Discussion Post

When I was reading Thomas' blog post about Rue symbolizing the mockingjay in The Hunger Games book, the connections made about racializing human characteristics really resonated with me. Specifically, when Thomas wrote that because Collins made Rue the symbol of innocence, readers automatically assumed that she was White. In addition, Thomas wrote, "...essential qualities such as goodness, beauty, innocence and truth have been so often racialized as White in literature and media that ascribing them to other groups is seen as transgressive even when White people are not part of the conversation, the art, or the representation." Thus, it seems that good qualities in individuals are seen as White and that people of color cannot attain those qualities, unless they become White.

Connecting this to hook's piece, hooks writes that, "young black people are encouraged by the dominant culture...to believe that assimilation is the only possible way to survive, to succeed" (p. 76-77). This sentence connected the two pieces for me because it seems like the only way for people of color to have good qualities is to assimilate into the dominant culture and to leave their own culture behind.

This idea led me to pose these discussion questions: How can we as educators not instill this mindset onto our students of color? Furthermore, how can we prevent ourselves from contributing to the racialization of literature and media that occurs in this society?

Carol Wu, Erin Barno, Kakas Rish, Celestina Lee, Ryan Torpie