DEI and the Teaching of American Literature

For the record, as a lit/comp teacher, I integrate writing from all racial/cultural lines possible within a given unit. For example, for the founding documents section, we not only look at the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, we also read selections from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl so students can see how the US failed to actually implement life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness promises to those who weren't white, male, or land owners. 

In our unit on the Individual and Society, we examine writing from Booker T. Washington, Emily Dickenson, T.S. Eliot, and Walt Whitman, along with an extended study of American Born Chinese (the graphic novel). 

In our unit on Power, Protest, and Change, we look at the literature that confronted inequity and led to changing status and rights for women, workers, and African-Americans. This includes works by Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, Langston Hughes, Upton Sinclair, and an extended study of Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

In our unit on the importance of setting, I give my students a choice of Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, or Huck Finn (with parental approval), along with a few short selections including Judith Ortiz Cofer. 

In our unit on what America fears, in addition to The Crucible (and studying the Red Scare and McCarthyism alongside it), we also cover "The Masque of the Red Death" and how even in Poe's day, the rich set themselves aside in a place of safety, leaving the rest of society to suffer. 

In our final unit, we study and write short stories, including those from Alice Walker, Hemingway, Poe, Louise Erdich, Bierce, and Raymond Carver. 

Finally, the students are allowed to read a book of their choice, as long as it is written by an American author, and relate how the ideals and characteristics of American society and history are reflected in it (fights for freedom, equality, liberty, etc.)

Even with all this integration, I still feel it's important to set aside time as a nation to celebrate those who have been historically forgotten, abused, or even are currently being maligned. 

American literature and American history is the story of a baby country being born and still growing. Hopefully, we can realize that we aren't an adult country yet, but still a growing adolescent and learn that we are still trying to become a land of the free, where all people are created equal and have equal access (not just equal freedom) to the unalienable rights promised on our birth certificate.

And this is why I believe I've finally found myself as a Literature teacher and as a citizen.

Letter from Episcopal Church leaders on Trump administration immigration executive orders

Dear People of God in the Episcopal Church:

Yesterday, Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States. We pray that he and all of our elected officials will, in the words of the Book of Common Prayer, have the wisdom and strength to know and to do God’s will and be filled with the love of truth and righteousness.

Even as we gave thanks for a peaceful transfer of power, we learned from news reports that the new presidential administration has issued a series of executive orders that are a harbinger of President Trump’s pledge to deport undocumented immigrants at a historic scale, restrict asylum, and direct other immigration actions. We read this news with concern and urge our new president and congressional leaders to exercise mercy and compassion, especially toward law-abiding, long-term members of our congregations and communities; parents and children who are under threat of separation in the name of immigration enforcement; and women and children who are vulnerable to abuse in detention and who fear reporting abuse to law enforcement.

As Christians, our faith is shaped by the biblical story of people whom God led into foreign countries to escape oppression. Exodus tells us the story of the ancient Israelites escaping slavery in the land of Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without a home. In Leviticus 19:33-34, God commands that we remember this sojourn as part of our own story of faith: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Now, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:12-19, we are no longer aliens. Christ Jesus has made us citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. As we read in 1 Peter 2:9-12, we have received God’s mercy, and we must demonstrate this sacrificial love in our lives and deeds. Because our true citizenship is not here on earth but in heaven, we are called to transcend the earthly distinctions made among us by the leaders of this world. We must proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is promised to the persecuted and answer Christ’s call to welcome the stranger among us. 

This vision of God’s kingdom, this new reality, is the one to which we Christians are pledged in our baptism above any political preference or policy, and to which our church must bear witness through word and deed. This sacred call shapes both our churchwide commitment to stand with migrants and the ministries of congregations across our church who serve vulnerable immigrants and refugees in their communities.

Since the late 19th century, The Episcopal Church has followed this call by welcoming immigrants and refugees to the United States, and today, Episcopal Migration Ministries is one of 10 resettlement agencies through which refugees enter this country. Our Office of Government Relations is a persistent advocate for immigration resolutions adopted by General Convention, and works with ecumenical and interfaith partners to urge compassionate and humane policies that at the same time recognize the need to protect borders and address security threats. Thousands of Episcopalians participate in this ministry of advocacy through the Episcopal Public Policy Network.

As more immigration enforcement policy changes are announced, our churchwide ministries will continue to provide practical pathways to protect the most vulnerable among us. We invite you to join us by:

• Advocating with our members of Congress by using this action alert to take action to protect immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the United States as children and have lived here most of their lives. The long-standing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that offers a respite from the fear of deportation is at risk, and Congress must take action. 
• Standing against mass deportation using this action alert, which would have severe consequences for our communities and economy.
• Supporting orderly border management that is proportional and humane and respects the right of asylum.
• Supporting programs that protect vulnerable groups of people, including Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), humanitarian parole, and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
• Speaking out against anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, including race-based targeting, vigilantism and violence, family division, and detention and deportation without charges or convictions. As Christians, we must stand against these expressions of hatred and fear with a clear witness to our sacred promise to respect the dignity of every human being.
• Encouraging our congregations to use the resources of the Office of Government Relations and the Episcopal Public Policy Network as we embody the Gospel through direct witness on behalf of immigrants in our communities.

Across our church, migrants are members of the Body of Christ and part of our congregations and communities, and our common life is richer thanks to their contributions. To our siblings who are at risk of deportation or of being separated from those you love, know that your story is our story, and your dignity is inseparable from our own. We stand with you, and we will face these challenges together.

As one church united in the Body of Christ, please pray especially for families who live under the shadow of separation, and for all who seek asylum for protection from persecution. Pray, too, for the people of our congregations and dioceses who work tirelessly to serve immigrants and refugees, and who now face new and heartbreaking challenges to their ministry.

Finally, as faithful Episcopalians have done for decades, please join us in giving generously to Episcopal Migration Ministries and its ministry with refugees seeking a new life in the United States.

In Christ’s Peace,

The Most Rev. Sean Rowe
Presiding Bishop

Julia Ayala Harris
President of the House of Deputies

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/letter-from-episcopal-church-leaders-on-trump-administration-immigration-executive-orders/

When They Cry "Peace Peace"

A Reflection on Peacebuilding and the Dangers of Conflict-Avoidance as False Peace.

by Billie Hoard

For from the least to the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,

saying, “Peace, peace,”

when there is no peace.

They acted shamefully; they committed abomination,

yet they were not ashamed;

they did not know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

Jeremiah 6:13-15

I am an Anabaptist Christian and am therefore a member of one of the historic peace churches. I am also a committed antifascist and I am dedicated to queer and trans liberation. To my mind these three commitments (Anabaptism, antifascism, and queer liberation) all reinforce one another. At the same time I am very well aware that a lot of people probably have the idea that they are in tension so I would like to take a moment to talk about what being committed to peacebuilding means to me and why and how it strengthens my commitment to antifascism and queer liberation.

Let me say at the outset and unambiguously that my Anabaptist dedication to peacemaking demands an absolute commitment to non-lethality. I believe that all killing of persons is wrong specifically because I believe that killing a person can never be a way of living out love for that person. I do not, and will not, compromise on that point and I hope you will understand that everything else I have to say should be understood in that context. And that moral commitment does take certain actions “off the table” for me. It shapes the sort of antifascist and queer liberationist that I am.

But this essay isn’t about what sort of antifascist or queer liberationist I am, it is about what sort of Anabaptist I am, and it is about my peace ethic. I believe that Peace is a universal vocation, that, as followers of the Way of Jesus, we are called to be peacemakers. I also believe that, without justice, anything we might want to call “peace” is actually nothing but injustice. What I am afraid a lot of people (including a lot of my fellow Anabaptists) fail to understand, is that peace is not the same thing as an absence of conflict. When people are oppressed; when their rights are violated, when they are prevented from flourishing, they may not always resort to conflict; but the absence of conflict is not peace. Peace, the peace we are called to build as followers of Jesus, is a Peace that requires True Justice. And in speaking of Justice I am speaking of the state of affairs where (to quote Lady Julian) “all is well and all is well and all manner of things is well”. Justice is what is happening when oppression, cruelty, and want are no longer. And until we have Justice, any state of Peace that we might think we are experiencing will always be a false peace.

So then what is a false peace? I opened this essay with a quote from Jeremiah 6 where God is railing against people who say “peace peace” when there is no peace. As a matter of fact, these folks are shouting “peace peace” at a time when God is furious over injustice! As humans we can all experience the temptation to shout “peace” when we want an end to conflict. But conflict happens (among other things) because oppressed people aren’t willing to quietly and passively endure their oppression.

And that creates a situation that many of us (particularly Christians, most particularly straight white able bodied Christians) tend to find uncomfortable insofar as we find ourselves situated among those who are not experiencing the oppression or if we just aren’t experiencing the worst of it. I am sorry that I have to get a little bit political to make this clear (I did warn you that all three of my commitments inform one another) but I see no way around it. One of the less well understood powers of government is the ability to camouflage oppression. When the government writes an oppressive situation into law, that oppression starts to feel like “just the way things are” and when people work (legally or outside the law) to highlight and correct that oppression, they are labeled criminal by the government which causes us to see them as “the problem”, as the ones who violated the peace by initiating conflict. And peacemakers suffer from a strong temptation to blame instigators of visible conflict for a state of conflict. But that is not True seeing—it is a way of seeing things that only makes sense if the Government’s camouflaging of the initial oppression causes you to miss the oppression that people are reacting against.

If Christians respond to conflict out of a desire to end conflict first and only engage questions of Justice second, then we will end up trying to build peace by encouraging the oppressed to return to their oppression rather than by encouraging the oppressors to end their oppression. It is, and will always be, wrong to ask the oppressed to return to their oppression as a precursor to peacebuilding. The call of God to the church is rather to stand firmly on the side of the oppressed and to work towards Peace by tearing down all tyrants and systems with the temerity to oppress the Least of These.

Read the full article: https://billieiswriting.substack.com/p/when-they-cry-peace-peace