Is To Kill a Mockingbird a Racist Book?

Is To Kill a Mockingbird a racist book?

I saw an article in the Washington Post about this the other day that raised some criticisms of the book that have prompted teachers, especially in the Mukilteo School District in Washington State, to challenge it and to say this should not be a part of our curriculum.

Not to remove it from school libraries, but to say this should not be required reading for our students.

So what do you think?

Let me leave a comment, let me know, and then I'll share my thoughts is To Kill a Mockingbird a racist book?

Does it have a place in the high school curriculum?

I think it's first important to acknowledge two things.

One, that the book definitely is about racism.

There is racism in To Kill a Mockingbird.

There is no denying that.

That doesn't necessarily mean the book is racist by itself.

Second, though, there is definitely the issue that the book is presented from a largely white perspective right like all the protagonists like all the speaking characters most of the main characters are white in this book so even though this book is about a black man who is falsely accused of a crime i wouldn't call him a a character that you know like students can really identify with or like he's not a protagonist character in the same way that Atticus Finch is.

And I think there are some good points to be made about that.

We need to make sure that our curriculum includes lots of books by lots of different authors that present lots of different perspectives and that different students can identify with and engage with.

And To Kill a Mockingbird may not be everybody's cup of tea.

So again, let me know what you think about this.

At the same time, I think we have to recognize that To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written.

It was an immediate bestseller.

It was a Pulitzer Prize winner.

It tackled a very difficult topic at a very difficult time.

It talked about criminal justice in the Jim Crow South during the, you know, it was published during the 1960s, set during the Great Depression.

And this was a tough set of issues to bring up and to challenge.

So I think the idea that we should just dismiss this novel as racist, like on one level, we've got to distinguish between a book that is about racism and a book that is actually racist.

On another level, I think we've got to recognize that there are no perfect books right there there are always going to be problems with any book that we choose nobody is going to feel 100 great about every book and a that's okay we need a variety and b that's kind of the point like students are going to be uncomfortable reading to kill a mockingbird And that's kind of the point.

Everybody should be uncomfortable with the racism of the Jim Crow South.

Everybody should be uncomfortable with what happens in To Kill a Mockingbird.

So that is not at all surprising, and it's kind of the point.

It's kind of the point of the book, and it's kind of the point of education to help students grapple with uncomfortable ideas, including ideas...

that are harmful by themselves.

Like, racism is harmful, but discussing racism and books that are about racism, I don't think are harmful.

I think what's harmful is when we're not thoughtful about it.

I think we do have to be very, very careful about how we teach books like To Kill a Mockingbird, but I don't think we need to shy away from teaching them.

There may be better books out there.

I'm not saying that this is the only book that is an option for the curriculum, and certainly we need to keep revisiting and debating the canon, but let me know what you think about To Kill a Mockingbird.