My Time Among the Whites by Jennine Capó Crucet

MY TIME AMONG THE WHITES by Jennine Capó Crucet is a series of essays about the author’s Latinx experience. I have been moved by her writing in the past, particularly the difficulties of being a first generation college student which she featured in her earlier novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers. Here, she revisits some of that time and those feelings as well as writing about events like how her name was chosen and about her marriage to a white man with the difficulties of honoring both of their families’ traditions at the ceremony. Crucet also comments on the American Dream (especially as a child of Cuban immigrants), on her relationship with her father, and on wanting to be a writer and professor. These essays, which the author calls "notes from an unfinished education," will provide another perspective as we continue to work on ideas related to equity this year at school. Here are just a few examples of comments that will prompt reflection: “How many times did you see version of yourself in charge of your learning community?” and “If something feels unfair to you as a white person, it’s likely that equality is actually being achieved in that moment.” Crucet writes openly and frankly about belonging and about being viewed as different; she thereby elicits a range of emotions from humor to anger to hope. Booklist recommends MY TIME AMONG THE WHITES for teen readers, saying “Crucet's culture clash with her foreign-born parents and school experiences will resonate with young people of color.”

10/11/19 Update: Crucet's novel was assigned for Freshman classes at Georgia Southern.  Hard to believe that some students had such an extreme and negative reaction.  They need a second semester assignment - and a chance to discuss Crucet's newest work along with DiAngelo's White Fragility.

American Values ...

WE THE PEOPLE: The 500-Year Battle Over Who Is American by Ben Railton is part of the American Ways Series from Rowman & Littlefield. Railton is Professor of English Studies and Coordinator of American Studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.  In this new text he provides a general introduction, noting that ‘we’ is “an ambiguous pronoun” which has “consistently moved between two poles,” an exclusionary one and an inclusive one. Railton then uses eight chapters to discuss specific “case studies” from the history of the Americas, such as the Conquistadors, later Indian removal, Chinese exclusion, Japanese internment and discrimination against Muslims to illustrate his points, often by citing actions AND reactions of lesser known figures. The xenophobic and white supremacist comments he includes from the 1920s are chilling. Of course, this is also such a timely topic – The New York Times recently ran an article on What Makes an American? and today published a story on changing policy relative to green card holders.  

Although Railton clearly favors one perspective, he advocates for greater understanding and notes a significant number of sources, many of which, like Roger Daniels’ Coming to America, are in our collection and used frequently.  One that Railton neglected to mention is A Place at the Table by Maria Fleming which is similar in that it discusses (although much more briefly) several of the same examples of exclusionary practices in a generally chronological format. Also worth noting is Linda R. Monk’s use of numerous primary sources (and again, a chronological presentation) in her text titled Ordinary Americans that looks more at everyday experiences. Overall, Railton’s additional suggestions appear especially useful in that they encompass a number of publishers and relatively recent titles.  

JEFFERSON, MADISON, AND THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION by Jeff Broadwater is a newly published work from The University of North Carolina Press. Broadwater is an historian who has written texts about James Madison, George Mason and also about other revolutionary founders. This latest work is clearly well-researched (roughly a fourth of the book is notes and source lists) and likely to be of interest to faculty members. Broadwater makes the points “neither Jefferson nor Madison got the Constitution that he really wanted” and offers a thorough exploration of the two men’s “evolution of thought,” particularly in the context of events between 1776 and 1789. 

I originally requested  a preview of this title because I thought it might be used in our Civics classes in order to probe some of the history and concepts related to the Constitution.  Unfortunately, I think Broadwater’s text is too dense and assumes too much prior knowledge of American history (on the part of our students) to be useful in that way for high school classes. Other academics and historians are more likely to appreciate his work in comparing and contrasting these two statesmen, debating, for example Broadwater’s summary comment: “Jefferson left a more profound imprint on the American psyche. Madison made a greater impact on American law.”

Hands Up, Don't Shoot, Exposing Hate and Notes from the Field

Some members of our faculty and administration are in the midst of reading White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo this summer. Here are comments regarding a few other related texts.

HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT by Jennifer E. Cobbina will be published by New York University Press on July 30th which is extremely timely considering its subtitle (Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter, and How They Changed America) and the way that Baltimore has been in the news in the last several days. Cobbina is Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University and she worked with other academics to interview participants at protests following the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. In a half dozen chapters, she describes findings on race and policing, writes about Black police officers, and explores why protestors marched. In addition to providing some historical context, she offers a suggestion that “the issue is not exclusively about the race of police officers but about the nature of police organizations and how they systematically police poor communities of color.” In addition, Cobbina was able to conduct and review interviews from almost 200 people and to look for patterns, concluding in part that “the most involved and committed protestors vowed to engage in future activist efforts …. while, for those who were less committed, oppressive tactics by police appeared to serve as a deterrent.” She goes further and provides a look at some of the complex factors involved (e.g., unemployment rates, poverty levels, single parent households, social media influence). Roughly a fourth of this well-researched text is devoted to appendices (on demographics of the protestors and research methods), notes, references, and a helpful index. HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT received a starred review from Library Journal and will be an invaluable resource for our students, especially those in Civics and/or Psychology classes (perhaps investigating the flashpoint model, culture of resistance, implicit bias, etc.) as well as others interested in this multi-faceted topic for Junior Theme research.

EXPOSING HATE by Michael Miller explores “Prejudice, Hatred, and Violence in Action” and Booklist calls it “a necessary book on a hot-button social issue.” Geared to high school students, this non-fiction text is only 144 pages long. A possible starting point for research, it simply defines a hate group as “an organization that attacks or harms an entire group of people for characteristics they cannot change.” In addition, Miller notes statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center which officially recognized 457 hate groups in 1999 as opposed to the increased number of 954 active hate groups in 2017. He writes about hate crimes both against people and against property, noting that hate groups “promote extremist views,” and discusses racially motivated events in Charlottesville and Charleston.  Although, Miller provides examples of anti-gay, anti-immigrant, and anti-Semite actions, other groups (e.g., indigenous peoples) are largely overlooked. He does acknowledge that “research shows that when a person meets and gets to know something about someone who is different from them, they gain a better understanding of the other person.  They begin to rethink existing prejudices.” EXPOSING HATE has a glossary, well-documented source notes (often from media outlets), a selected bibliography and a very helpful list of relevant books, films, and websites. Students could pair parts of this with the “go back” stories recently published by the New York Times.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD by Anna Deavere Smith, a native of Baltimore, focuses mostly on the school-to-prison-pipeline. This work was originally performed as a one person play and is the most recent installment in what Smith, an award-winning actress and activist, considers her “life’s work:” a series of plays titled “On the Road: A Search for American Character.” Smith says “central to my creative process is active listening” and she therefore interviewed about 250 people from around the country (Maryland, South Carolina, Northern California, and Pennsylvania).  The monologues that she performs represent about seventeen voices selected to “reflect the variety of people caught up in the school-to-prison-pipeline: students, parents, counselors, administrators, prisoners, preachers and politicians.”  The first features Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Others are meant to voice views about the death of Freddie Gray or comments from James Baldwin, Bryan Stevenson and Congressman John Lewis, all of which are incorporated later in the work. First performed in 2015, NOTES FROM THE FIELD was subsequently made into a movie for television by HBO. Since this work can actually be performed with any number of actors, I have already spoken with faculty members about possible projects for our students. Anna Deavere Smith herself hopes that her work "can usefully contribute to an ongoing debate;" she makes a call for "a reimagining that requires courage, empathy and action."