Content area
Full Text
Mario Worlds and Cody Miller argue that to disrupt racial hierarchies we must purposefully disrupt the canon of literature.
Racial hierarchies within English courses are perpetuated by the reverence for the literary canon. When left unchallenged, the canon is a weapon of the colonial project, which perpetuates Eurocentrism and violence against people of color (Durand and Jiménez-García). Often, canonical texts that are used to discuss racism, such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, are centered on White characters' experiences learning about racism and/or take place in the past: Invisible Man and Black Boy are examples. While texts associated with the canon certainly have a place in English classrooms, we worry that neglecting contemporary texts that address racism results in students associating racism with the past. Legislation and policy have added to this concern.
For instance, the Common Core State Standards draw from canonical texts and Newbery Award winners that are overwhelmingly historical narratives, which can lead students and teachers to believe racism is a relic of the past (Thein and Beach). Meredith Sinclair criticized the exemplary texts set that accompanies the Common Core as being "colonized by whiteness" for centering White authors as being "worthy of study" while largely omitting or marginalizing authors of color (90). Subsequently, teachers' inability to challenge the status and content of the canon emboldens a hierarchy that places White characters learning about racism over characters of color experiencing racism. In short, an uncritical acceptance of the canon prevents students from addressing racism in its contemporary contexts.
As educators and researchers-Mario is a Black cisgender straight male, and Cody is a White cisgender gay male-it is our belief that English language arts classrooms must be sites to name, challenge, and ultimately dismantle oppressive systems. Traditional canonical curriculum and pedagogy will only reinforce the systems we seek to disrupt. Young adult literature, when paired with intentional pedagogical choices, is a powerful tool to fulfill our aims. E. Sybil Durand and Marilisa Jiménez-García argue that young adult literature allows students to "engage social issues that the established canon obscures" (16). Jason Reynolds's Miles Morales: Spider-Man is a text that opens conversations about contemporary manifestations of racism. Reynolds's novel can be part of a larger effort to reimagine the...