Diversity in the English Curriculum
Over the past five years of taking English in the Upper School, the mission statement of the curriculum has been made clear: it seeks to educate students on themes of social justice by exploring stories of racialized oppression. While it is admirable to see Havergal make a concerted effort to incorporate diverse voices and stories into our English classes, there seems to be a theme linking a majority of the books we read to one another—the fact that they are mostly written from a white perspective. Some examples:
The Secret Life of Bees—the audience learns that racism is bad from the perspective of a white girl.
To Kill a Mockingbird—the audience learns that racism is bad from the perspective of a white girl.
Black Like Me—the audience learns that racism is bad, but this time from a white man.
A handful of literature in this program does not effectively fulfill the program’s goal of sharing authentic experiences regarding race from the mouths of BIPOC people, but rather simply explain racisms’ existence to those who have never personally experienced it—white people. By telling these stories with a white voice, the program undermines its own message; it prioritizes the feelings and experiences of white people while underplaying and sanitizing realities that people of color struggle with every day.
When books written by BIPOC people are introduced to the classroom, they are either set decades in the past, or in a completely different country. Usually both. The Vanishing Half is a good example of this: though penned by a black author, it concerns social issues that existed—and still exist—in the United States, and so our class conversations were rooted completely in an American context. Fuzzy black and white pictures capturing the segregation of the Jim Crow era were flashed before my eyes in a darkened classroom once again. I somehow learned even more about the evils of the United States, while remaining clueless about how to apply this knowledge to an accessible, meaningful context—a Canadian context.
Canadian racism is different from American racism due to varying social, political, and economic factors. Canadian racism exists in the centuries of institutionalized oppression weaponized violently against Indigenous people in a slew of different forms; deeprooted bias against Asian-Canadians, the origins of which can be traced back to the slave-like exploitation of Chinese immigrants during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, as well as the orientalist fetishization of various Asian cultures; the xenophobia endured largely in silence by the waves of immigrants who are encouraged to come to this country but then shunned; the anti-black hatred ignored and underplayed at every turn due to the fact that it doesn’t fit with Canada’s image as the U.S’ liberal, friendly neighbor. Canadian racism is kept quiet. It’s swept under the rug. It’s pushed aside as we point to the United States’ louder, more boisterous problems, packaged into consumable, sensational novels detailing experiences that are separated from our school by layers of cultural difference and decades of time. It’s easier to confront that which does not apply to us. It’s easier to shake our heads in judgment rather than shame.
By focusing the English program so thoroughly on the experiences of black Americans either during or before the civil rights movement, the modern-day experiences of racialized Canadians are erased. We, as students, are taught that racism is an antiquated thing of the past, a concept that may still exist, but in a faded, pallid way compared to its former glory. We are taught that the only type of racism that exists is the American version, and that it exists only in the clear-cut, easily identifiable segregation of the Jim Crow south. Though an effort is being made to teach us that racism still exists all around us, the white savior narratives carried in many of the books we read do more harm than good to the minority communities they claim to represent; that the struggles of Indigenous, Asian-Canadians, black-Canadians, Middle-Eastern Canadians and more are just as valid and important to discuss; that our country has its own problems that could fill several curriculums worth of content.
It’s commendable that Havergal, in recent years, has taken to reshaping and recontextualizing the English program to teach us about important social issues. Of course, the curriculum is still undergoing development and changes, as it is quite new. However, the domination that historical fiction written by white people and set in the United States has on the program doesn’t have nearly as much of an impact on students as Canadian literature written by BIPOC and queer people would.
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If you wish to read more diverse books written by BIPOC/queer authors, I’ve compiled a list for you down below:
1. Indian Horse - a memoir about surviving the horrors of residential school, intergenerational trauma, addiction, and recovery.
2. They Said This Would Be Fun - a memoir from the perspective of a black woman detailing her experiences at Western University.
3. The Marrow Thieves - In a world where Indigenous people are harvested for their bone marrow, a young girl finds herself perpetually running for her life with a group of other Indigenous teens.
4. Do Not Say We Have Nothing - a young girl whose family immigrated to British Columbia from China seeks to piece together the stories of her family, explored from the multiple perspectives of her predecessors.
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If you wish to move beyond the boundaries of Canada:
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1. Elatsoe - an urban fantasy in which the myths of various cultures exist, a young Indigenous girl learns to use her ancestral powers, all while solving the murder of her cousin.
2. Cemetary boys - an intersectional narrative surrounding a trans gay teenager who lives in a Los Angeles Latinx community that can harness the magic of their ancestors.
3. Mexican Gothic - set in a small town in the Mexican countryside, Mexican Gothic weaves themes of eugenics, exploitation colonialism into an inventive and complex horror narrative.
4. White is for Witching - A gothic, creepy exploration into themes of family, loss, white supremacy, and fear.