How Do We Teach “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Honestly Confront Racism?
Harper Lee’s novel is the closest thing America's had to required reading. But the book’s failings in confronting racism are more apparent than ever to White educators—and Black ones wonder what took so long.
I am sitting in my eighth-grade civics class learning what it is to be an American. Around me, the cool kids wear Abercrombie & Fitch, and I do too, ever since I persuaded my parents to buy me some. (I cycle relentlessly through my three precious items; one is a dark olive-green “muscle T” whose purpose is entirely lost on my slight frame.) Our textbook cover bears the rippling glory of the stars and stripes. In it, we learn about the three branches of government and major Supreme Court cases. We read and discuss novels like Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mock...