The standard technique of trying to teach classroom of white students that
they should be ashamed of who they are because of the color of their skin
is not going to work. Students are not going to respond positively to
reading assignments that do this. I've team taught classes that were given
afrocentric literature with the assumption that they would read it and
immediately see the error of their ethnicity and embrace the content. What
it did was unleash a lot of rage and resentments in the students. It is no
more effective than going into a classroom of Hispanic or African American
students and trying and convince them that they were flawed and that they
needed to change in fundamental ways.
Changing deeply seated attitudes is not easy. Exposure and literature will
not do alone. Students are bombarded by this type of content from first
grade on. By the time they reach college they are inured to it.
George K. Cunningham
University of Louisville