yet what
will my student readers expect from this book? Will they
become one with the text, a part of the Logan family as they
read? As Emily R. Moore tells us,

Throughout the book the reader is moved to
tears by Ms. Taylor’s vibrant, exquisite
and simple style. After reading Cassie’s
last lines--"And I cried for those things
which had happened in the night and would
not pass. I cried for T.J. For T.J. and
the land"--you want to turn back and

start all over again (7).

Rudine Sims Bishop numbers Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
among ’culturally-specific’ children’s books. These, she
adds, "illuminate the experience of growing up a member of a
particular, non-White cultural group ("Multicultural
Literature" 44). We will take a more analytical look at

"cultural specifics" in terms of the texts selected for this

study and the values students bring to the reading process,

160
in Chapter Six, "Creatin Texts Outta Texts." However,
contrary to readings like that of Johan Aitken, Rudine Sims
Bishop notes that these cultural specifics--these "details
do not preclude other readers from understanding,
appreciating, and enjoying the book..." (44). Readers may
find that the Logans way of dealing with things may be the
answer for others in similar situations.
Joel Taxel considers Roll of Thunder to be a benchmark,
a literary work against which all other work for young
people is measured and compared.
(It) is a success both in terms of literary values
and in its historical, cultural perspective on the
events it describes. ...Taylor’s theme that racism
be confronted with the cautious, yet insistent
demand that the right of all to dignity and
freedom be respected is developed without pedantic
moralizing but instead emerges through the
skillful development of events and characters
("Controversies" 260).
On the other hand, Aitken charges that Taxel is wrong in his
assessment of Taylor’s novel. Aitken notes that Rgll of
Thunger "is no less pedantic than the other two works (The
Slave Danger, and Words By Heart) Taxel examined (206).
From my reading of Roll of Thunder,Hear My Cry, however, I
would hardly mark it a text with an ostentatious concern for
formal rules when the Black teacher covers up the word
’niggar’ in the White-supplied text books and chooses to
teach African history, the reality of slavery, and the works

of W.E.B. DuBois instead of the mandated curriculum, right

in th face of th White school board members.

161

Reading with Joel Taxel, I agree that "Mildred Taylor
has shown with Roll of Thunder, that it is possible to
articulate a progressive politics and historical vision in a
form that sacrifices neither historical accuracy nor
aesthetic value" ("Reflections" 310). That this book is
well-written, that it tells a good story, that it is
historically accurate are only parts of what I cherish about
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I applaud Mildred Taylor for
burying the myth of the passive submissive Black with Mr.
Tatum who accuses Mr. Jim Lee Barnett (the Mercantile
manager) of charging him for things he never ordered or
received (75); with Cassie who questioned the integrity of
shop owner who waited on White customers before Black
patrons (111); with the Logans who organized the Black
community to shop elsewhere other than the store owned and
operated by the "night-riders" who had burned three male
members of a local Black family (161); with Mary Logan who
in the faces of school board members refuses to change her
history lesson to the board approved one (183). In RgTT gf
Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred Taylor has drawn on history,
family stories, and compassion to describe African American
struggles and survivals during the 30’s in the South. What
lessons did the students of "Value" learn from this novel?
Let us begin our examination of their responses with Le
Tasha who unlike the other students of "Value" chose Mary

Logan to be her favorite character in Roll of Thunger.

162

 

LeTasha on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

It took me about three days to read Roll of Thunder.
The chapters are pretty long, so I only read maybe five or
six a day or night. I started it on a weekend, then I read
at school and at home when I had free time. Most of the
time I read the back of the book to know what it is about.

I read that first, but then sometimes I read about the
author first. Generally I read about the authors after I
finish the book. Roll of Thunder was a good book. It was
kind of hard for me to get into at first. It was easier for
me to get into Words By Hear; because she went through the
Bible drill at the beginning. But in Roll of Thunder not
that much happened in the beginning, so I got bored with it.
So I put it down for awhile, then I got to it. When you
start to really get into it towards the middle and towards
the end, it was really good.

When I read books I just keep my feelings about what
happened to myself. I just read it, I don’t stop to write
things down. If I was writing a paper on a book, then I
would take a lot of notes. I would write down important
facts or key information, and I do that a lot. Sometimes
I’ll take a certain chapter of a book and I read it through
then I write down good information like a rough draft.

My favorite character in this book would have to be the

Mom. I liked the mother, the character of the mom a lot,

163

because she seemed to always have situations under control
even when her husband went away. She knew how to run the
house without a man or someone else there. That is why I
like her a lot. She also knows how to raise a good family.
She had a good head, she knew what to do to help out the
other families, and she was a good mother to her family.

She is an intelligent Black woman, and a school teacher.

But I would not care to go to school in 1933. This is
because of the harsh treatment that I would receive and the
unnecessary put-downs from the Whites. Like the school-bus
[While the White students were able to ride to school, the
Black students were forced to walk along the same narrow
muddy road, consequently the Black students often arrived at
school covered in the bus-splashed mud. In retaliation the
Logan children increased the size of one of the mud holes in
the road. When the bus hit this hole, it broke the axle
forcing the White children to walk to and from school until
new parts could be ordered and the bus be repaired.] It was
funny I liked that part. It was really mean but I still
liked it. It was a way to get even. It was a way to get
back at them without fighting or causing harm to anybody.
Nobody got killed or hurt or anything. Delayed, but, not
killed or hurt. I liked it. I had just hoped that nothing
would happen so that no one would suspect them. But I
probably be giggling all night long, like those kids were

because I thought it was funny.

164

I would also have a problem with some of the teachers
and would probably lose my cool. Like that textbook
incident [The "new" books in the Black school were actually
old worn discarded books from the White school. The inside
cover of each book was stamped with a chart indicating that
when the book was new, in good, in average, and even in poor
condition it was used by the White students. However, when
it was in very poor condition the book was marked for use by
the "nigra" students. Little Man refused to use the book,
threw it on the floor and stomped on it.] I liked that part
even though it was wrong to stomp on the book. I would
still would have pointed it out to the person. And if I
didn’t feel that it was right that I should be reading that
I would have told them. And I guess that I would have got
spanked for it too, [be]cause I’m too stubborn.

But the mother got fired for pasting over that chart in
the book. I just thought that is another thing they did to
her. And it was T.J.’s fault, he told the school board
people. He bugs me. I didn't like him. I felt pity on him
in the story. If I imagined myself to be T. J., I would see
that I am a lost and misguided child. I need prayers,
church, and a good loving, responsible family. That way I
can get myself back on the right road and take an exit off
the wrong one. His parents they just seem like not to care
and when they did try to, he was just young growing up. Its

like I guess he just tuned his parents out and they really

165
didn’t do that much. They tried but they just gave up. If
that was my son, I would keep trying and trying cause I
would not want to see him hung or see something really bad
happen to him. Or cause him to bring trouble to the family.
I mean that’s your son. You don’t just give up on your own
child. You should keep pushing him and keep trying to get
through to him. But he caused problems [be]cause it seemed
like he tuned his parents out. He didn’t listen to anybody.
I think that he probably served some time in jail for his
part in Mr. Barnett’s death. I don’t think that they hung~
him. Eventually if he doesn’t quit doing the things he is
doing he will get hung. He needs somebody, some advice
because he’s really making some bad choices.

One thing about this book bothered me when Big Ma made
Cassie apologize for bumping into Lillian Jean. I think that
was the right thing to do because she didn’t want her to
endanger herself or get in anymore trouble or cause a threat
of burnings. Someone could come burn their land. But what
would have bothered me a lot was, see if I was alive back
then I would be very nice to White people. Maybe suck up to
them, I don’t know. Anything to keep them from having a
problem with me. I would hate to suck up to people like
that because when you do act nice to them, they put more on
you. So I didn’t car for that part of the book. But I
think Cassie went overboard, and I think that it was good

that her grandmother was there to help her get out of it so

166
she didn’t get into anymore trouble. I would have said a
couple of things, but not that much. When Lillian Jean’s dad
came up, I would just have said, "Sorry" and left before
something happened. Cassie wasn’t unusual that was just the
way she was. But I think she will probably grow up to be
like her Mom. Because her Mom helped her kids a lot with
their education. She helps the kids know what to do and
when to do it and she helped her family so they wouldn’t get
into trouble. Cassie will probably learn from what she did
when she was younger and be level headed like her Mom.

It was funny in a way when Cassie got back at Lillian
Jean. But I could not just sit there and beat up somebody.
I guess I’m too nice. I’m just not that mean. Maybe Lillian
Jean deserved it, but I felt that was a little cruel. I
mean that would make me mad to have to apologize in front of
everybody. But I couldn’t have gone and just hit, punched
her, just to do all those things to her. I mean I might say
something to her. But she would have to physically hurt me
before I would turn around and do something like that to
her. I think that she would still tell her dad, even if
Cassie told all of her secrets. I think that it is
unbelievable how she didn’t say one word and Cassie got away
with the whole thing.

While I think that 95% of this book is true, another
thing I don’t believe is that the father could stay alive

when he got hit in the head by a bullet. I don’t believe

167
that he could stay alive without medical attention.

Roll of Thunder, constantly describes the hardships
faced with for being Black, especially owning something of
value. It shows the struggle to hold on to this value, so
it won’t fall into the rival’s hand.

It wouldn’t bother me that much if a White person wrote
books about Black people, just as long as they know what
they are talking about. I think that they should do some
research. And don’t just write from their opinion or point
of view, or what they feel happened. I don’t think that
they should try to cover it up. If a Black person writes a
book about Black people, then they, most of them, would know
enough to go do research and write a good book on Black
people. They wouldn’t want to write a bad book about their
own race. But it wouldn’t bother me that much, at least now
White people are interested enough in Black people to write
a book about them. It wouldn’t surprise me to know that a
White person wrote The Slave Dancer or Words By Hearh. And
I think Words By Heart was a very good book. But I’m not
saying that a White person can’t write good books on Black
people. I'm not racist or anything towards that. But gel;
of Thunder, there is just something about it, it had so many
Black things in it and it was so deep that a White person
could not have written it.

This project was fun! It got me to read three books I

would never have picked on my own. I never read any books

168
on Black people or books like The Slave Dancer or Roll of
Thunder. If I had to rate the books, for me it would be
Words By Heart, Roll of Thunder, and then The Slave Dancer.
I’m not say ing that I liked it the least. That is just how
I would rate it. I never really read any books like that.
Because I just didn’t think that they would be very good. I
just went for the scary books and mysteries. I like these
three books better than some of the mysteries that I bought.
And these books (project books)were exciting, and they help
me to know what these kinds of books are like. So if I find

similar books, I will probably want to read them.

 

Constance on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

This is my favorite book out of the three we read for
this project. I read it before, when I was in 4th grade, so
I already knew some of the stuff that was in here. I just
liked the book [be]cause it tells a lot of stuff. Its not
really sad. But its like you got to treat it right or
better.

My favorite character is Cassie, because I think she is
a good example on how she feels about things that happened
back then. Like when she had to say sorry to that girl for
bumping into her. She had to apologize. I don’t think that
it was really nice. [Be]Cause Lillian Jean’s father came
and made Cassie bow down to her feet. Cassie had to say to

call that one girl "Miss." That really would have made me

169
mad if I had to do that. The grandmother had to make her do
that? Because they (the White people) are a higher
authority, and if she didn’t apologize it would be a real
big fight. The father would call and tell and somebody
would go to jail or something like that. Black people didn’t
have the right to say, "No." They had to say, "Yes sir"
It was like White people could say anything. Black people
couldn’t say that back. So there was nothing she could do
but apologize. Because we didn’t have a choice. Things like
that make me angry.

I also think it wasn’t fair because the Black people
got the really, really poor school books. They would stamp
the torn up books "nigger." And that made Christopher
really mad. He threw his books down and he had to get
whacked by the teacher. She told him to pick it up and he
didn't, I don’t think she really cared about her students.
She told him she would hit him with the ruler. I think she
knew why he put it down there in the first place. But she
really didn’t care. She told him to pick it and he didn’t
pick it up. It wasn’t fair. Because it was the same as when
Big Ma made Cassie apologize. Maybe she didn’t have a
choice. She probably did care, but she knew they didn’t
have no choice. They had to use those books [be]cause they
just had to. So when he disobeyed she just had to hit him.
Discipline him. So, no I would not want to go to school in

those days because it wasn’t fair how they treated us. They

170
didn’t care about the Black students only the Whites. We
had VERY POOR books, we didn’t have good materials and we
could not ride the "good" school bus, we had to walk to
school.

Our teachers just taught what they knew. They didn’t
have a diploma or something like the White teacher would
get. They didn’t have higher education. Cassie’s mom was
educated but she wasn't as highly educated as White people.
As the White teachers were. I thought she was educated
because of the way she taught school and had things in
order. She was very spiritual and she was also wise and she
would tell her husband to stay out of trouble. She tried to
keep the family together. I think that she was very mad and
angry when she got fired from the school. But she kept a
really good spirit about it.

Now, T.J.’s the one that always hangs out with the
White guys. I think he acts like he’s big and bad and stuff
like that [be]cause he hangs around with them and he thinks
he’s more favored. At the end when the guy had died when
they were trying to rob that store. And they arrested T.J.
for it. But he didn’t actually kill it was the White guys
who killed the store owner. But I think that they will kill
T.J. for it. [Be]Cause he is Black.

If I presented this book to my class, I would say its a
real book and tells about family and how they went through

the treatment of the Whites, and what schools were like back

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then and what happened to you and how they [the Logans]
survived. What it was just like back then. Roll of Thunder
gives you a positive image of what it was to be there.
Because first of all even if it had a lot of problems, they
still treated each other right. They still stood together.
They believed in what they believed in. They really did
stick together. Roll of Thunder tells me a lot of what our
people had to go through for us to be equal. I would
recommend Roll of Thunder. Hear MyTCry. Its a very exciting
book and really tells how we were treated back then and the
different systems that we had to go through about the
schools and the buses back then. I would recommend this
book. This was a good book.

Yeah, it is okay with me if White people write about
Black people. Well, it’s kind of like they don’t have all
the principals of what we went through back then. Because
they can just make up some stuff. But they have the
history. But sometimes they don’t know all the real story
behind it because they weren’t there back then and that’s
not their heritage. So they don’t really know what really
happened. All the time, they can’t get it right [be]cause
they don’t know how it was. They can't say that because
they were treated fairly. So they won’t know how it felt
because they were White. If they can get information and
stuff from a Black person then yeah it’s okay for White

people to write about Black people.

 

172

 

A. J. on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

They had a lot of land. Back then Africans Americans
were not known for having land. In some ways they were rich,
cause they had land. But they really weren’t rich,
[be]cause the father had to go off to work.

Cassie was strong, she had younger brothers to look up
to her like Lena in Words By Heerr. Cassie is my favorite
in this book [be]cause she had guts. When Stacey, T.J. and
Cassie go to the store for T.J.‘s mom, they hand Mr. Barnett
a list to fill. But when the White, Caucasian woman comes
up, and she gives him a twice as long list; he fills her
order first and a lot of other Caucasian people first before
getting back to their order. When Cassie finds out she goes
and complains to Mr. Barnett that he should finish serving
them, before going to take care of White customers. She had
the guts to go up there and "front-on" him, she said "You
were serving us first, why didn’t you finish serving us
before you started with them?" He said, "Go away you little
nigger." If I was her I would have just pulled out a gun
and shot him. But see she didn’t have one on her. Then the
guy says, "Who owns this little nigger?" And she says,
"nobody owns me." Right there that shows me she got guts to
stand up to Mr. Barnett. She believed in standing up for
their rights. I believe this store incident to be true

[be]cause we were really dis—respected in the old days and

 

173
we are still kinda disrespected now from some people but not
from all Whites. To me this is showing that they treated
White people better than African Americans because of the
color of their skin.

I wouldn’t like to go to school in Mississippi back
then, because they gave the African American kids the worse
books, like say the books’ quality went from "A to D," they'
would give the Negroes the "D" book, and give all the
Caucasians the "A" book. The "D" is like bad condition,
torn, "A" would be like all perfect. The Caucasians would
get the "B" and "C" books too. This was probably true but I
don’t like that word "nigger" that they stamped inside the
"D" books, [be]cause that is not what we are. That is
probably true they did treat us worse than they did the
Caucasians. The Black kids had to walk to school and the
Caucasian kids had a bus. The Black kids didn’t have a bus
because they were treated disrespectfully. They thought
that we didn’t deserve a bus [be]cause of the color of our
skin so instead of a bus coming down the street to pick us
up, we had to walk like five miles to school. They did that
just because of the color of our skin. They felt if you had
just a touch of Black in you they would treat you
disrespectfully. I hate this, I am glad it is over today, I
couldn’t live through those times. If we didn’t do what we
did back then, you know fight it, we wouldn’t be like having

Caucasians living right next door to us, today.

174

This book tells me that Africans Americans have
struggled the past four hundred years. We have fought long
and hard but we have shown the Caucasians that we are a
team. Back during slavery we couldn’t be a team [be]cause
we all had different languages, that's when the Caucasians
were smart by putting us in different tribes. After being
with the Caucasians a lot, the Caucasians became a team to
keep us tame. But we learned how to communicate with each
other in maybe less than fifty years.

T.J. got into a lot of fights, he tried to hang around
with the Caucasians till he found out ... [Be]Cause he
thought that they were just regular people like us and then
he found out how some of them felt about us. [Be]Cause T.J.
and the two Simms boys tried to steal that pearl—handled
pistol and the money from Mr. Barnett’s cash box at the
store. Then Barnett’s came down [be]cause they heard a
noise in the store, and they flashed the light on T.J. and
then both of the Simms boys. Mr. Barnett came running after
them, one of them hit him in the back of his head and made
him fall. And he was knocked out. Then his wife came
running after them and they just tore her up. They thought

that he might be dead, but they said,"let’s go!" T.J. said,

"Lets go now!" The Simms said, "No! we got a few more
things to do first." T.J. said, "No, lets go now or I’m
telling." Then the Simms started whopping T.J.‘s butt

[be]cause he wanted to go home, he wanted to hurry up and

175
get home. They were like kicking him and punching him, his
face, his stomach. He ended up having broken ribs and a
broken jaw, [be]cause they beat him up so badly. Then they
threw him in the back of the wagon, while they went to the
pool hall. Then T.J. snuck out and went over to Stacey’s
house.

I think that T.J. became a part of the chain gang.
Nothing happened to the Simms boys, them punks! Nothing
would happen to them in the future, unless they re-opened
the case, which they probably wouldn’t do [be]cause they
were Caucasians. The Simms’ boys did all the bad stuff
killing Mr. Barnett and beating his wife-knocking her out.
T.J. didn’t do that much but take that gun. They took the
money and a whole bunch of other stuff. They did the whole
thing almost. T.J. got the blame for it [be]cause he was
Black. But even if T.J. said who did it they wouldn’t
believe the words from an African American’s mouth. Even if
he said R.W. and Melvin Simms did it they wouldn’t believe
him, [be]cause they are White. They think all the Whites
are like good angels, perfect people. Mrs. Barnett didn’t
really see them [be]cause they had put them black masks over
their faces so they would look Black. So she thought it was
three Black people robbing them instead of one Black and two
Whites. So the Simms boys got away scot—free.

If I was to present this book to my class I would say

"If you want to find out more about how us African American

176

have fought and become a team, you should read Roll of
Thunder. Hear My Cry. It is about the Logans and their land
and trying to hold their family and the Black people
together like a bond. Cassie believed in team work. You
also have to read the part about how they treated us African
Americans in the past. This a tragic, sad book because of
the way the White people—the "night raiders" treated the
Berrys, burning them. But this book is "memorabilia,"
because it shows how us Black people have fought as a team
together. We should stick with our family the family should
be one and best friends should be there forever for you.
If you are an African American and you want to find out
about your past you should read this book. If you are a
White person, it will show how y’all have changed from jerks
to regular people, good people, most of y’all. Thank you"

It wouldn’t bother me if White people wrote a book
about Black people, as long as it was true. [Be]Cause if
they said something fishy, it would show that they didn’t do
no research about it, they didn’t look up anything. They
just wrote up lies saying: "African Americans came from
England," or something like that. But we came from Africa
instead of England, that would show that they didn’t do no
research. The books that we read for this project, a lot
of it was true in them books. Like flgrge_Sy_heerr shows a
daughter doing what her dad tells her to do, "Help him, not

me, cause I’m about to die anyway." I think that Words By

177
heerh was a White person’s book [be]cause they wrote more
truthfully about White people.

In Slave Dancer the part was probably true that he had
to blow his flute to make the slaves dance to get exercise,
so they wouldn’t be all stiff when they got to America. I
think that The Slave Dancer was written by a White person,
[be]cause they wrote a lot more about White people,
Caucasians, than did us African Americans. But they did
write a lot about us African Americans too that showed that
they did some research.

In Roll of Thunder they also showed the truth about
how they treated us African Americans. I would be getting
mad if they had written lies about how they treated us, like
they were all extra nice, giving us money. But that would
be lying, and I wouldn’t like that, it wouldn’t deserve to
even be out on the rack(in book stores). I think that 39;;
of Thunder was written by an African American. It shows the
language the dialect of a southern African American. This
book shows that she wrote about her own self, her ancestors.
Of these three books Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry was my
favorite.

I like this project, talking about the books, [be]cause
we get to show what we feel about these books. You could
read by yourself, but there is nobody there to share it
with. It has to come from your heart, you have to have

strength to go through it, like when you were reading The

178
Slave Dancer, you can’t burst out crying when you see that
little girl get thrown off the boat. You got to have heart
and keep on reading the book, [be]cause normally, I would
just have thrown the book somewhere. But I had heart and I

kept on going.

 

Maya on Roll of Thunder, Heer My Cry

It took me about two weeks to read this book. It was
easy to read. My favorite character was Cassie. She was
very wise, she was always listening and using what she heard
to help her understand what was best for her, and she also
picked up the ways of the world. What I mean by that was
that she was listening to her father and her mother and Big
Ma. and she used those things to understand why people acted
the way they did and why they were like that and how it got
that way. Although she did not accept how the South
operated, she still understood why Whites and Blacks did the
things they did. She also knew right from wrong.

I like her personality. She has very bold, brave and
courageous characteristics. She stood up for what she
believed in and didn’t let anyone convince her to back down
from her beliefs. She held strong when others (even her
siblings) gave in. And unlike T.J. she knew that giving in
and "kissing up" to the Caucasians was not going to give/get
her anything but unfortunate consequences.

I think she got this aggressive spirit from her Dad.

179
As she grows older she will learn, like her Dad when to use
these aspects of her personality and when not to. Cassie
believed it was wrong to bow down and apologize to Lillian
Jean just for accidently bumping into her. I think Big Ma
made Cassie apologize because she didn’t want, to cause any
trouble. She probably figured that it was safer to just
have her apologize than to continue upsetting Lillian’s dad,
than risking the "night riders" attacking them, hanging them
or burning them out.

It happened with one family before. They burned their
house, fields and them. And so, and I think Big Ma just
figured "Well we better just keep everything quiet because
it just happened before." And since this was a Caucasian
man at that, he could take it back to his people and
everything would start building up. This may or may not be
the situation to put it over the edge, but you never know.
You just never know. And by Cassie putting down his
daughter well that wouldn’t make him too happy.

I would not like to go to school in the 1930’s. The
teachers stuck to the books and didn’t teach about what
really happened. The White teachers were probably prejudiced
against Blacks. The students were segregated and probably
grew hostile towards the opposite race. They were taught
that Whites were better than Blacks and that Blacks were
just like animals. The schools were segregated White and

Black. The Black teachers were probably women who were

180
afraid to speak up for their rights and thought it was
better to just keep quiet and not lose their jobs.

The books were used until they were so worn that the
pages fell apart. They were not sufficient in content
information. They only told what Whites said and did. They
never mentioned slavery or anything that minorities went
through, invented, accomplished or contributed to the
success of this country. So the Black children/schools got
the old books after the White children/schools were done
using them and couldn’t use them anymore. The first
incident with the book, there’s one of those charts that has
on it the race of the child who used the book. And it goes
with the name of the book and what condition it was in. For
Whites they had it from the time it was new, to it was good,
it was fair, and it was poor. When the books got to Blacks
and it was like very poor, they didn’t get them until they
were really bad.

Christopher (Cassie’s little brother) didn’t understand
why things were the way they were, and he didn’t like it at
all. He was like, "I’m not using this book if it’s going to
be like this." So his mother went and covered the chart in
the book that called Black people niggers.

The White school had a bus and the Black school didn’t.
The school bus was very rickety anyway, but it was a way to
show that the Whites supposedly were better than the Blacks.

As T.J. I am very scared and insecure. I will do

181

anything to stay in good with the Caucasians. Even though I
know how mean and inconsiderate I have been to the Logans,
it is more important not to be hung. After I was taken to
jail and had been through that cruel incident, I would have
realized that I was the stupid one, not the Logans. I am
sorry I ever started hanging out with Melvin, and R.W. I
was never happy with my color. I felt that I was cheated
and often asked God "Why me?" I did a lot of things I did
because I thought the Caucasian boys would like me more and
it would push away the Black kids. This way I wouldn't be
seen with them and the White kids would hang out with me.

And it just goes to show you that he was one person’s
example of what happens to people who are just chummy chummy
with everyone. And they put down their own race to get into
with the other race and it just goes to show you that
doesn’t do anything but hurt you because those two White
boys didn’t care about T.J. at all. I mean not at all!
See when the White towns people found T.J. and they found
that stolen gun in his house, the two White boys sat back
right there and watched it and did it with them, drove
T.J.’s parents and his sisters and his brothers out of their
house. They (Melvin and R.W) didn’t help T.J.’s family at
all. Not once. It goes to show you that you think you’re
getting in good with them but when it comes down to it,
they’re going to leave you right there in the dust, hanging

right there in the dust. They’re not going to take care of

 

182
you at all. So it didn’t do T.J. any good at all. I mean
he learned his lesson, and I guess he had to learn it the
hard way, the real hard way. Because it’s not like he could
get out of it. Now he realizes what he did was wrong and
he’s a little, just a little too late; he’s going to the
chain gang, if they don’t hang him.

But I think he learned his lesson and I think he, I don’t
think he deserved that cruel a punishment. But he was kind
of cheated because they didn’t catch the two White boys who
helped T.J. rob the store and they were the ones who killed
Mr. Barnett.

The dad in Roll gf Thunder was, he was a little more
secure in his blackness than the dad in Worde By Heart. He
knew a little bit more, and he is more assertive. But he
was assertive to the extent that he did not offend anyone or
give anyone a reason to dislike him. But he kept himself
high. He was not rude about it. He did not put himself in
the position to be criticized or hung or anything like that.
But he still, you know, did it in a way that he would
accomplish something and he would do it for himself and get
by. So they were kinda on the same line of thinking, same
way of thinking, but the dad in Roll of Thunder was a little
smarter; he had more knowledge and he wasn’t as passive. He
wasn’t playing stupid sometimes, you know; I mean like in
the last part in the Werderby Heart. To me that was not

smart, you know.

183

And this father in Roll of Thunder would have done the
Christian thing in a better way. He would save himself and,
you know, but I thought he was very, aggressive and
assertive and he got things done; he did what he wanted for
himself. He did not worry about what other people thought
about Caucasians even though by the way he did things he was
not putting himself in a bad position. But the way he did
it (organize the boycott of the Wallace store), it wasn’t.

I mean it was the way he did it, he did it kind of like
everyone was doing it so it wasn’t like they could pin point
him even if they knew that he was the one who started it.
The other Black families were doing it and he had been
shopping up there anyway; he was shopping this way before.
He never really did shop at the Wallace’s store.

Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry says that it was not easy
in that time period for Blacks. It says that even after the
oppression of slavery was over, we were still oppressed. It
says that we owe nothing; it's not our fault we were treated
the way we were. I believe that it was at that time that
way in the south. I think the town Vicksburg, Mississippi
exists. I believe that they had night riders that jacked
people out of their homes in the middle of the night. I
believe they hung Blacks or put them in the chain-gang. I
believe vsb4OEBEtBAack children in schools got the old books
after the White children in schools were done using them and

couldn’t use them anymore. I believe the White schools had

184
buses and that the Black schools didn’t. I believed the
Blacks slaved off the White’s land. I believe they sold
cotton to make money to pay taxes and mortgages. I believe
that most whites in the south thought they were better than
blacks. I think that things such as T.J.’s stealing and
Casey’s apologizing actually happened to people. I believe
that Blacks were blamed for the bad things that Whites did
sometimes. But I think the whole story is fiction, I don’t
think any of the characters are real people. But the
setting, the situations, all that stuff, I think it all
existed somewhere, and it was all true but didn’t happen
exactly how they say in the story.

I liked Slave Dancer obviously the best and then RgTT
of Thunder and then Words by Heart. I liked The Slave
Dancer the best because it was very descriptive and it did
not glorify anything. Roll of Thunder secondly because it
was, it was very good and explained how the south was in
that time period. It really did explain it very thoroughly.
I liked that a lot. Words by Heart was okay just because it
was just one incident, it didn’t really explain the whole
big part of that time period. It just explained what
happened in one family at one time in one city. The fact
that Roll of Thunder mentioned the night riders and it
really graphically explained what happened that night when
they came to T.J.' 8 house, I was almost crying. I was like

that’s cruel. It was really hard for me to really just to

185
accept that, and it really showed in that one event how it
would be like a lot of the times that happened.
But I enjoyed reading the books for this project. And
I’m glad I did it because otherwise I would never have read
any of these books. I would never have come across them
probably. So I would have been just as raw as I was going

in, and so now I’m a lot more aware of what happened.

 

CHAPTER SIX

DISCUSSING STUDENTS’ RESPONSES

"Creatin Texts Outta Texts"

The purpose of "Value and Authenticity: Young Adult

Readers Respond to African American Literature," was to
discover how four African American students would take up
selected works of literature that represent various periods
of "the Black Experience" in America. My intention here was
to add students’ voices to the existing scholarship on three
traditionally used classroom novels. This chapter then is
concerned with an analysis and discussion of the stories the
students of "Value" created outta the young adult novels:
The Slave Dancer, Words By Heerh,and Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry. Based on my early impressions I have decided to
divide this chapter into three possible sections: 1) my
overall impressions of "Value," 2) African American
culture, and 3) representations of Power. In these three
sections I will discuss patterns within and across the
students’ responses and I will entertain the questions I
have posed throughout this study. I am, however, in this

chapter creatin texts outta texts, therefore my format may

186

187
change as I reflect more on the texts the students of
"Value" created.
Since the intention of "Value" is to add four students’
voices to the existing scholarship, I have resisted the use
of charts and graphs that would reduce their multiple voices

to a single representation of the African American young

‘ ' i"). o ‘1‘“,

adult reader. It is time we stop looking for that lone

representative voice of Black America. One spokesperson who

 

.1 \-‘

is in the position to describe and perhaps prescribe how
African Americans read, write, think, eat, drink and sleep.
The designated leader encouraged by the media that best
represents the selective tradition of Black America for
White America. Fortunately, these designated leaders have
generally imagined themselves working for political,
economical, and social betterment of the African American
community, thus they soon do or say something to lose favor
with the White Political Power structures. For example when
Martin OULutheKing, Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War,
"because my conscience leaves me no other choice," he moved
into a new area. While to most observers, an anti-war
stance seemed like a natural focus of the civil rights
movement, it was viewed as a shift that troubled then U.S.
President Lyndon Johnson, and prompted the FBI to bug King’s
phones looking for ways to openly discredit him (Mullane
631-2).

In many segments of the Black community, when Dr. King

188

evoked the old proverb: "I've been to the mountain top and
I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may
not get there with you. But I want you to know that we as a
people will get to the promised land," it meant I’ve been
to the "Big House," and I have seen what is promised to you
and what is denied to you but you will have to continue this
struggle without me. The following day Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr. was shot, he died a few hours later.

I have included these thoughts on the life and death of
Martin Luther King, Jr. to not only illustrate how the
"selective tradition" is a vital force in the selection and
the maintenance of a public spokesperson, but to document
how Ouida Sebestyen in Worge By Hear; distorted King’s
principles of non-violence. In the words of Faye Wilson-
Beach and Glyger G. Beach

The author wrote a book about love, a passive
love, that in no way resembles the love that
civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

got from his forebears. King preached a non-
violent love that would propel men and women

to agitate and confront an unjust society.

The author advocates and portrays a love so
distorted by her own perspective that it is
inactive and unresponsive, narrow and restricted
(17).

The students of "Value" read with Fay Wilson Beach and
Glyger Beach:
All the times when they are mean to us, we end up
helping them and then they don't pay back or
anything. Its not fair (Constance).
I would go after the person who shot him, even if

it was a Caucasian person. Back in the old days
we would get hung for that. But to me I think I

189

would do the right thing take his flesh for my
dad’s flesh (A. J.).

I don’t know what I would have done, but I would
have done something. I couldn’t just sit there
and let my dad die and not do something. I don’t
know if I would have hit that boy or just yelled
at him (LeTasha).

I have just finished reading Words By Heart. I
don’t believe the story or the characters. I
would leave Tater out in the field and quickly try
to get my father back to safety (Maya).

 

The students, of course, had a lot more to say about Words
By Heart and how they would react to the situation of
finding their father on death’s doorstep using every ounce
of life left in him to save his assailant. And we will
examine more of their responses later in this chapter. I
wanted, however, to show here that these African American
students did possess the capability to be resisting readers,
especially when the story did not match what they believed
to historically or culturally authentic.

One of the early questions I posed for "Value" was: Do
African American young adult readers allow themselves to
challenge the validity of the PRINTED WORD? Concerning
Words By Heart, students had no problems being "resisting"
rather than "assenting readers" (Fetterley xxii). If a
novel seeks to discredit what they believe to be are
authentic representations of African American history and/or
culture then the students are likely to challenge the source
of that mis-representation. By assuming positions as

critical readers the students were able to challenge Ouida

 

190
Sebestyen’s assumptions about how African American society
worked,
She (the author) kind of knows the history (of
Black people) except that last part of the book

(Constance).

Overall Impressions

Before we get into more discussions of the students’

 

stories, I would like to share some of my overall
impressions on how the design of "Value" played out for the
students. Basically this study was designed to be an
independent project, for each of the students involved in
"Value." Students were to read on their own, keep a
journal/diary/comment notebook as they read, respond to a
specific set of questions following the completion of each
novel, and participate in a one-time interview about all
three books. Perhaps it was the independent nature of the
project that proved too burdensome, knowing that they had to
read on their own made it impossible for some students to
fit "outside" reading into busy school/sports/music
schedules. Even though I stretched my original schedule, by
several weeks to the point I was horribly behind, because of
their own reading rates, homework, school activities, extra
curricula activities, two students just could not stay with
the study. I am grateful for their efforts. They

demonstrated that one reading program may not work for all

191
students, even if those students are from very similar
backgrounds.

Initially I did propose 7-10 pages/day reading and
perhaps one or two written paragraphs responding to each
day’s reading. My proposal would have afforded students the
opportunity to finish each novel in a three-week time
period, completing the entire project in ten weeks. These
suggestions were intended to be viewed as just one way to
move through the novels. They were not meant to be
structures to guide their readings. At first, I believe
that the students did try to follow my suggestions, soon
however they established their own reading/writing patterns.
Some students would jot down notes as something struck them
in the readings, others read major portions of a book before
writing, and one student just said "I don’t like my reading
broken up by writing, but if I had to write a paper for
school I would have taken lots of detailed notes as I was
reading." In many ways this was not only a difficult
project for busy middle-school students, it was also a new
way of reading, writing and responding to literature for
these 12—13 year old young adults. Therefore I am
especially grateful that A.J., Constance, LeTasha, and Maya
were able to complete the study.

I already mentioned that "Value" was basically designed
as an independent project. Whatever conclusions the

students came to were based on the understandings that they

192

made of the books in the study. While the students did not
indicate to me that they had solicited advice from parents
or friends, they did say that they had shared their readings
of the books, with family and friends. The students were
not aware of my feelings about the books I selected for
"Value." Constance asked me during our pre-project talk,
how I felt about the books. I responded, "I do not want
your readings to be influenced by my readings so you will
feel free to like or dislike the books." In this chapter I
seek to critically discuss those themes that emerged from
the narratives created by the students of "Value."

Additionally it should be noted that even though we
did discuss the book covers in the interviews, no mention
was ever made of the golden award-winning emblems embossed
on the books covers. Therefore I can not state emphatically
that just because these books are award winners, the
students of "Value" judged them favorably. However I do
feel safe saying that the students generally felt free to
honestly reflect on their experiences reading these novels.

In many cases their reflections resembled a process
called "innerattainment." We briefly discussed this
.African American cultural custom labeled "innerattainment"
knr.Jawanza Kunjufu (24), in Chapter One. This process is
also known.as call-response. Geneva Smitherman explains

The African-derived communication process of call-
response may be briefly defined as follows:

spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction
between the speaker and the listener in which all

193
of the speaker’s statements ("calls") are
punctuated by expressions ("responses") from the
listener (Talkin 104).
I rather like this concept, a sorta drawing—in, coming-in to
an inner circle and whatever goals achieved there are
attained collectively. Thus, if we imagine each text in
this study as the "caller," then were the students able to
respond in such a way drawing on the Black cultural
tradition of call-response? This concept is not unlike the
transactional theory described by Louise Rosenblatt, the
relation between the reader and the text is not linear. It
is a situation, an event at a particular time and place in
which each element conditions the other (16). I saw this
happen time and again, whether it was in their re-telling of
a story, or their journal notes, students’ thoughts moved
the text along, while the text moved the students thoughts.
.A.J.’s early thoughts on The Slave Dancer are an example of
"innerattainment."
I feel sorry for the boy [be]cause his Dad
drowned in the Mississippi River. I like the way
the author of the book expressed the way Jessie
felt about his father dying. I wish they had
welfare back then to help them get through their
bad times.
Ika'Tasha’s thoughts on Mrs. Chism in Words By Heart also
reflect this live transaction with the text.
I kind of like her. She was kind of rude, but
in a way she was her own person. And she didn't
show it but I could tell that she kind of liked
Lena and her family, even though they were Black

she was White. Because there were some things in
there I didn’t think any ordinary White person

194

would let happen. She tried to play it off,

acting like she couldn’t stand those people.

But it didn't work. I saw through her.
African American Culture

In the Introduction of this study, I talked about some
of the early experiences of racial discrimination that
shaped my thinking as a young adult. Surely, a lot has
changed in the intervening twenty to thirty years. On some
levels the blatant racism and discrimination that we as
African Americans faced daily in the 60's, 70’s, and 80’s no
longer exists. But just as the students of "Value"
confirmed racism is not over, we are served with painful
reminders of the "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy"
that still govern American social, political and economical
structures. For example an African American motorist is
videotaped being kicked and beaten senseless, yet the jury
acquits the White police officers who perpetuated this
vicious act. Just this summer (June, 1995) voters in a mid—
western capitol city decided to remove the name of Cesar
Chavez from a street that runs through a Mexican American
community. Recently (1995) the governor of one the largest
states in the union rescinded affirmative action policies in
the areas of education and hiring. Mind you in His state
‘the median household networth for Anglos in 1991 was $31,904
and.for non-Anglos $1,353 (Mullane 747).
But as I observed earlier some changes have occurred.

131 South Carolina of course my relatives are no longer

195
compelled to dine at the COLORED SNACK BAR. Actually
several of my folks have served in various positions of
civic leadership from city council members to high school
principals. But have things changed on college campuses for
African American students? Are there more African American
professors? According to the Autumn 1993 edition of The
Journal of Blacks in Higher Egugepign, statistics indicate
that there has been little progress in 20 years, since
almost half of all Black faculty (which is only 4.5 percent
of Ah; full-time faculty) teach at historically Black
colleges and universities, the odds of a student at a
predominately White institution seeing a Black face in front
of the classroom are about 50 to 1 (025).

While my adolescent and young adult feelings on what it
means to be Black in America or on African American culture
may not be shared by the student readers of "Value," my
feelings may have been shared by their parents. Thus, via
family values, students might read from an essential Black
cultural perspective, a socially constructed vision of Black
culture, or a combination of the two. The students’ use of
'various pronouns may be an indicator of the reading that
‘they'are bringing to the text. Often students would change
‘the use of pronouns from an objective she/he, him/her, them,
tx) a more subjective I, me, we, us, within the same
sentence, response or thought. Roger Brown and Albert

<1ilman described this "informal verbiage of the nuclear

196

family extended to humanity" as "pronoun solidarity" (273).
In fact many times within the same narrative students moved
from an outside perspective to a moment in time as if, for
example, the physical enslavement of African American people
existed today not well over a hundred years ago.

I was really mad because what the White people

did to us, like they treated us like animals

and they were really making me mad. Because

they were all down there and they could hardly

breathe or anything. They couldn’t... they

didn’t ... really get... Oh man! It was really

mean how they treated us back then (Constance).

I wish that us African Americans did not have to

go through what they went through, but if they had

given us our 40 acres and a mule at the end of

slavery, like they said. . . .(A.J.).
Echoing D’Jimo Kouyate the students of "Value" seem to
identify themselves as an African people and that the slave
experiences of our African American ancestors are our
experiences (179—191). In other words as Brown and Gilman
suggest the students’ pronoun usage indicated that they had
expanded their nuclear family to include slave ancestors.

In Chapter One, "Gut Feelins: Readers Performing with

Texts," we established that African American culture is a
live organism growing out of the traditions of Africa,
enslavement of African Americans, and the African American
sojourn in America. Also growing out of our discussion in
Charmer One, let us here define essentialism as the common
ancestral ties which create cultural experiences. Then

social construction is realized not only as a one-

<iimensional artificial man-made creation but one grounded in

 

197

various historical and economical applications. In other
words are the ways in which American society has treated
African American people, even economically not a part of
social construction? It seems that to understand social
constructionism pp; in terms of its historical impact is to
ignore part of how it works. For all its HORRORS slavery
was still an economical/social institution. Borrowing the
words of Amiri Baraka,

The Black people of this country were brought

here in slavery chains on the fast clipper ships

of rising European capitalism. It is impossible

to separate the rise of capitalism, the industrial

revolution, the emergence of England and later

America as world powers from the trade in Africans

(244).

Entertaining this argument then lets run with it a bit,
if we suggest that social construction (which includes
politics, economics and history) has shaped African American
existence in this country, then are we saying that Black
people have historically been treated a certain way because
they are Black? Then as quiet as it is kept, in some ways
that is ESSENTIALISM. Essentially I am treated in a
certain manner because I am Black. Just as Malcolm El-Malik
Shabazz hypothesized years ago, "What do they call a Black
man with a Ph.D.?" Malcolm supplied the answer to his
question, "nigger."9

Regardless of the wealth in my bank account or the

letters behind my name, I am first approached as a Black

person. Does this mean that I am not afforded respect as a

198
creative contributing member of society with a rich cultural
heritage? Does it mean that "someone" in power socially
determined who I am and how I should be treated economically
etc.? That I am Black should not mean what it does
(imagine here the list of stereotypical negatives that often
accompanies narratives about African American people) but
because it means what it does (at least in the minds of some
of those given to social construction and we are talking
"short narrgw building" here) makes the issue not just a
question of skin color but one of Power. Therefore, for
example, would it have mattered if the "racist red-neck"
trailing my brother through the rice fields of South East
Asia, knew that it was only social construction that made
the White soldier believe that he represented the superior
race, ideology and culture? Do people who behaved in a
characteristic prejudiced or racist manner know why they are
racist or prejudiced?

Raymond Williams reminds us that hegemony extends
beyond simple definitions of domination and subordination to
acknowledge the forms of these power relations as a
saturation of the whole process of living.

Hegemony is a whole body of practices and
expectations over the whole of living: our senses
and assignments of energy, our shaping perceptions
of ourselves and our world. It is a lived system
of meanings and values--constitutive and
constituting -- which as they are experienced as

practices appear as reciprocally confirming (110).

ZX<question of Power? If it is not who we are or what we are

199
made of, then the question is about Power, what systems are
formulating our thoughts and our actions? The answer has to
go deeper than legislation outlawing racist behavior or
authors writing novels condemning such practices as slavery.
Even though Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer was meant to be a
condemnation of slavery, the representations of the passive
ignorant slave in novel in many ways justified the barbaric
institution, she sought to condemn.

Thus, by refusing to critique essentialism and social
construction African American scholars may not be in a
position to intellectually challenge the existing social
structures of White supremacy. bell hooks suggests that a
critique of essentialism does not preclude blindness. In
order to examine the impact of essentialism, it is not
necessary to lose sight of the specific history and
experience of African Americans and the unique sensibilities
and culture that arise from that experience. She adds that
such a critique

allows us to affirm multiple Black identities,
varied Black experience. It also challenges
colonial imperialist paradigms of Black identity

which represent Blackness one-dimensionally in
ways that reinforce and sustain White supremacy

(Yearning 28-29).

.Iust as Keith Gilyard stated earlier concerning language
acquisition, it is not necessary to eradicate one tongue to
learn.another (161). Neither should the elimination of
Illack culture be a prerequisite for establishing an

moppositional and liberatory" self identity (hooks, Yearning

200
29). Diane Brunner adds to this discussion,
Culturally, we (teachers) and students are
specifically located within social categories
that define our positions along social, class,
race, and ethnic lines. Whether we conceive
culture as a social construct or as an

instrument of the status quo may thus have the
greatest impact on how on how we see ourselves

socially (Ingpiry 54).
While each of us operates out of a history and a world view,
it may be our capability to dislocate boundaries, to
negotiate meanings in any given situation that may define
our roles as teachers and learners (Brunner, Ingpiry 55).
Paulo Freire adds

only an education facilitating the passage from
naive to critical transitivity, increasing men’s
(and women’s) ability to perceive the challenges
of their time, could prepare the people to resist
the emotional power of the transition (32).
The people in Power may not necessarily change--yet if we
(who are typically marginalized, disenfranchised and
silenced) can create a new image for ourselves then we may
be in position to fight racist Power structures. But we
must know where we (educators and students) are socially
positioned in order to do this.

The novels used in "Value" offer many insightful
asituations that call for the characters to dislocate
lmoundaries and negotiate meanings. Of those I have just
selected a few that are illustrative of negotiated meanings
knr'the students of "Value" and/or the authors of the novels.

In.lx5th Words By Heart and Roll of Thunder, the mothers are

giveui decision making roles. However, Claudie Sills’ role is

201
so undefined that the students barely mentioned her in their
narratives and no mention is made of her speech near the end
of the book:
We know how to earn our keep. And we know how to
knuckle to you. Only we mean to work and to
knuckle the way we choose to. I have two boys
coming up to be the same threat to all you that
Ben was. You better be ready for them, because
I’m going to have them ready for you (Sebestyen
133).
The natural question here given the story of Words By Heert,
is "ready for what?" Work has to be the answer; Ben never
was a threat to anyone in that "White" community of Bethel
Springs. He was just a hard worker. Perhaps because this
was not a declaration of a Black woman saying to White
people, I hold you responsible for my husband’s death, the
students of "Value" were not impressed enough to even
mention it. A.J. not only provides very limited recognition
of Claudie in his narrative, he discounts her ability to
help her sons grow into prosperous individuals:
Her Mom is probably used to working in the kitchen
she is not used to working in the fields. That
means Lena will have to teach her young brothers,
young siblings to learn from her and to prosper.
On the surface level it would appear that A.J. is given to
stereotypes about women's roles in the kitchen. However,
because Ouida Sebestyen never gave Claudie a role or a voice
outside that of homemaker, in this case A.J. is reading with
the author. Also it should be noted that since A.J.

(designated Lena to be the new family leader he was not given

tx: stereotypical representations of women, "To me Lena was

m:

202
strong, she might not be physically by looking at her (book
cover), she might not be a muscle bound woman. But still
she is very powerful in her mind."

Mary Logan, the mother in Roll of Thunder, in contrast
to Claudie Sills, is a fully developed character who really
dislocates boundaries of a racist society and negotiates
positive meanings for her family and her community. In the
words of LeTasha, "she is an intelligent Black woman."
LeTasha continues,

She always seemed to have situations under
control even when her husband went away (David
Logan worked on the railroad). She knew how to
run the house without a man or someone else there.
She had a good head, she knew what to do to help
the other families. [Mary Logan not only took
food to the Berry’s she help organize the Black
community boycott of the Wallace store. Mr.
Wallace a member of the night riders responsible
for burning Mr. Berry.]
It could be a testimony to quality writing on Mildred
Taylor’s part that LeTasha found a positive role model in
one of the novel’s secondary characters more so than in the
lead character, Cassie. Or it could be indicative of the
cultural reading LeTasha was bringing to the text.

Speaking of positive role models Maya does an
interesting read of the father figures in Words By Heart and
Roll of Thunder:

The dad in Roll of Thunder was a little more
secure in his Blackness than the dad in Words
By Heart. ...they were kind of on the same
line of thinking but the dad in Roll of Thunder
was a little smarter, he had more knowledge and

he wasn’t as passive, he wasn’t playing stupid
sometimes. I mean like that last part in Words By

 

203
heerr, to me that was not smart.

One of the early questions I posed for "Value" was
would students bring a Black cultural reading to the texts?
Well the students of "Value" certainly read with a
traditional African American revolutionary spirit. Amiri
Baraka calls literature based on the revolutionary spirit, E
"art based on struggle" ("Afro-American" 12). The i

following excerpt from a sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks both

 

describes art based on struggle as well as the texts created
by the students throughout this project:

First fight, Then fiddle

Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.

Win war. Rise bloody, may be not too late

For having first to civilize a space

Wherein to play your violin with grace

(from "The Womanhood").
Whether it was by means of physical change or via a new
rhetoric the students of "Value" felt a need to right the
wrongs present in the texts we read. Here are just a few
examples of this revolutionary spirit I found in the
students narratives. Concerning the enslavement of the
.Africans in The Slave Dancer, students wrote:

If we all had the same language we could have

turned our backs and had a good plan and we

could have whipped their butts (A. J.).

Just how they treated us back then, just made

me real mad. I wish I was back there. So I
could beat them up (Constance).

204

If I [were Jessie and I] went through that
experience I would not want to be around

slave markets, and I think that I would really
fight for an end to slavery because I know what
they had to go through (Maya).

Concerning the fate of the father’s assailant in Words By

Heart the

students wrote:

I don’t know what but I would have done something.
I don’t know if I would have hit that boy or maybe
yelled at him (LeTasha).

Vet-1.“,

...but I would still kick the jerk out of him.
I think he deserves a beating, in fact I think
he deserves a burning, but I would help him if
my Dad asked me to (A.J.).

I wouldn’t help that boy who shot him, because I
would be mad at him. I would just leave him
there. Maybe tell his folks to come get him
(Constance).

(It) would have been really hard to love Tater and
also not tell people that Tater killed her father.
I would have been like, "He did it and I can show
you the proof right over here" (Maya).

Embodied in a narrative of political resistance, Maya works

through some possible consequences if Lena had revealed her

father’s murderer.

But it was hard. Really, really hard for her to
sit there and smile and not tell. But they can
make up all kinds of stories. There are lots of
ways to get around what Tater did. They would say
that he was drunk or whatever they would say...

In the following narrative concerning the father’s death in

Words By Heart, A.J. recognizes boundaries and negotiates

meanings.

She did the wrong thing not telling. If I was
the person, I would say "Tater did it." Cause he
deserves to be in jail, but they probably would
not have done anything. Cause back in those days

205
they probably got paid for shooting an African
American, like "Oh you shot a nigger, you get 15
dollars." I think she should have told the
sheriff, but if she knew they would get away with
it then I would not have told. But I still would
have kicked his butt though.That’s the part I
believe to be false about Words By Heart when her
dad said to help the person who shot him and leave
him (the dad) there to die, and she did it.
In these spaces of reflection the students of "Value" were
able to work with, understand, and create challenges to
those systems in authority. Diane Brunner writes, "by
taking up, puzzling over, and questioning not only
institutional hierarchies but all relations of power
reflections can become a site of operational resistance and
struggle" (Ingpiry 47). This discussion on resistance
naturally leads into the next theme I want to address, that

is the students responses to the representations of power

they found in The Slave Dancer, Words By Heart, and Roll of

 

Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Representations of Power

Another question I posed for "Value" was would students
see this or that text as racist or will they simply say,

"That’s how it was." or "That's how it is."

The students’ responses were never as "simple" Yes, this is
racist or No, this is not racist. Throughout this project
students gave elaborate complex responses often times
negotiating meanings as they articulated their thoughts.

Let’s ease-drop once again as Maya politicizes resistance

 

206
concerning the Bible verse contest prize in Words By Heart

I would be very nervous being in the contest.
Being the only Black person would also be really
weird. I would step up to the mic and I would
recite my first verse being sure to speak my

words clearly and slowly so they could be
understood. I would always be reciting verses

in my head and I would feel for those who were
out. Hoping that the next one wouldn’t be me.

At first I was amazed about the prize Lena
received. This really shows that they favored the
Caucasian boy over any other person in the
competition. I didn't agree with Lena throwing the
tie in his face. I would probably take the tie,
throw it on the ground and step on it. Well, I
thought I had to be drastic. I mean she deserved a
prize. I’ll just take it and throw it away when I
get home, but I’m not going to throw it in his
face. That would be tacky. The people didn’t
expect the girl to win. I also think that people
have a stereotype of Black people that they are
going to get to me. Just take me smiling and you
know be happy with it would have been more...
Because they would have been like, she’s suppose
to get mad because that’s the stereotype.

Nowadays if she would have taken it, it would have
been more effective... If she’d taken the tie

and smiled and been happy with it or acted like
she was happy with it. Now that would have, WOW!
been something drastic! I would have taken it
home and then threw it away or gave it to my
little brother when I got home.

Before we get into a discussion of representations of Power,
let’s look at one more example of a student wrestling with

political hierarchies manifested in White supremacy. Here

A. J. discusses T.J.’s fate in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry:

I think that T.J. became a part of the chain

gang. Nothing happened to the Simms boys, them
punks. Nothing would happen to them in the
future, unless they re-opened the case, which they
probably wouldn't do cause they were Caucasians.
The Simms boys did all the bad stuff killing Mr.
Barnett and beating his wife-knocking her out.

T. J. didn’t do that much but take that gun. They
took the money. They did whole thing almost.

T.J. got the blame because he was Black. But even

 

207
if T.J. said who did it they wouldn’t take the
words from an African American’s mouth. Even is
he said R.W. and Melvin Simms did it they wouldn’t
believe him, cause they are White.

Pardon this side-bar: but so many times while the
students were working their way through a novel, trying to
make sense of the social institutions that structure much of
our lives, I felt the pain of their struggles. I wanted to
grab them and in the spirit of Peter Pan fly off to some "La
Land" where no such oppression existed. But without those
sort of Hollywood capabilities, I must, we must as educators
devise ways to help students come to grips with the social
issues manifested by works of literature. By placing the
question of Power at the core we are in position to critique
properties of social institutions such as racism, classism,
sexism. In the spaces of these reflections the students
addressed several of these "isms." Let’s touch base on a
couple of them and particularly how they played out in terms
of: a) gender, b) racial stereotypes.

Contrary to "unpopular" critiques, African American.
students are not just concerned with racial representations
in novels. The students of "Value" were disturbed by the
fact that it was pre-determined that a boy would win the
Bible verse contest in Words By Heart.

...that’s like saying boys are supposed to win,
or that they are better than girls because they
can memorize something. I don’t like it when
things like that happen, it just irks me
(LeTasha).

That was very sexist the way they treated that

i S

‘rl

 

208
girl. They never expected her to win. Cause they
thought a woman couldn’t do it. ...I don’t think
that they should have done that, estimated who
would win (A.J.).

Moving beyond the issue of sex-role stereotyping the
students saw this as an issue of injustice. "Value" has
been in position to look at examples of Power, how Power is
realized in a cultural context how Power is played out in
the novels, and now, how the students reading Power in the
novels. In these spaces of reflection students are able to
question Power and in that questioning they were able to
make sense of the structures that framed those moments.

Thus, the second "ism" I thought we should touch on
here is that of racism. Without a doubt racism, racial
construction, and representations of African American
culture are the foci of all the novels used in this project.
Whether we are talking about the treatment of the Africans
brought aboard the Moonlight, the death of Ben Sills, or the
fate of T.J.,

But he didn’t actually kill, the White guys
killed the store owner. But I think that they
will kill T.J. for it, [be]cause he is Black
(Constance).
we are describing literary events that are laced with
manifestations of White supremacy. In the words of Toni
Morrison, literature is complicit in the fabrication of
racism, but it also explodes and undermines it (Playing 16).

If the text does not explode the myths of racism within it

or time society it is addressing, then students need to be

 

209
allocated space to interrogate the text along those lines.
As we have seen with "Value," given the space students will
read beyond the text. In other words, by interrogating the
novels, students were able to identify ways societies
worked, as well as formulate ways they should work.

In an early conjecture I wondered if students were
bringing an essentially Black cultural reading or socially
constructed reading to the text or would their concepts of
African American culture be shaped by the readings. At
times the students were more objective than subjective
whether this is an indicator of an essential or a
constructed view of race or it may just be an indicator of
how much of a personal investment they are willing to make
at that time is a question for further research. What we
did learn was that the students read from an African
American cultural perspective. Clearly these are the issues
that teachers should consider as they prepare to invest
their students learning experiences in these novels.
Because this was a research project, I was not able to
direct the students to possible solutions. However, we will
discuss some implications for classroom teachers as well as
some implications for research in Chapter Seven. Here I
would just like to say that I do not believe that "Value"
left these African American young adult readers consumed
with anger without hope. A. J. provides the following

illumination

210

I think that the way us African Americans are
treated today is very much different than the

way we were treated in the past. ...Racism has
decreased. It is not over, no, never, it
probably will never be. But we can teach the
people, show them the light of day, show them the

right way.

CHAPTER SEVEN

PEDAGOGICAL VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE

"Playin like I’m 1 down"

"If something doesn't work in the classroom,
it doesn't matter whose fault it is; it needs
to change."

Diane DuBose Brunner

"Without African American history there is no
American history, without American history
there is no African American history, we need to
stop imagining that they exist exclusively of each
other."

Rashidah Jaami’ Muhammad

In this final chapter of "Value," I would like to
divide my responses into three sections: 1) limitations of
the study, 2) implications for teaching, and 3) implications
for research. Within these sections I hope to entertain

some of questions "Value" left me to puzzle over.

Lindtations of the Study
One major limitation of 'Value", that really disturbs
rne is that there was no space for me to challenge the

211

 

212
students based on my understandings of the novels without
directing their readings. I could not say "I have major
problems with this character, or What do you think about the
racism in this text." I regret that they may have left The
Slave Dancer believing that Africans were solely responsible
for the institution of slavery. I regret that they may have
left Words By Heart believing that African Americans did not
value or try to earn the ability to read and write until
after the Civil War. I regret that they may have left 39;;
of Thunder. Hear My Cry believing that Black people of that
time period could not outwit a conniving White person.
Even though Roll of Thunder has been praised for its
authenticity, this study did not allow me to interrogate the
text the students were bringing to the text. There was no
room for me to say to the students, "Perhaps, if we looked
at it like this or..." Also there are several historical
inaccuracies in the literature selected for "Value," about
which I feel guilty as a language arts instructor, as a
parent and as an African American, that I did not compel the
students of "Value" to challenge; e.g., the socio/political
context of the novels used in this study.

Because the purpose of "Value" was to discover what
.AHJh, Maya, Constance, and LeTasha found of value or what
‘they believed were authentic representations in the works
selected for this study, I could not shape their readings by

Ihaying them respond to my interpretations. I can only be

213
consoled by two facts 1) if they read this study in its
entirety, they may be moved to take a second or third look
at the literature used in "Value" and 2) that this study
provided them with a space to look at readings more
critically so that in the future they may be more likely to
interrogate the literature that they come across. Thus, the E‘
balance of this last chapter of "Value" is devoted to

implications for teaching and research.

 

Implications for Teaching

Even though I used it as an independent study method,
the methodology that I employed in "Value" could be a
dynamic way into novels in the classroom. Using my protocol
this could be an "individual" project for the whole class.
In other words students would still read on their own,
outside of class. We would of course have to be more strict
.about a time frame than I was for "Value" Based on their
reported reading rates, most students in the middle school
grrade range could complete each of these novels within a
three-week period. I would also assign journals or reading
Shogs, many students found it beneficial to record in-process
reading thoughts. While some students gave more abbreviated
tmritten responses, they all enjoyed talking about the books.
TTnerefore using the "Value" protocol in the classroom, I
“KNJld build weekly or bi-weekly rap sessions. Rather than

saving all the questions till the end of the reading

214
process, I would pose questions based on the assigned
portion of the novel.

As with "Value", in the classroom, I would not just
leave the students alone to read the books. Not only did I
encourage them to take notes as they read, I also checked
with them from time to see how their reading was coming
along. I should note here that even though the students
knew going in this study that they would be reading three
novels, I only gave them one novel at a time. Then I would
check with them after about two weeks, in order to see if
they were ready for me to bring the list of questions over
(See Appendix B for a list of the questions). Because I did
not want the questions to direct their readings, for each
novel I did not give them the list of questions until they

Ihad.completed the reading.

Questions

I wrote the questions for "Value" with two thoughts in
ndJui, one I wanted the students to do a close reading and
tun) I wanted them to "own" the experiences of their
readings. So I designed the questions that students would
feel comfortable answering, but at the same time would
require them to seriously contemplate the readings. The
enmestions were open-ended requiring their completion in any
manner comfortable for the students. Students were free to

draw, write poetry, write short answers or even give

215
detailed essays. Whatever option they chose these written
responses were spaces for the students to begin to look at
the novels more critically. What often began as non-
scholastic drivel evolved into elaborate critical responses.
If students are forced to stay with the text, then we may
not get the elaborate responses, like those that came from

the students of "Value."

Ideas for Teaching the Novels of I'Value"

"Value" demonstrated that it is important to include
outside research with the reading of historical novels. The
students in this study indicated that they could not
determine what was true or false about The Slave Dencer,
because they did not know enough about slavery. Thus rather
than leave students to wonder should they accept this as
fact or not, they should be encouraged to do research.
Without exception, the students of "Value" noted the
importance of doing research before writing a book. Equally
important is to do research before, during and while reading
a novel, especially one that represents particular events
and time periods.

While it did not preclude them from reading the novel
the students of "Value" indicated that they were not sure of
the language patterns in The Slave Dencer. Because language
;provides such dynamic cultural perspective it is also

important with the study of these novels to explore language

216
patterns in the social political context of the novels as
well as the evolution of those linguistic patterns and
styles. In our conversations all the students of "Value"
masterfully mixed the languages of African American
Vernacular English with Standard Edited American English,
resulting in very creative narratives. Additionally
considering current educational efforts to make our students
more multi—lingual, using these novels would be an excellent
way to study language variations within the English
language.

As Maya did with the characters of Ben Sills and David
Logan (fathers) in Words By Heerh and Roll of Thunder
students can use chief characters from two different novels
in order to get a better understanding of the forces driving
each character. More than a compare/contrast study,
students could be encouraged to read the characters against
each other within the socio/political context of each novel.

In order to be in a better position to challenge the
students, teachers have to know more. They need to do
additional research in the areas of critical teaching,
readers response, literary theory and African American
culture, history and language. Additionally teachers must
Efilt themselves in the position to interrogate "Whiteness."
.As long as every other culture remains "Other", "Whiteness"
«continues to be privileged and therefore educational,

snocial, cultural equity will remain a goal, lofty indeed,

217
but still just an unrealized goal. As Constance pointed out
during the showing of the Martin Luther King, Jr. film at
her school, the White students showed no interest and the
teacher just focused on the Black students perhaps to see if

they were in touch with the film.

- x-r'l

Implications For Research
In order to really free students to make honest

reflections of the works being studied, we must find ways to [

 

remove the teacher as the authority figpre. Even in this
study, when I was not in their presence during most of the
time, I felt that sometimes students were looking for the
"teacher-expected" answer. No matter how much I insisted
that I wanted their opinions, often times they still wanted
to know, what I wanted them to say. Studies that enhance
students’ roles in classroom discourse and reduce teacher-
centered learning are avenues needing further exploration.

More reeponse studies wirh African American erddente in
whole class as well as isolated interview settings are
needed to give voice and vision to those most often
silenced. In particular the work that I have begun with
"Value" aims to show not just that students read the racism
(that either exists in the novel or via the text they bring
to the novel), but that they are capable of engaging in

critical dialogue.

More studies that erplore studenhs’ powers of critigpe

218
can create spaces that have long been vacant. When students
have the opportunity to show what they know, rather than
what they do not, then teachers can base assessment on a
dynamic performance model. Research into performance-based
assessment might also continue the work I began here in
"Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond to
African American Literature."

In this study I had sought to level the playing field
by internally citing everyone by first names only. Since
the real scholars of "Value" are the young adult student
readers, I wanted their voices to be valued as much as any
professor, doctor, or academic "grown-up" that I have cited
in this work. However this format not only gave pause to
those accustomed to the traditional surname referencing
style, I was directed to adhere to the established hegemonic
pattern for citations. Even though I was not allowed to use
a format that visualized a stage for students’ voices to
sing with the academic voices, I believe "Value" provided
the concert. I also hope that my call for changes in
format may open doors to further research on "naming"
practices in African American culture.

In Chapter One we briefly touched on this issue in our
discussion on the scene from BOOLE. in which Kunta Kinte is
beaten until he claims the massa’ name. There is however
much more to African American naming than just the retention

of the slave master’s names. Building on the work of

219

Lorenzo Dow Turner (Africanisme in Gullah Dialecr, 1949),

Joseph Holloway (Africanisms in American Culrure, 1990), and

Joseph Halloway and Winifred K. Vass (The African Heritage
of American English, 1993), educational researchers could
study the "toby" complex--the effects of African American
naming on Black student empowerment, identity, and/or voice.
Also the fact that the "toby" complex could be an early
manifestation of what William Edward Burghardt DuBois
labeled double-consciousness is another issue for further
research. W.E.B. DuBois described double-consciousness as a
"peculiar sensation."
...this sense of always looking at one’s self
through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s
soul by the tape of a world that looks on in
amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his
twoness,-an American, a Negro; two souls, two
thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two
warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged
strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder
(45).
Do African American students on the heels of the let
Century read with the double-consciousness that W.E.B.

DuBois described in 1903? Clearly, this is an area that

needs further research.

Questions unanswered?

One of the early questions I posed for "Value" was
would students be more willing to actively engage a novel
outside the confines of a traditional classroom. This

question could not be determined with "Value." Perhaps they

 

220
were more willing, and we can tell from their well
articulated elaborate responses that the students really got
off on The Slave Dancer, Words By Heart, and Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry. But the fact that this project did
not count in terms of their grades, it often earned whatever
space was left over after, homework, chores, sports, TV,

etc .

Concluding Reflections

There were several humorous moments gathering this data
that served to remind me just how serious it is to pay
attention to young people. One such moment readily comes to
mind; A.J. was discussing the Bible verse contest in Egrde
By Heart with fantastic rhythm and speed. At first I was
not sure what we was doing until he mentioned the NBA
playoffs. Then he seemed to superimpose his own narrative
on that of Ouida Sebestyen’s, thus the speed and the
accuracy with which Lena delivered her lines seem to match
the speed of a made basket. And remarkably A.J. never lost
sight of either narrative. I choked, all the while I was
impressed by his performance; I knew such antics in the
classroom would not merit him a passing grade. Teachers
would have, I would have cut him off before he made the
connections. Why? Was it the language? Was it the
gestures? Perhaps it was his use of an unorthodox

correlation. Maybe he was just taking too much class time.

 

221
What is important here, however, is that the student owned
the text, made sense of it, and made connections to real
life experiences.

There is no end, no conclusion to "Value". I will be
reflecting on the lessons this study has taught me for years
to come. Perhaps the most important thing I learned from
this research project is to just shut-up and listen.

Because I wanted to be solicitant rather than directive, I
deliberately sat on my tongue. This was made possible in
part by the open nature of the questions I posed for
"Value." Thus, throughout the interviews, I was in position
to only request further information based on their previous
statement. My often used line was: "Please tell me more
about that..." In these spaces the students became the
teachers, seriously schooling me on the novels. They knew
what they said mattered and that they were making valuable
contributions to a project that may change the way teachers
think about teaching historical novels about African

American experiences in this country.

Closing Note

The sub-title I adopted for this chapter comes from
ease—dropping on a conversation in which Michael Moore was
talking about improving his son’s game. He said, "I keep
telling him always, always play like you are one down."10

"Playin like I’m 1 down" defines my pedagogical stance, it

222
reminds me that I have a way to go but my goal of helping
students become critical readers, thinkers, and writers of

our tomorrows is within reach.

M ermine

r .-. ...—1.:

l." 1.

CHAPTER ONE NOTES

1. Molefi Asante describes the Diaspora as Africa, the
Americas, the Caribbean, various regions of Asia and the
Pacific, wherever people are who declare themselves African
despite the distance from the .African continent or the
recentness of their out-migration (1990, p.15).

2. For additional information on the Herskovits-Frazier
Debate please see Africenisms in American Culture (Holloway,

1990), .Afro—American.Anthropology: Contemporary Perspecrives

(Whitten and Szwed, 1970), and The Negro Church rn America
(Frazier, 1963).

3. The context in which passing occurs varies for example
from Black individuals who because of White physical features
adopt the White race and culture as their own, to those with
identifiable Black features but choose to "live" in White
Culture (See Haney Lopez, page 49).

4. The use of a lowercase "w" here indicates that the
reference is not to racial identification but to cultural
preference.

5. The Logans were not able to pay Mr. Morrison much money,
therefore he primarily worked for food and shelter and the
sense of belonging to a family that came with being with them.

6. For more on this discussion about the meanings created by
readers based on ideological codes, see Umberto Eco’s The Role

of the Reader: Explorations in the Semeiorics of Texrs.

7. Diane's statement here comes from a conversation we
shared in June, 1995. For a fuller discussion of her thoughts
on the selective tradition and African American literature
please see pages 144-164 of Ingpiry and Reflection: Framing

Narrative Practice in Education (Brunner, 1994).
CHAPTER TWO NOTES

8. Here I have borrowed bell hooks’ term to describe the
nature of American society. For a more detailed examination
of the term see her works: Black Looks: Race and
Representations and Outlaw Culture: Resisting
Representations.

223

224

CHAPTER SIX NOTES

9. For a more elaborate discussion of Malcolm X’s statement
and on "naming" please see Kimberly W. Benston’s "I yam what
I am: the topos of un(naming) in Afro-American literature" in

Black Literature & Literary Theory edited by Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., New York: Routledge, 1990, pp. 151-174.

CHAPTER SEVEN NOTES

10. This comment comes from a personal conversation between
Michael Moore, myself and several others at the National
Council of Teachers of English Spring Conference, March 1995,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

APPENDICES

Appendix A

 

STUDIES

thwwuncammMenl
some who.
unmeamhds
(muss)
HammnSuhUmnnh
2:5 mumsuam Balding
BI mm W

dBfldOfi

517355-21”
EM 517/432-1171

“$0 I) an stratum
.u W M

MICHIGAN STATE

UNIVERSITY

January 25, 1995

T0: Rashidah J. Muhammad

Deg: of in lish

5 rrill all

RI: IRBI: 96-50l
TITLI: VALUI AND AUTHENTICITY: YOUNG ADULT READERS TO

AFRICAN MIRICAI LITIRATURI A
gggggggg REQUESTED: Ila J
:

appnovu. oars: 01/21/95 2.53?“

The University Committee on Research Involving Human Sub ects'tucnIHS)

review of this project is complete. I am pleased to adv so that the

rights and welfare of the human subjects appear to be adequately
rotected and methods to obtain informed consent are appropriate.

herefore,
listed

IIVIIIOIII

nouns]
csawoss :

If we can
at (517)35

Dlflzpjm
cc: Diane D. Brunner

 

the UCRIRS approved this project including any revision

above.

DCRIfls approval is valid for one calendar year, beginning with
the approval date shown above. Investigators planning to
continue a project be and one year must use the green renewal
form (enclosed with t a original approval letter or when a
proi:ct is renewed) to seek u ate certification. There is a
max um of four such expedit renewals ssible. Investigators
wishing to continue a reject beyond tha time need to submit it
again or complete rev ew.

UCRIHS must review any changes in rocedures involving human
subjects, rior to in tiation of t a change. If this is done at
the time o renewal, please use the green renewal form. 0
revise an ap roved protocol at any 0 her time during the year
send your wr tten request to the China Chair, requesting revised
approval and referencing the project's 1R8 I and title. Include
in ur request a descr ption of the change and any revised

ins ruments, consent forms or advertisements that are applicable.

Should either of the followin arise during the course of the
work, investi store must noti UCRIHB romptly: 11) problems
(unexpected e de effects comp aints, e c.) involv ng uman
subjects or {fig changes in the research environment or new
information icating greater risk to the human sub acts than
existed when the protocol was previously reviewed approved.

be pf any future help& please do not hesitate to contact us

5-2 80 or FAX (517)3 171.

 

225

Appendix B-1

Parental Consent Form

1, , grant permission for u

 

( lease rint arent le al uardian’s nam )

my son or daughter, , I

to (please print sonZdaughter’s name)

 

participate in Rashidah Jaami’ Muhammad’s research study
"Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond to
African American Literature." In this ten-week study, I
understand that my child will read and respond to three

commonly-used classroom novels:

Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer, Ouida Sebestyen’s Wgrde By

IHeart, and Mildred Taylor’s Rgll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

I understand that the novels noted above along with

:notebooks, and pens/pencils will be provided for my child by

Rashidah Jaami’ Muhammad.

226

The reading/responding time chart will look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

Week Reading Notes Questions Talks

One Slave X

Two Slave X F
Three Slave X X i
Four Words X L
Five Words X

Six Words X X

Seven Roll X

Eight Roll X

Nine Roll X X

Ten All X

 

As noted on the previous page, my child will have three
weeks to read and respond to each novel. On the third and
final week of each book, my son/daughter will be requested
to answer four or five questions specially written for that
novel. Following the reading of all three novels, my child
will meet and talk with Rashidah about the whole reading
experience. I understand that these talks will be tape

recorded. Since this study is built on what students think

228

about these novels, my son/daughter will have the option of
deleting and/or re-stating any comment he/she does not feel
accurately reflects his/her thoughts. Additionally, my
child may request that tape-recording be stopped at any
time.

If my child does not feel comfortable answering the
questions, he/she will not be compelled to continue

participation in that session or in the project.

 

I understand that my child will be awarded a
certificate acknowledging his/her participation in the
study. Also there will be a group dinner at a local
restaurant following the completion of the study.

I have indicated my willingness for my son/daughter to
participate in this reading/response study by signing on the

"yes" line below.

date

 

 

Yes, My Son/Daughter may participate in the

reading/response study described above.

date

 

 

No, My Son/Daughter may not participate in the

reading/response study described above.

Appendix B—2

Student Consent Form
I, , am willing to
please print your legal name participate in Rashidah Jaami’
Muhammad’s research study "Value and Authenticity: Young
Adult Readers Respond to African American Literature." In
this ten-week study, I understand that I will read and

respond to three commonly—used classroom novels:

Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer, Ouida Sebestyen’s Words By

 

Heart, and Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Heer My Cry. I
understand that the novels noted above along with notebooks,
and pens/pencils will be provided for me by Rashidah Jaami’
Muhammad.

The reading/responding time chart will look like this:

 

 

Week Reading Notee, Queetions TeThe
One STeye X
Two STeye X
Three STeye X
Four Tgrde X
Five flgrde X
Six Egrde X
Seven hgTT X
Eight hgTT X
Nine Roll X
Ten All

 

229

230

 

As noted in the chart above, I will have three weeks to read
and respond to each novel. On the third and final week of
each book, I agree to answer four or five questions
specially written for that novel. Following the reading of
all three novels, I will meet and talk with Rashidah about
the whole reading experience. I also understand that these
talks will be tape recorded. Since this study is built on
what students think about these novels, I will have the
option of deleting and/or re—stating any comment that I feel

does not accurately reflect my thoughts.

Additionally, I may request that the tape recording be
stopped at any time. If I do not feel comfortable answering
any of the questions, I will not be compelled to continue

participation in that session or in the project.

I understand that I will be awarded a certificate
acknowledging my participation in the study. I also
understand that there will be a group dinner at a local
restaurant following the completion of the study for all the

participants.

I have indicated my willingness to participate in this

reading/response study by signing on the "yes" line below.

231

date

 

 

Yes, I agree to participate in the reading/response study

described above.

date

 

 

No, I do not agree to participate in the reading/response

study described above.

Appendix C

Name

 

Date

 

The Slave Dancer

Note: Any time you need.more space, please feel free to use
the back of the page or additional paper.

Thank you,

1. First imagine yourself aboard the Moonlight, then

describe your life on the journey from Louisiana to Africa
and back from Africa to Louisiana. (If you choose to draw
your description, then please add a note explaining what is

happening to you aboard the Moonlight.)

232

2.

233

Please tell me what you think about the language

people talked) in The Slave Dancer?

(the way

""‘wmn—i“ sniff-Ii?

—.&l"_
1‘

234

3. What does The Slave Dancer tell you about being Black?

235

4. a) What do you believe to be true about The Slave Dancer?

236
4. b) What do you believe to be false about The Slave

Dancer?

Appendix D-1

 

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0

Winner of the-."Neu;berylMedaIf

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237

Appendix D~2

Inner

W
.m
m
.h
.m
m
W.

Newbe

A

 

238

Appendix E

Name

 

Date

 

Words By Heart

Note: Any time you need more space, please feel free to use
the back of the page or additional paper.

Thank you,

1. Imagine that you are in a Bible verse contest like the
one talked about in the first part of the book, please tell

me what would happen.

239

240
2. Please tell me about Mrs. Chism, why do you think she is

important to the story?

241
3. Imagine you are Lena, what would you do after you found

your Dad shot and bleeding?

242

4. a) What do you believe to be true about Words By Heert?

243

4. b) What do you believe to be false about Words By Heart?

244

5. a) What does Words By Heart tell you about being Black?

245
5. b) Please draw or write out your feelings about this

book, Words By Heart.

Appendix F

Name

 

Date

 

Roll of Thunderr,Hear My Cry
Note: Any time you need more space, please feel free to use
the back of the page or additional paper.

Thank you,

1. Please tell me about your favorite character in Roll of

Thunder. Hear My Cry.

246

247
2. Would you like to go to school in Mississippi in 1933?
Please write about the teachers, the students, the books,

and the school bus in Roll of Thunder. Hear My Cry.

248
3. Why do you think Big Ma made Cassie apologize to Lillian

Jean?

249
4. a) First imagine that you are T.J., now, please tell me

about yourself.

250
4. b) What does Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tell you about

being Black?

251
5. a) What do you believe to true about Roll of Thunder,

Hear My Cry?

252
5. b) What do you believe to be false about Roll of Thunder.

Hear My Cry?

REFERENCES

LIST OF REFERENCES

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness" in Hopes and Impediments. Garden
City, NY: Doubleday, 1989. pp.1-20.

Aitken, Johan Lyall. "Children’s Literature and the
Sociology of School Knowledge: Can This Marriage Be
Saved." in Curriculum Inquiry 18:2 (1988) pp. 196-216.

Akbar, Na'im. Chains and Images of Psyghologigal Slavery.
Jersey City, NJ: New Mind Productions, 1984.

Anderson, Nancy. "Using Children’s Literature to Teach Black
American History." The Social Studies. March/April
1987. pp. 88-89.

Angelou, Maya. Maya Angelou: Poeme. New York: Bantam Books,
1986.

Apple, Michael W. Teachers & Texts: A Political Economy of
Class & Gender Relations in Education. New York:

Routledge, 1986.

 

Asante, Molefi K. Afrocentricity. Trenton, N.J: Africa
World Press. 1989.

Banfield, Beryle. "Books on African American Themes: A
Recommended Book List." Interracial Booke for Children
Bulletin: 16:7. (1985) pp. 4-8.

-—-- "Guidelines for Choosing Books on African American
Themes." Interracial Books for Children Bullehin: 16:7.
(1985) pp. 9-11.

Banfield, Beryle. and Geraldine L. Wilson. "The Black
Experience through White Eyes--The Same Old Story Once

Again." nterracial Books for Children Bulletin: 14:5
(1983) pp. 4-13.

Banks, James, A. Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991.

Baraka, Amiri. "Afro-American Literature & Class Struggle."
in Daggers and Javeline: Essays 1974 - 1979. New York:
Morrow, 1984.

---- "The Revolutionary Tradition in Afro-American

Literature." Selected Plays and Prose of Amiri
BarakaZLeroi Jones. New York: Morrow, 1979.

253

254

Barksdale, Richard. and Keneth Kinnamon eds. Blagk Writers

of America: A Comprehensive Anthology. New York:
Macmillian, 1972.

Baxter, Kathy. "Words ByrHeart: A White Perspective."
Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 11:7 (1980)
p.18.

Beach, Fay Wilson. and Glyger Beach "Words by Heart: An

Analysis of its Theology." Interracial Books fgr
Children Bulletin 11:7 (1980) pp. 16-17.

Beach, Richard. A Teacher’s Introduction to Reader-Response
Theories. Urbana, IL: NCTE. 1993.

Berry, Faith. (ed). Good Morning Revolution Uncolleghed
Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes. New York:
Lawrence Hill & Co. 1973.

Bishop, Rudine Sims. "Fifty Years of Exploring Children’s

Books" in Transactions with Literature: A Fifty-Year
Perspective For Louise Rosenblat; ed. by Edmund J.
Farrell and James R. Squire. Urbana, IL: National
Council of Teachers of English. 1990.

pp. 1-11.

----"Walk Tall in the World: African American Literature for

Today’s Children." deprnel gf Negrg Educahion 59:4
(1990). pp. 556-565.

——-- "Multicultural Literature for Children: Making Informed
Choices." in Teaching Multicultural Lirerature in
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