Literature to Fight Discrimination

Discrimination has been part of our country since its conception. First it was the Native Americans, then the African Americans, and more recently Muslims or those who participate in Islamic traditions. As a society we have always been leery of those who are different. Whether those differences presented themselves in skin color, traditional practices, or religious beliefs, we began cataloguing those discrepancies in distinct ways. Such profiling has slowly seeped into the world of literature, and instead of using the texts to fight prejudices, they are serving to add fuel to the fire.

In his essay, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. states that teachers need to use literature as a tool to teach students how similar the various cultures are, as opposed to focusing only on what separates them. Though the traditions and religious beliefs are different in many ways, there are many cultures that overlap in a sense. That is, they may practice something in a unique way, but the core concept stays the same. Christmas comes to mind as an example—however many different ways it is celebrated around the world, it has still become a commercialized holiday where children receive gifts from Santa Claus or Father Christmas or Papa Noel.

Literature is universal, meaning that it is a valuable instrument to fighting prejudices and discrimination around the world. But breaking it up into categories of black canon and white canon and so on is part of the problem. Children need to be taught that uniqueness is something to aspire to, not something to shun, and therefore moving past this idea of “canon literature” is important.

The old cliché “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” is overused but relevant. For many it is nearly impossible to fully immerse themselves in a different culture. Literature makes that possible, because in a couple hundred pages these authors offer the reader a glimpse into a world they may not be able to totally understand, but hopefully learn something from. Any piece of writing that rightfully belongs in the category of literature overall is there for a reason, usually because it makes the unrelatable relevant, even for just those few hundred pages.

Gates probably believes there are more similarities in cultures than there are differences, if only humanity would take the time to look. Removing the stereotypes from literature could be the first step in absolving them all together from our society. Children are heavily influenced by what they see and what they read, so teachers and schools need to take the initiative to teach literature as a whole topic, without subcategories based on race or culture or other discriminative subjects.