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| Photo: Dyslexia Help: University of Michigan |
While the protests were emblematic of what is possible
in the fight against systemic marginalization and its mitigation, these
protests have a way of ending up becoming events rather than sustained
anti-racism processes.
To change social attitudes and bring about sociocultural
and systemic changes, therefore, sustained and accessible educational and
cultural strategies become necessary. Fighting Anti-Black Racism or Afrophobia need a multi-sectorial, multi-layered
approach.
There are now calls and petitions to teach “Black history” in all Canadian schools following
George Floyd’s murder.
This essay suggests that reading fiction and history
should be encouraged among elementary and high school students. This suggestion
may sound odd. In the age of social media and Netflix, however, reading books
has become less attractive.
I once asked a young teenage mother during an intake
if she had an email. I wanted to send her some resources. She told me she had Facebook
but not an email. When I asked how she could have a Facebook account if she did
not have an email. She told me she did not know.
When I asked another young man about reading, he told
me he liked to read. When I asked what he reads, he couldn’t really tell me. He
then smiled and said, ‘some articles…online.” He couldn’t even tell me the
website and the topics he likes.
Reading books is not everything. But it opens a world one does not see every
day. It makes you travel without travelling.
While students are encouraged to read in school, most
students take up reading because it is required. For young people brought up to
face the reality of racism, this is a travesty.
However, reading for self-empowerment or to develop
empathy among children and the youth needs the involvement of parents and
community mentors. This, I hope, would make reading part of children and youth
social and cultural growth. Emotional strength in the face of racism is
a necessity.
Reading may encourage students from dominant social
groups to develop a sense of empathy with “racialized” students.
“Racialized” students may not only develop empathy, but
they may also be empowered to resist misinformation about their history. Students
of African descent are confronted by two things in the school curriculum: Lack
of history about them, or a distorted version of their history. This is a
consequent of institutionalized racism.
But we cannot leave corrective measures to people who
are not affected by a distorted history. It is like making racism fix racism.
There is now, however, a cautious optimism in Canada’s
campaign against racism.
People in positions of authority are thinking of curriculum changes to
include ‘Black history’ for all students. This a hopeful beginning. But this is not enough. It
is more mechanical than sentimental. We need both. People are
more motivated if they have a sentimental connection with the moral issue in
question. Why would people care about racism if it doesn’t affect them?
Making reading a cultural pastime for young people therefore
becomes important. It may take a young Toronto teenager to Nigeria of Achebe’s Arow
of God, the South Africa of Peter Abrahams’ Mine
Boy, the Barbados of George Lamming’s In
the Castle of My Skin, the Ohio of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, or the West Africa of Leo Frobenius’
The
Voice of Africa….etc.
Consequently, reading fiction, African and African
diaspora history become important. This can be buttressed through literacy
programs at young age. In a multicultural
country like Canada, this is vital in the fight against racism.
It is important to note that Canadian immigration was openly
racist
as late as 1962. Racism, according to David
Matas, was the immigration policy.
Below are important examples of reading programs.
In Toronto, The Reading Partnership
works with parents and children to help
develop a reading culture at an earlier age.
As Camesha Cox, the founder of The Reading
Partnership has argued, encouraging literacy and reading at an early age can
create “a culture of reading and learning.”
Using the work of late American novelist David Foster
Wallace, the California-based Reading Partners writes that reading helps ‘build
developmental skills of emotional intelligence and empathy, enabling our young
readers to better connect with other perspectives and human experiences.’
Maria Nikoleja, a professor of children literature at Cambridge
University argues that ‘the main attraction of fiction is the possibility of
understanding other people in a way impossible in real life.’
For young people whose histories and cultures do not
feature in Canadian educational curricula, this aspect of reading becomes
important.
What exacerbates marginalizing experiences when young
people find themselves stereotyped are lack of constructive strategies they can
use to push back while informing others and remaining safe.
When they encounter racism, they either fight or become
sad.
‘My brother is
always getting into fights over’ the N-Word, said Zora, who was interviewed by
Jennifer Kelly in her book, Under the Gaze.
This violence is instigated by a sense of helplessness.
But when these young people fight, they are easily stigmatized and criminalized.
Even a child as young as a six-year-old has been handcuffed by the police without parental consent.
This would not happen if this child was not of African
descent.
In a multicultural Canada where meaningful inter-ethnic
and inter-racial cross-cultural exchange is extremely limited (or non-existent),
equipping young people with historical knowledge about themselves and others
can help in combating stereotypes.
Not only does reading enable young people to develop
positive feelings towards others, but it also offers them constructive ways to
express their emotions.
In the age of negative social media influence,
encouraging students to read fiction is something teachers, parents and youth
workers need to encourage in all students because research supports its
usefulness.
Reading may also help “racialized” youth to self-educate.
This may help them resist stereotyping through corrective engagements.
One of Jennifer Kelly’s participants said he knew a
historical fact his social studies teacher didn’t know. “I told him,” Desmond said
to Kelly, ‘that the first lady in the newspaper industry was a Black lady [Mary Ann Shadd], and he didn’t know.”
Desmond added that these “Black stuff”, which are
supposed to be taught in social studies, are missing.
More than 20 years later, what Desmond said is sadly
still the case. "I would love to see more about Black history and about
racism in our society today and how we can face it in the future,’ said Bayush Golla to CBC on June 17, 2020.
Desmond felt empowered, but he was not alone. “Last
year I was able to teach people stuff about Steve Biko,’ said Grace. ‘You feel
so much better,’ added Kathleen, ‘You walk away thinking, “yeah we did we did
that.” You want to brag. I would go to school and say, “did you know?”’
Like Desmond, Grace and Kathleen, Dagmawit Worku, a year 12 student in Cameron Heights Collegiate in
Kitchener, Ontario, is still self-teaching “Black History.”
This is an educational, community-based empowerment
racialized youths, especially Africans and students of African descent, do not
have access to in school curricula.
If there is anything history has taught us, then it is
this: It is morally dangerous to assume that people will do something because
it is morally important. A sentimental connection is most of the time a moral
motivator.
Therefore, parents and students resort to ways of
getting this empowering knowledge. Lorraine, another student Kelly interviewed
said that her father ordered books from the United States “books you don’t see
around here.” Kathleen puts it well when she said that “If it was your own
culture…you would work hard so much harder.”
Canada may be multicultural de jure, but it is
monocultural de facto.
Encouraging children to improve their literacy at an
early age and then urging them to take reading as a cultural activity may help
raise informed and compassionate youths. Excluding “Black history” today is not
a question of malice or racism per se; it is a question of sentimental
connection. As Kathleen has put it, “If it was your own culture…you would work
hard so much harder.”
To cite:
Garang, K. ë. (2022).
The autodidactic: Reading for social resistance and empathy. The
Philosophical Refugee.
