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I don't know why people think the racism in the classics made them enjoyable for BIPOC readers. But, fun fact spending years immersed in lit that says your communities didn't deserve to exist isn't great for building a good relationship with reading.
And let me go in, because my soap box is built already, expecting kids of color to enjoy lit that either erases them or is only about their oppression isn't about the quality of the classics. It's about the comfort of validating white supremacist rhetoric as canon.
There is absolutely nothing more valuable in books written by people who benefited from colonialism, imperialism, slavery or genocide than in books written by people from the communities that were oppressed. It's not better writing & it certainly isn't more relevant.
The "classics" endure because they keep being taught. That's it. They have no greater integral value than any of the other works produced subsequently. And sure for writers & historians they have some value but for K-12? Nothing there that remotely connects for most students.
We present kids with books that paint a glossy false narrative of history, obfuscate the wealth depicted was largely from slavery, & then wonder why modern racists are so nostalgic for a time that never existed while the only window into the past is a white supremacist fantasy
And let me round this out by pointing out that since most Americans don't go to college, much less major in lit? So much of how we got to this election cycle is down to a lack of challenging white supremacy in the home or in schools. It's consistently taught & validated.
