![]() When putting a face to the N-word, in their minds, most people would probably conjure up an image of good ol’ (Uncle?) Tom. Tom Robinson never becomes a man in the eyes of the reader. These reckonings, coming from Harper Lee, a white woman who was raised in the South during the time in which her book is set, are inherently reductive of the black community. We only ever get to know the black characters as they are viewed by the white characters within the story. All of them lack depth or lives extricated from those of the white characters that they seem to orbit. Every black character in To Kill a Mockingbird is used to further the plots of the white characters. Now that I do, I feel obligated to do just that. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t have the language to express these thoughts and feelings. Over and over while being submerged in this storyline, the same thoughts kept running through my mind, Why am I in this show? Why are we so happy to be playing maids and puppets? Why do people like this so much? Calpurnia is the Finch’s maid and a manifestation of the Mammy caricature Tom Robinson is stripped of his masculinity and his humanity at the imagination of a white woman (and I don’t mean Mayella) as his family (of disposable characters), as well as black students, are forced to watch and endure from our very own classrooms. Most or all of them were written using controlling images. This didn’t quite sit right with me the first time I heard it and I later realized why.Į very black character in the story is written into a position of inferiority. For one thing, there was all the talk heralding the show for having more diversity than past school productions have had. ![]() ![]() I was still sorting through my weighted opinion of the storyline and it felt hypocritical to openly speak out against the book when I was playing a small part in the City High production of the play. Sotillo’s English class, I had mixed feelings. When we read To Kill a Mockingbird last year in Ms. Historically, blacks have always been silenced in the attempt to speak, express their views, and articulate their feelings, especially if accounts of their experiences make people uncomfortable. If you’re asking whether or not I’m shocked that the black narrative has been completely removed from today’s conversation on Mockingbird, I would have to say no. However, removing the book from a reading list when it has so many anti-black messages in it that you must start to question the weight of its educational value? That just seems like common sense to me. Supporters argue that the use of the N-word is critical to achieving historic authenticity and to censor the book or its use in classroom discussions is counter-productive. Banning the book on the grounds of discomfort is insufficient. Non-black people will, fortunately, never have to experience the pain or the pressure that enters your chest whenever your entire race has been reduced to a single word. ![]() I would agree with this statement, considering the fact that any non-black person’s reaction to the use of the N-word will only ever stop at discomfort. Despite this fact, supporters of Harper Lee’s notorious novel say that banning the book on the grounds of discomfort is insufficient. According to the LA Times, the N-word is used nearly 50 times throughout the book. The part of the decision that seems to be receiving the most ridicule? A statement released by the vice president of the school board saying that the language used in the book made and makes people uncomfortable. In the wake of a school district in Biloxi, Mississippi removing To Kill A Mockingbird from an 8th-grade reading list, there has been a lot of talk (most of it critical) surrounding the decision. ![]()
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