Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird Today

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Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird Today: Coming to Terms With Race, Racism, and America’s Novel Michael Macaluso This article combines frameworks of new racism and critical literature pedagogy to provide ideas and strategies for critically engaging, teaching, and reading with To Kill a Mockingbird.

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society in matters of style and substance…[and] elicit strong reactions across time, enriching America’s film heritage while continuing to inspire contemporary artists and audiences” (para. 2). Indeed, Atticus has earned his place in the fabric of U.S. life and culture. For example, President Barack Obama quoted this fictional character in his farewell address to the nation; a colleague of mine regularly wears a shirt that reads, “WWAD—What Would Atticus Do,” playing off the popular “What Would Jesus Do” adage; and a neighbor, who is not an English teacher, named his two dogs Atticus and Finch. Likewise, the Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good organization once tweeted, “Like Atticus Finch, Pope Francis wants us to use empathy & compassion w/others #FrancisFriday #ToKillAMockingbird” (CACG, 2015) with a picture of one of Atticus’s famous lines from the novel (“Most people are [real nice], Scout, when you finally see them”). Also, I once found an image of Atticus through a simple Google image search that I now use in my own classes: It depicts a Clark Kent–like Atticus ripping open his shirt to reveal a Superman-like costume beneath (see Figure 1). In the background are the phrases “Great American Hero” and “Real Courage & Perseverance.” Comparing Atticus w ith the Pope, Jesus, and Superman may seem extreme, but this is how people feel.

rom the year it was released, Harper Lee’s (1960/ 1982) To Kill a Mockingbird (henceforth TKAM) became an instant classic and classroom staple. Still in publication, it remains a top book taught in schools, as evidenced by a recent national survey where it was cited as the second most assigned text in the country (Stotsky, 2010). With the release of Lee’s (2015) Go Set a Watchman and the renewed interest in TKAM, it may be one of the most well-known works of American literature. In fact, in the well-received documentary Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird (Murphy, 2011) about Lee and her writing of the book, Oprah Winfrey referred to the novel as “our national novel. If there was a national novel award, this would be it for the United States. I think it’s the favorite novel of almost everyone you meet.” This sentiment tends to capture the general one about the book: People venerate it. For instance, the One Book, One Chicago series chose TKAM as its inaugural book in 2001 because “it continues to resonate as a representation of American culture, history and literature” (Chicago Public Library, 2001, para. 1). As a result of that program, the book “was borrowed by over 6,500 library patrons, including the circulation of 350 foreign language copies” (para. 2). Furthermore, TKAM “remains the most popular title chosen for ‘One Book, One City’ programs across the country” (para. 2). Needless to say, Oprah seemed to be right. People may also know about the critically acclaimed film starring Gregory Peck. In their 100 Years…100 Movies series celebrating U.S. cinema, the American Film Institute (AFI; 2003) named Atticus Finch the number one hero. He leads a list of 50 cinematic heroes whom the AFI argued “have made a mark on American

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MICHAEL MACALUSO is a fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and an assistant professor of the practice for English education at the University of Notre Dame, IN, USA; e-mail [email protected].

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Tom, the wrongly accused African American character, is used as a means to an end for the development of its white characters (e.g., Atticus, Scout, even Boo) and is given little agency in this story about race. In other words, in telling a story about race, the novel “frames Atticus Finch, a White man, as the hero and frames Tom Robinson, an African American man, as the helpless, crippled victim. The plot…centers on Atticus Finch as the antiracist savior who defends Tom Robinson in court” (Borsheim-Black, 2015, pp. 418–419). Further, whereas multicultural education has advocated for the use of texts with racial diversity (Banks, 1993; Banks & Banks, 2010; Nieto, 2002; Sleeter & McLaren, 1995), contemporary critical scholars (Kirkland, 2013; Thomas, 2016) have pointed out the problematic associations with the term multiculturalism, noting that it “props up the very things that it struggles against…it gives us a category to name the excluded” (Kirkland, 2013, paras. 4–5). In this sense, traditional multicultural education can run the risk of cultural tourism (Haddix, 2008; Lewis & Ketter, 2004) rather than critical perspective taking grounded in notions of difference and cultural diversity (Boyd, Causey, & Galda, 2015; Haddix & Price-Dennis, 2013; Macaluso, 2015). In considering Atticus and multiculturalism, TKAM, it seems, marginalizes its black characters to validate and tell a story by, about, and for its white protagonists (and intended readers). With the novel’s popular and adoring consensus, I wonder about the extent to which teachers and students across the country surface these more problematic issues and push back against its perceived multiculturalism when studying it. In light of this question, I argue that it is time to have a serious discussion about the book, despite its reputation and canonical persistence, especially if it is still going to be taught in schools today. Through this article, I urge educators of all levels to responsibly teach, discuss, and take up TKAM for what it is, for fear that it may otherwise perpetuate subtle racist ideologies in generations of students who continue to read it. Although educators may continue to teach TKAM, now may be the time to challenge its status, eschew its idealized notions, and confront its implicit racism. One way to do this is through a comparative lens of old and new racism.

Figure 1 “Atticus Finch, American Hero”

Note. Reprinted with permission from G. Mercado. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley. com.

Atticus, the champion against racism and a man before his time, has become a national icon in his own right. That icon, however, was nearly tarnished when Go Set a Watchman was published and word spread that Atticus was portrayed as racist. For a short time, details about this new book, Lee, Atticus, and TKAM dominated the news cycle, and many people refused to read the new book because they did not want their lofty, idealized depictions of Atticus and the original novel tarnished. After all, in a survey study of English teachers across the State of Michigan, Borsheim-Black (2012) found that many of those teachers, the majority of whom identified as white, use TKAM to teach multicultural issues and themes, particularly those connected to race, racism, and race relations in the Unites States. The adoration of the book and Atticus and the designation of the book as multicultural, however, are problematic for many reasons. For one, and even amid the Go Set a Watchman controversy, Marsh (2015) noted, “scholars have been pointing out Atticus Finch’s racism for years”, but no one, it seems, has wanted to hear it. By drawing on contemporary legal and literacy scholarship, Marsh summarized some of the mounting criticism that has been levied against Atticus and his thinking. Second, and in considering the book holistically, the story of


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My Experience as a White Educator Teaching TKAM As a former secondary teacher required to teach TKAM, I upheld the dominant perspective of the novel and of Atticus. The novel allowed me, a white male, to dis-

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Huckleberry Finn, I remember my students and me coming to the simple, and non-self-scrutinizing, conclusion that U.S. society has progressed tremendously since the Huck Finn–era slavery sensibilities. Of course, I shudder at these conclusions now, recognizing the ways in which I could have delved more deeply into meaningful and introspective conversations about race and racism with TKAM. The turning point for me came when I decided to include this book in my undergraduate class of culturally diverse (Boyd et al., 2015) young adult literature. With the course exploring topics such as racism, privilege and marginalization, and authorship, I wanted my students to take the novel—and its reputation and controversies—head-on, by posing the question, Is TKAM a multicultural text? (in response to the study of Michigan teachers; Borsheim-Black, 2012). This question seemed to open up a conversation about TKAM that challenged students’ canonized perceptions of it. One group reflected, “At the time TKAM was written, it was multicultural, but now we’re not sure.” Figure 2 shows another group’s initial thoughts about the novel compared with their thinking after some coursework. How did students come to these conclusions? For the most part, having an understanding of old and new racism (Cross, 2005) complicated the novel for my students and me and allowed us to read both with and against it

creetly deflect uncomfortable and complex discussions of race and racism by focusing on the characterization of its white protagonists: Scout and Jem’s coming- ofage and Atticus’s moral fiber. Certainly, we discussed the role that racism played in setting up Tom as a sym/ pathetic character, one caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the ways in which racism fueled the mob at the jailhouse, the jury, and the community of Maycomb at large. Yet, I also remember my simple takeaway at the end of novel when Atticus and Heck Tate appealed to a moral reasoning higher than the law in dismissing Boo’s killing of Bob Ewell, a conclusion that once again sidestepped race. For my students and me, we could easily disassociate ourselves from people like Ewell and the mob in Maycomb, acknowledging that we would never be part of a mob seeking physical violence against someone of a different race, nor would we ever unjustly condemn a man based on the color of his skin. We, like Atticus, would operate under a moral system rather than a racial one. In this sense, having a conversation about the portrayal of race in the novel turned into affirmations for us: “We would never do that, so therefore we are not racist,” and “Of course, we would do what Atticus did and stand up for someone like Tom.” In fact, having taught the novel after teaching Mark Twain’s The Adventures of

Figure 2 Group Work Around TKAM

Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.


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are inherently linked and laced together; it is not about an either/or but a both/and, as evidenced by some scholarship that has posited these different facets of racism as levels rather than categories (Scheurich & Young, 1997). Similarly, critical race scholarship (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Enciso, 2007; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Scheurich & Young, 1997) has blurred this perceived binary by linking these terms to concepts such as whiteness, historical privilege, and institutional racism. With this in mind, I continue. Table 1, from Cross’s (2005) article, summarizes the difference between the two, but in essence, the concept of old racism—similar to an individual level of racism (Scheurich & Young, 1997) or substantive racism (Delgado, 1990)—echoes slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights–era racism where racist attacks (whether physical or emotional) were direct, overt, and grounded in “an ideology of white supremacy….Examples of old racism include the hostile genocide of American Indians and spectator lynchings of African Americans” (Cross, 2005, p. 267). In this sense, the explicit, violent acts and sentiments of prejudice, bias, discrimination, and hate based on race constitute the type of racism apparent in canonical novels such as TKAM and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In other words, old racism is grounded in individualized, intentional displays or practices of discrimination, and one can fairly easily identify instances of old racism in TKAM using Cross’s table as an organizer (see Table 2). Analyzing TKAM through this lens is akin to the description of my own teaching around this novel; it highlights the fairly obvious and overt instances of racism in the book. Teachers and students may also discuss TKAM from this perspective, as the book (being anchored in a specific time and place) lends itself to a conversation about overt racism. Although there is nothing wrong with these discussions, this focus can be conceived as

(Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, & Petrone, 2014). What follows is a discussion of these frameworks, both of which I encourage for classrooms across the country engaging with TKAM.

Reading Through a Lens of New and Old Racism Building on critical multicultural scholarship (Fiske, 1993), Cross (2005) argued that “any consideration of race (or diversity and multiculturalism) is useless unless it also considers racism and white privilege—and considers them as a hegemonic system” (p. 266). Indeed, I think the idea of racism as an institutionalized, hegemonic system (Haddix & Price-Dennis, 2013) is what was missing from my own pedagogy of TKAM; I simply did not have the language or knowledge to talk about racism in this way in my own classroom, and thus, I failed to engage the text’s (largely unexamined and largely racial/ ist) power structures. Cross helped here to understand this terminology by distinguishing between old racism and new racism, but before proceeding to a delineation of these terms, I offer a quick caveat: Neither Cross (I presume) nor I believe in simple binaries between the old and the new that she described, nor do we endorse that old racism is old and does not exist today. In fact, the opposite may be truer today than when Cross’s article was published over a decade ago, as any glance at today’s national headlines signals “an ideology of white supremacy” (p. 267) in hate crimes and speech and imbued in specific group affiliations with such intent. Further, the rate at which African Americans are killed (whether by police or gangs, in Chicago or any other city, and much in the same way that Tom is killed in the novel) is staggering. These instances certainly have traces of old racism that cannot be denied. Thus, the term old is somewhat misleading: Old and new racism

Table 1 Old and New Racism Old racism

New racism

System of prejudice and supremacy

System of power and domination

Works when visible

Works best when invisible

Works through imperialized knowledge

Works through privileged knowledge

Individual racism

Racism built into institutions

Power applied to physical body

Power applied to social body

Note. From “New Racism, Reformed Teacher Education, and the Same Ole’ Oppression,” by B.E. Cross, 2005, Educational Studies, 38(3), p. 267. Copyright 2005 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission.


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Table 2 Old Racism and TKAM Old racism

Example in TKAM

System of prejudice and supremacy

Pre–Civil Rights era, where racial segregation is apparent in the town of Maycomb

Works when visible

Overt acts and sentiments from the people of Maycomb, including the use of the N word, violence toward Tom, and the ostracizing of Mr. Raymond

Works through imperialized knowledge

Atticus the lawyer and Aunt Alexandra the socialite versus Tom the handyman and Calpurnia the domestic

Individual racism

According to white characters such as Atticus, individual people are racist based on the things they say and do.

Power applied to physical body

The potential lynching of Tom at the jailhouse and his ultimate killing

Note. The text in column 1 is from “New Racism, Reformed Teacher Education, and the Same Ole’ Oppression,” by B.E. Cross, 2005, Educational Studies, 38(3), p. 267. Copyright 2005 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission.

invisible discrimination in employment practices” (pp. 267–268). In this sense, new racism is about access, opportunities, and worldviews (or ways of thinking) linked to concepts such as privilege. Analyzing TKAM from this perspective is difficult. First, it is just difficult to see the structural aspects of new racism in any instance, let alone consider how people “make sense of the world” (Cross, 2005, p. 268). Second, TKAM, for the most part, takes place during a historical time period where old racism predominantly persisted. Indeed, using historical fiction to teach racism can be problematic because, as Cross said, thinking that racism is defined only by violent acts and hateful speech can lead “many whites to be unaware of either whiteness or racism as a major factor in U.S. society” (p. 267). In short, students may dismiss racism as a thing of the past or only anchored in old racism because they have not seen it any other way. If we do not want students to perpetuate racist ideologies or to think that racism is defined in only one way, we must dig deeper into TKAM to discuss the new racism that it harbors. Table 3 summarizes some of the ways in which the novel can be analyzed with new racism in mind. These brief examples begin to push against the commonly accepted notions of the book and identify the ways in which racism may exist beyond physical acts of violence and hateful speech. More specifically, considering the elements of new racism opens possibilities for reading against TKAM. A stance of reading against comes from a critical literature pedagogy framework (Borsheim-Black et al., 2014). Key questions from this framework that can be asked of TKAM include the following:

problematic if there is an impression on students’ part that overt, intentional racism, whether spoken (i.e., the use of the N word) or acted on through violence, is the only way racism can exist, in the novel and/or in our communities today. It sets up a single story (Adichie, 2009) about what racism is and looks like. Even the SparkNotes analysis of the novel does not move very much beyond a discussion of racism in this way (if at all). Rather, it highlights good versus evil, social inequality, and moral education as key themes in the book. Racism is only implied in those themes. On its surface, TKAM can easily lend itself to simple conversations about race. Cross (2005) argued, in contrast, that new racism is “a hidden system of power and domination” (p. 267) that (perhaps unintentionally) maintains imbalances in racial differentiations by privileging whiteness through policies, relationships, and behaviors. New racism, or procedural racism (Delgado, 1990), is subtle and symbolic; it is an unearned advantage or “privilege operationalized mainly through systems and institutions (including schools) because they are the key sites where people learn the attitude and behaviors they are to live by and the consciousness by which they make sense of the world” (Cross, 2005, p. 268). In other words, new racism is laced in day-today, established structures, practices, and norms that may go unseen by the average person but “nullify or severely limit opportunities and interests for culturally diverse people” (Mizialko, 2005, p. 177). These practices build on the violent acts of old racism by moving beyond an individual level and into other levels of racism: institutional, societal, and epistemological (Scheurich & Young, 1997). Cross explained, “Examples of new racism include public policies that support discrimination in housing practices and


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Table 3 New Racism and TKAM New racism

Example in TKAM

System of power and domination

Tom becomes an othered object and similarly pitied through the eyes of Atticus and Scout. The entire story is told through white eyes; even Calpurnia’s background (the only background given for one of the novel’s African American characters) is seen as nonnormative for Scout and Jem. Through these instances, readers and protagonists come to conclusions that normalize their own ways of being and experiences.

Works best when invisible

The novel implicitly reproduces cultural norms/narratives about African Americans (in terms of incarceration, economic disparity, and subordination) and sets up Tom as the helpless victim who needs to be saved by Atticus, the hero and savior. Atticus takes Tom’s case out of a responsibility to his duty, not for Tom’s sake or to combat racism. No protagonist questions the injustice of the systems in place, including legal and educational, and the African American members of the community are portrayed as docile and subservient.

Works through privileged knowledge

As a privileged white male and an attorney, Atticus controls Tom’s story and produces the “truth” or reality of Tom’s and even Mayella’s world(s). Tom, referred to as a cripple, has little agency and likely has had little access to opportunity. Likewise, the novel maintains the superiority of and benefits the white characters and the white perspective from which it is told.

Racism built into institutions

Unearned power differentials of the institutions and characters in the novel include the legal system and men on the jury, the worldview of Aunt Alexandra, the segregated neighborhoods, and Atticus’s allegiance to the justice system. The African American characters do not exist outside of the storyline, plot development, or characterization of the white characters. Part of the novel’s success is due to the publishing machine, which has privileged white authors and stories.

Power applied to social body

The novel affirms traditional relationships between the races, where whites are viewed as more superior or where African Americans are grateful to whites. No power has shifted by the end of the novel. Atticus excuses his white friends for their violent, racist intentions and use of the N word.

Note. The text in column 1 is from “New Racism, Reformed Teacher Education, and the Same Ole’ Oppression,” by B.E. Cross, 2005, Educational Studies, 38(3), p. 267. Copyright 2005 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission.

■ What popular conversations surround this book and its author?

Reading Against TKAM To illustrate how an understanding of old and new racism along with a stance of reading against can open the novel to critical conversations, I offer a brief analysis of one passage. Soon after the mob approaches Atticus at the jailhouse, he tries to comfort an anxious Scout and an angry Jem:

■ How does power work in the text? ■ Who has power, and why? ■ Whose story is emphasized? ■ How does the text maintain dominant ideologies or understandings from the time?

“Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man,” [Atticus] said, “he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” Jem spoke. “Don’t call that a blind spot. He’da killed you last night when he first went there.” “He might have hurt me a little,” Atticus conceded, “but son, you’ll understand folks a little better when you’re older. A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man….So it took an eight-year-old child to bring ‘em to their senses, didn’t it?” said Atticus. “That proves something—

■ How would the story be different if an author of a different racial identity wrote it? ■ Are characters from historically marginalized populations complex or stereotypical? These questions, combined with an understanding of old and new racism, can assist students in having more nuanced conversations about racism and TKAM.


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ing its violent history and identifying and challenging those who use it as racist, his stereotypical defense of Tom (e.g., “there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire”; Lee, 1960/1982, p. 204) and portrayal of Mayella (the temptress), the white gaze upon Calpurnia and her church community, and his lack of defense of Mr. Raymond, who needs to act like the town drunk to justify why he is a “sinful man who had mixed children” (p. 160).

that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human.” (Lee, 1960/1982, p. 157)

When we read with this passage, we can conclude that Atticus wants his children to see people as individuals and to avoid rash judgments about them. He still has faith in individuals and sees their basic humanity, hence his rationale that Mr. Cunningham is “basically a good man…[who] just has his blind spots.” This perspective of Atticus is what makes him so lovable and venerated; he’s a good person who sees the good in others. When reading against this passage, however, and with new racism in mind, we might reconfigure that depiction of Atticus as someone who, quite simply, excuses racism. By implying that Mr. Cunningham was caught up in a mob mentality whose racism is just a f law, Atticus excuses Mr. Cunningham’s racism and, more egregiously, his deadly intentions and those of the mob. Dismissing racism in this way pits the individual over the deed and over the worldview, mind-set, or way of thinking that racism is acceptable. In other words, the human aspect of the individual is more important than challenging the cultural narrative of racism or of calling Mr. Cunningham a racist. This sentiment on Atticus’s part is, indeed, racist, plain and simple, and evidence of how racism works through privilege, how it is implied and invisible, and how it is laced into institutional and cultural practices and behaviors. F u r t her mor e, a lt hou g h Jem ch a l len ge s M r. Cunningham’s “blind spot” (his racism), he only challenges it because Mr. Cunningham may have killed Atticus not Tom; there is no mention of Tom at all and the mob’s intent to kill him, not even on Atticus’s part. Rather than call out and challenge racism for what it is, or correct Jem for what the mob was actually going to do, Atticus uses the opportunity to essentially normalize Mr. Cunningham’s actions and those of the mob: They are human, they are people, they just needed to come to their senses. In this way, for Atticus, thinking about lynching a person (i.e., racism) is just a feeling or irrational behavior that can be flipped on and off. Again, this is a marker of privilege. In this sense, racism operates as an invisible, relational power where the status quo is maintained. Even in these few lines, Atticus falls short of his venerated reputation in his exoneration of Mr. Cunningham and of racism; based on these lines alone, one could conclude that Atticus is racist. Other passages work just as well for analysis, such as Atticus’s defense of Mrs. Dubose’s racism, his “common” explanation of the N word rather than acknowledg-


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Conclusion This analysis may offer some ideas that we do not want to hear, but it is possible that our national consciousness around TKAM has limited the ways in which we might see that text. It seems that the canonized nature of TKAM extends beyond its status as a text most frequently assigned in schools and into a realm that deems it as a somewhat sacred, untouchable novel. In other words, TKAM may have become such a (canonized) part of U.S. culture that we use it to tell a single story about racism and, in the process, essentially ignore or neglect the many other ways racism persists or can persist around us on a regular basis. Indeed, our own favoring of TKAM in the U.S. educational system as a canonical text or as “our national novel” indexes another example of institutional racism, where we privilege a/the white perspective of and about race and racism and subtly reinforce the status quo of racial ordering (Patel, 2016). Falter (2015), in comparing TKAM with Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, suggested that the latter is the more authentic text about race (having been told by an African American author) but that selective tradition and race have elevated the former. Likewise, I wonder whether the same can be said about other texts about race that tend to circulate in classrooms to a seemingly lesser degree than TKAM, such as Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth by Richard Wright. I am hopeful, however, that more attention may be drawn to these issues by diverse young adult authors and with blogs by educators and scholars who commit themselves to antiracist pedagogies and ideologies. For example, Kirkland’s blog A Will To Love (https:// davidekirkland.wordpress.com/) covers a number of topics, such as Black Lives Matter, terms such as multiculturalism and systemic racism, and the role of compassion in our teaching and classrooms. His blog has been particularly helpful to me in thinking about these issues and, importantly, the roles that our language and

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urge others to consider the same. This article, I hope, provides another such way, and in the More to Explore sidebar, I offer other resources that can cultivate an understanding of new racism.

pedagogy play in sustaining and/or challenging them. The We Need Diverse Books website (http://weneeddi versebooks.org/) provides great suggestions of culturally diverse literature, and the Reading While White blog (http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.com/) offers a number of resources and suggestions for challenging racism in literature and understanding the ways in which it works. In terms of young adult literature, Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys, the 2016 recipient of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE’s Walden Award, is a wonderful novel that examines an instance of police brutality from multiple perspectives and, importantly, takes place in contemporary times. Through these perspectives, one might see how old and new racism operate in ways not captured in TKAM, as characters grapple with concepts such as whiteness, color blindness, and privilege. We may hold a special place in our hearts for TKAM, which is all the more reason why we need to find ways to critically engage it if we want students to meaningfully understand the world around them. I commend those teachers who have already taken up antiracist pedagogies while teaching and reading against TKAM, and I

REFERENCES Adichie, C. (2009). The danger of a single story [TED talk]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_storyw American Film Institute. (2003). AFI’s 100 years…100 heroes and villains. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Retrieved from http:// www.afi.com/100Years/handv.aspx Banks, J.A. (1993). The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational Researcher, 22(5), 4–14. Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.A.M. (2010). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (7th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Borsheim-Black, C. (2012). “Not as multicultural as I’d like”: White English teachers’ uses of literature for multicultural education in predominantly white contexts (Doctoral dissertation). Michigan State University, East Lansing. Borsheim-Black, C. (2015). “It’s pretty much white”: Challenges and opportunities of an antiracist approach to literature instruction in a multilayered white context. Research in the Teaching of English, 49(4), 407–429. Borsheim-Black, C., Macaluso, M., & Petrone, R. (2014). Critical literature pedagogy: Teaching canonical literature for critical literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(2), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.323 Boyd, F.B., Causey, L.L., & Galda, L. (2015). Culturally diverse literature. The Reading Teacher, 68(5), 378–387. https://doi. org/10.1002/trtr.1326 CACG (@CathInAlliance). (2015, September 4). Like Atticus Finch, Pope Francis wants us to use empathy & compassion w/ others #FrancisFriday #ToKillAMockingbird [Twitter post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/cathinalliance/ status/639808984149553152 Chicago Public Library. (2001). To Kill a Mockingbird: One Book, One Chicago fall 2001. Retrieved from https://www.chipublib. org/to-kill-a-mockingbird-one-book-one-chicago-fall-2001/ Cross, B.E. (2005). New racism, reformed teacher education, and the same ole’ oppression. Educational Studies, 38(3), 263–274. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326993es3803_6 Delgado, R. (1990). When a story is just a story: Does voice really matter? Virginia Law Review, 76(1), 95–111. https://doi. org/10.2307/1073104 Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press. Enciso, P. (2007). Reframing history in sociocultural theories: Toward an expansive vision. In C. Lewis, P. Enciso, & E.B. Moje (Eds.), Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and power (pp. 49–74). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Falter, M.M. (2015). A re-vision of To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 1(1), 125–155. Fiske, J. (1993). Power plays power works. New York, NY: Verso. Haddix, M. (2008). Beyond sociolinguistics: Toward a critical approach to cultural and linguistic diversity in teacher education. Language and Education, 22(5), 254–270. https://doi. org/10.1080/09500780802152648

TAKE ACTION! 1. Ask students what they know or have heard about TKAM. Have them engage with online resources about the book and/or film, including the documentary Hey, Boo, to see how these sources idolize and adore the book and its characters. 2. Introduce concepts and ideas connected to new and old racism. Use examples from history and contemporary events (e.g., the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements) to analyze how these movements respond to new and old racism. 3. Model for students how to critically read with and against TKAM, using the new and old racism and critical literature pedagogy frameworks. 4. Have students critically engage with the text, using the tools introduced in the previous steps. Create organizers that help them track their ideas and see the ways in which new and old racism are at play in the text. 5. Allow students to reengage with online resources about the book and/or film. Consider having them write responses to those resources that more fully reflect the way racism is depicted and treated in the novel and challenge its iconic status.


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FEATURE ARTICLE

Lee, H. (2015). Go set a watchman. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Haddix, M., & Price-Dennis, D. (2013). Urban fiction and multicultural literature as transformative tools for preparing English teachers for diverse classrooms. English Education, 45(3), 247–283. Kirkland, D. (2013, March 25). Beyond multiculturalism [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://davidekirkland.wordpress. com/2013/03/25/beyong-multiculturalism/ Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W.F., IV. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. Lewis, C., & Ketter, J. (2004). Learning as social interaction: Interdiscursivity in a teacher and researcher study group. In R. Rogers (Ed.), An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education (pp. 117–146). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Macaluso, M. (2015). Pre-service teachers’ negotiation of identity and figured worlds through the reading of multicultural literature. L1-Educational. Studies in Language and Literature, 15, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2015.15.01.13 Marsh, L. (2015). These scholars have been pointing out Atticus Finch’s racism for years. New Republic. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/122295/these-scholars-havebeen-pointing-out-atticus-finchs-racism-years Mizialko, A. (2005). Reducing the power of “whiteness” in urban schools. In F.E. Obiakor & F.D. Beachum (Eds.), Urban education for the 21st century: Research, issues, and perspectives (pp. 176–186). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Murphy, M.M. (Director & Producer). (2011). Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird [Motion picture]. United States: First Run Features. Nieto, S.M. (2002). Profoundly multicultural questions. Educational Leadership, 60(4), 6–10. Patel, L. (2016). The irrationality of antiracist empathy. English Journal, 106(2), 81–84. Scheurich, J.J., & Young, M. (1997). Coloring epistemologies: Are our research epistemologies racially biased? American Educational Research Journal, 26(4), 4–16. Sleeter, C.E., & McLaren, P.L.E. (1995). Multicultural education, critical pedagogy, and the politics of difference. Albany: State University of New York Press. Stotsky, S. (2010). Literary study in grades 9, 10, 11: A national survey. Forum, 4. Retrieved from http://alscw.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/04/forum_4.pdf Thomas, E.E. (2016). Stories still matter: Rethinking the role of diverse children’s literature today. Language Arts, 94(2), 112–119.

MORE TO EXPLORE Resources that explore TKAM from a critical stance: ■ Gladwell, M. (2009, August 10). The courthouse ring: Atticus Finch and the limits of Southern liberalism. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http:// www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/10/ the-courthouse-ring ■ Odell, J. (n.d.). White authors of black stories (a critique) [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.aaregistry.org/videos/view/ white-authors-black-stories-critique-jonathan-odell ■ Raymond, L. (2015). Goodbye and good riddance to Atticus Finch and other ‘white saviors.’ Think Progress. Retrieved from https://thinkprogress.org/ goodbye-and-good-riddance-to-atticus-finch-andother-white-saviors-b3d96f82b9f5 Resources that illustrate institutional and systemic structures of racism: ■ Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, NY: New. ■ Coates, T.-N. (2015). Between the world and me. New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau. ■ Utt, J. (2012). How to talk about privilege to someone who doesn’t know what that is. Everyday Feminism. Retrieved from http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/12/ how-to-talk-to-someone-about-privilege/ Resources connecting racism and culturally diverse young adult literature: ■ Garcia, A. (2013). Critical foundations in young adult literature: Challenging genres. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense. ■ Schieble, M. (2012). Critical conversations on whiteness with young adult literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(3), 212–221.

LITERATURE CITED Lee, H. (1982). To kill a mockingbird. New York, NY: Warner. (Original work published 1960)


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