mortal combat

0 Comments

1. 

   Edi

   19 Sep 2009 Reply

   Well said Zetta. African Americans are not monolithic in politics, music, literature or anything else! Is that really so difficult to see?

2. 

   susan

   19 Sep 2009 Reply

   Zetta,

   You know I could hear you in my head when I responded. I will desist. I think I made my points.

   Hey, Edi.

3. 

   elliottzetta

   19 Sep 2009 Reply

   I still can't quite get a grasp of this educator's argument...she'd rather black kids fought dragons and thus learned to be heroic and independent? One of her critiques seems to be that black children yearn to be supported by adults and institutions. So--how is that a problem? She's comparing apples and oranges, and the first commenter said as much--there are TONS of books about white kids dealing with "badness" in others or themselves. If Lelac's complaint is there's no black Harry Potter, that's a different conversation altogether...

4. 

   susan

   19 Sep 2009 Reply

   Zetta, I hear you. For now, I'm going to focus on saying my piece succinctly, in one punch and then bowing out.

   Who knows what her real point is. Honestly, I'm tired of white educators offering their limited opinions as valid critiques. I'm tired of others' defending these critics when they openly admit they don't know the works or the subject intimately yet they feel qualified to tell me I misread.

   Just once, I want readers to concede that people of color make valid counter arguments. Just once.

5. 

   Doret

   19 Sep 2009 Reply

   I loved Sharon Flake's response. Almagor's seemed a little obbessed with heroes. Yes there are hereos in sci fi/ fanatasy novels but the same doesn't not apply to realistic fiction.

   I loved Nancy Werlin's Rules of Survival but I wouldn't consider the three young White protagonist heroes, simply characters who are doing best they can to live their lives. The same goes for main protagnonist in Sharon Flake's Skin I Am In, and the other books Almagor mentioned

   I am still trying to wrap my brain about Almagor, saying her students read other books and listing Wimpy Kid, Princess Diaires and Coe Booth,

   How do you jump from Wimpy Kid to Coe Booth? That made no sense to me. That's like jumping from Christopher Paul Curtis' Mr. Chickess Funny Money to Markus Zusak's I AM the Messenger.