The Tragic Work of My English Essay
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ANY DERROGATORY VOCABULARY USED IS ONLY TO SUPPORT AS EVIDENCE AND NOT MEANT IN A DEMEANING MANNER.
As concern, backlash, and uproar over issues pertaining or relating to racism continue to ravage modern day America, many parents and educators question themselves, asking, “Are students reading racial slurs in books the core of this problem? Would banning these books help settle the unrest and prevent future incidents?” Rosa Parks once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome,” and I believe the education of such topics using racial slurs helps out students in further comprehending the extent of how harsh reality was during certain eras.
Reading books containing racial slurs provides future generations with insight of the darker times in human history, which should never be repeated. As teachers teach about an era of racism, words that are considered racial slur further put into context how demeaning and racist Americans were. “ ‘You niggers done killed Jim Lee’ ” (Taylor 247), a line in the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry helps students realize how derogatory and demeaning these slurs are as well as how low African-Americans were treated in the social hierarchy of the South. “ ‘Scout, ’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything — like snot-nose… ’ ”another example from To Kill a Mockingbird stresses how commonly accepted these phrases were and how often slurs were used in everyday conversations. These phrases further students understanding of conditions of an era of racism.
Great literature often surrounds controversial topics. Some disputable ideas including racism, commonly use vulgar language as the author tries to create a sense of what is was like to live in that time period through the main character’s eyes. Without use of these words in such touchy subjects, generations and generations of students will be left in the dark about the true culture of that age and left to face the harsh reality of the world. Mario Balotelli once said, “You can’t delete racism. It’s like a cigarette. You can’t stop smoking if you don’t want to, and you can’t stop racism if people don’t want to. But I’ll do everything I can to help.” These words are bound to be discovered by curious minds. If school’s were to teach these books involving racial slurs, students will not only gain a deeper understanding of the topic, but stone cold facts and a grasp of how demeaning and hurtful these words can be. A good English teacher would be able to erase these previous misconceptions and hopefully prevent the student from wounding others both physically and emotionally with the hurtful power contained in these words. The truth is, without enriching these students with the words in these books, teenage slang would distort the true definition of these words and spread a demeaning message that it is okay to use these words in everyday speech.
The hot topic of racism has existed for centuries and teaching of these books provides many benefits. Educating students with the message these literary works can help students gain a worldly view of how these themes pertain to their everyday lives. Even after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is still largely considered victory, minorities and African-Americans are still specifically targeted as shown in the Justice Department’s review of the Ferguson Police Department yet the common white man/woman can get away with the same crime because of their ethnicity. Racial slurs in the conveying of lessons taught by books such as Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and To Kill A Mockingbird helps further instill the message and hopefully prevent future phases in human evolution that finds being rude to others based on race acceptable.
At times, the building blocks of showing a student how the setting of a story at one point in time was reality further immerses one into the story and its lesson. The use of words to describe someone including nigger, ape, and animal are derogatory but help a student comprehend the culture of that era and how to prevent further occurrences in history of such incidents. Knowing one’s faults after all is the key to improving, persevering, and succeeding. And in the words of Roger Ebert, “Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other ‘isms’ grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.”
Feel free to note anything you would like whether critical or kind. I know this essay could be 100x better but truth be told, I found this to be a boring topic. The locks and constraints an 8th grade English teacher places on your literary works are inevitable whether a student likes it or not, in my case, I found the essay stupid and a waste of my time as it could be better spent talking about racism in general, racial inequaility, and gender inequality. Please be aware of the actions you take before you write down your note as it will be something you will not be able to take back. Think before you act.
