considering the gaps in our education

To hear Dr. Kellett read this week’s essay, click here: https://youtu.be/FZMeFdefPFA

I am the victim of an incomplete education. Most of us are. I attended fabulous schools (Go Spartans! Go Deacs! Go Canes!) and am grateful for the many ways I was invited into excellence, rigor and curiosity; however, like most Americans, I was exposed primarily to curricula written, sourced and designed by white Americans. The last two and a half decades have revealed the large gaps in my knowledge and the work I must do to find a complete education. Having now encountered the incredible diversity of thought that functionally shaped America, I realize the insularity—the poverty even—of our educational norms. We can do better! As curricula designers continue to grapple with laws banning conversations about how views of racial difference shape and shaped opportunity in America, I am more aware than ever that we are each responsible for who we read and listen to as we learn to be neighbors. We have an incredible wealth of cultural, literary, historical and artistic legacies from every race, and we are diminished as a people when these voices are not actively taught in our schools. 

Here is the problem: When we are primarily exposed to American history and literature through the work of white folks, we are taught to privilege white perspectives. We begin to believe important cultural trends and innovations come exclusively from one segment of society. This narrow exposure lays a foundation for cultural racism, suggesting that people of color are physical in nature, while white people, with their higher order thinking and artistic expressions, meaningfully impact our national narratives, our literary heritage, and the production of culture. 

American culture and history have been shaped by the voices, inventions and perspectives of a rich variety of people from all walks of life. The idea of American democracy suggests that every person has value and is capable of contributing to our whole in necessary ways. It is disingenuous for us to believe this while also pretending as if every important contribution to the common good came from one race of people. See the gap in our ideals and realities? Although this hypocrisy that affirms equality while codifying systems of inequity is one of our great national habits, America itself has nevertheless been deeply influenced by contributions from all types of people. Like our food, music, fashion, politics, storytelling, and theologies, American literature as we know it would not exist without African American literature. Black cultural production is American cultural production.

In the South we love to think about our culture as one of genuine hospitality, gorgeous grounds, fine food and excellent music. Because we have a legacy of erasing or diminishing the contributions of people of color, our educations failed to teach us that so many Southern traditions only exist because Black folks worked independently of or collaboratively with white folks to create norms of hospitality in settings we cherish. In many famed Southern kitchens, Black cooks created the recipes published by white chefs, now beloved as Southern heritage. Here in Tennessee, whiskey distilling was mastered by enslaved men. Indeed, Jack Daniel’s Distillery now explains that Jack himself learned to distill from a Black man named Nearest Green (Buy it! Uncle Nearest is our whiskey of choice). Best practices in agriculture, building, husbandry, sewing and carpentry were perfected by people of color. I offer these anecdotes to remind us any American historical narrative that does not include the contributions of African Americans is incomplete. 

Most of us understand that our musical heritage is not complete without the contributions of jazz and the blues, pioneered by Black musicians. Jazz and rock n roll were largely commodified by whites but created by Black Americans; indeed, Elvis became famous by publishing songs first performed by musicians of color.  We sacrifice creative pride and cultural dignity when we erase the role of Black cultural production in America’s story. What do we forfeit if we investigate our cultural understanding of ourselves to make room for all those who contributed? I’d say only a toxic mythology that hurts all of us! Our educational norms often fail to reflect our entire heritage, and states that ban any teaching that could be loosely attributed to Critical Race Theory or even racial difference are actively attempting to erase American history. We need not remain in ignorance. 

Some of our best early links between literature, sociology and ethnography were established by Black writers like Zora Neale Hurston. A gifted writer of fiction in her own right, Hurston travelled through Florida recording the stories of African Americans as they experienced the world. Hurston helped prove that anthropology is incomplete without ethnography and auto-ethnography. Many of us were taught to celebrate early writers who noticed such cultural differences through travel like Herman Melville or Mark Twain.  Black writers like James Weldon Johnson, James Baldwin and Paule Marshall, far less read, continued and advanced this style of writing about the helpful collaborations and differences one discovers as s/he travels at home and abroad. Acknowledging the pull of diaspora while claiming our full history speaks powerfully into our current discussions about identity and the ways that we explore national loyalties. If such voices were celebrated in education, we might be better equipped now to face a world in which citizenship, migration and nationality seem to clash in violent ways. 

In school, many of us were exposed through literature to the tension women face as they struggle to position themselves as whole subjects with needs, wants and the agency to act on those needs and wants. We read Emily Dickinson or Kate Chopin or Sylvia Plath, celebrating the singularity of their voices. Most of us were not exposed to writers like Nella Larson or Maya Angelou, though, who wrote compellingly of the intersection of gender and race in a woman’s desire for agency. Larsen’s work is accessible, exploring the life choices of a disappointed upper class woman in a way that Chopin’s work cannot. Activists like Sojourner Truth revealed the subtle (and not so subtle) ways that the voices of black women were diminished, doubted and ignored. She was a forerunner to feminism, asserting that gender and racial binaries can be used to silence women who do not conform to cultural norms. 

So many voices shape American identity, and there is no need to diminish one voice in order to make room for another. Education is a place where a variety of voices can be elevated not in order to rewrite history, but instead so that we can embrace and elevate the conflicting voices who shaped our history. The need to learn from many voices is a core foundation of discourse, rhetoric and a liberal arts education! Our cultural norms, heritage, conceptions of self, and identities are, in fact, shaped by the many brown, black and white voices in America. Our educational norm is to celebrate and memorialize the white voices, rather than to openly teach a wide variety of perspectives, recognizing the myriad voices that shaped American culture, literature and history. We are not products of Black labor and white innovation; we are the culmination of many voices expressing their God-given giftedness to help us translate and understand experiences of life in America. Historical erasure ensures that we are victims of this incomplete education. As the school year continues, the hope of this moment is that voices of color have always existed, we only need to recognize our deficits and do the work to complete our education. Ask to see your child’s syllabus, and ask how many Black, Indigenous or Writers of Color are included. Contact me and ask for recommendations if you want to expand your education!

expand your reading: Black voices and the power to educate

This essay is partially revised from an earlier draft, and it concludes with a list of incredible books penned by writers and poets and musicians of color. You are welcome to skip my words and go directly there! To hear me read the essay (but NOT the list), click here: https://youtu.be/5_0-UTDacPc

I am the victim of an incomplete education.  Most of us are.  I attended elite schools and am grateful for the many ways I was invited into excellence, rigor and curiosity; however, like most Americans, I was exposed primarily to curricula written, sourced and designed by white Americans.  The last two decades have revealed large gaps in my knowledge and the work I must do to find a complete education.  Having now encountered the incredible diversity of thought that functionally shaped America, I realize the insularity—the poverty even—of our educational norms.  Aware of this, and because Black History Month seems like a good time to advocate for robust education, I want to remind us that American writing, thinking and creating is the product of many distinct voices.  We have an incredible wealth of cultural, literary, historical and artistic legacies from every race, and we are diminished as a people when these voices are not actively taught in our schools. 

Our educational norms, sourcing and standards create and sustain a culture built upon racialized hierarchies that diminish the contributions of people of color, making space only for white creativity or analysis. Any school or system unwilling to grapple with the legacy of this bias is likely promoting white supremacy. You don’t have to do it on purpose; it is baked in already.

When we are primarily exposed to American history and literature through the work of white folks, we are taught to privilege white perspectives.  We begin to believe important cultural trends and innovations come exclusively from one segment of society.  This narrow exposure lays a foundation for cultural racism, suggesting that people of color are physical in nature, while white people, with their higher order thinking and artistic expressions, meaningfully impact our national narratives, our literary heritage, our community ethics, and the production of culture. 

American culture and history have been shaped by the voices, inventions and perspectives of a rich variety of people from all walks of life.  The idea of complete democracy suggests that every person has value and should contribute to our whole in necessary ways.  It is disingenuous for us to believe this while also pretending as if every important contribution to the common good came from one race of people.  Although this hypocrisy that affirms equality while codifying systems of inequality is one of our great national habits, America itself has nevertheless been deeply influenced by contributions from all types of people. 

In the South we love to think about our culture as one of genuine hospitality, gorgeous grounds, fine food and excellent music.  Because we have a legacy of erasing or diminishing the contributions of Black folks, our educations failed to teach us that so many Southern traditions only exist because people of color worked independently of or collaboratively with whites to create norms of hospitality in settings we cherish.  In many famed Southern kitchens, Black cooks created the recipes published by white chefs, now beloved as Southern heritage.  Even Jack Daniel’s Distillery now explains that Nearest Green, an enslaved man, taught Jack the wonder of whiskey making.  Best practices in agriculture, building, sewing and carpentry were perfected by Black ingenuity.  I offer these anecdotes to remind us that any American historical narrative that does not include the contributions of Black, indigenous or immigrant people is incomplete. 

 Most of us understand that our musical heritage is not complete without the contributions of jazz and the blues, the vast majority of which was created by African Americans.  Jazz and rock n roll were largely commoditized by whites but created by Black Americans; indeed, Elvis became famous by publishing songs first performed by Black folks.  What do we sacrifice if we examine our cultural understanding of ourselves, and make room for all those who contributed?  Our educational norms often fail to reflect our entire heritage, but we need not remain in ignorance. 

Some of our best early links between literature, sociology and ethnography were established by Black writers like Zora Neale Hurston.  A gifted writer of fiction in her own right, she travelled through Florida recording the stories of African Americans as they experienced the world.  Hurston helped prove that anthropology is incomplete without ethnography and auto-ethnography.  Many of us were taught to celebrate early writers who noticed such cultural differences through travel like Herman Melville or Mark Twain.  Black writers like James Weldon Johnson and Paule Marshall, far less read, continued and advanced this style of writing about the helpful collaborations and differences one discovers as they travel at home and abroad.  Acknowledging the pull of diaspora while claiming our full history speaks powerfully into our current discussions about identity and the ways that we explore national loyalties.  If such voices were celebrated in education, we would be better equipped to now face a world in which citizenship, migration and nationality seem to clash in violent ways. 

In school, many of us were exposed through literature to the tension women face as they struggle to position themselves as whole subjects with needs, wants and the agency to act on those needs and wants.  We read Emily Dickinson or Kate Chopin or Sylvia Plath, celebrating the singularity of their voices.  Many of us were not exposed to writers like Nella Larson, Maya Angelou or Gloria Anzaldúa, though, who wrote compellingly of the intersection of gender, race and culture in a woman’s desire for agency.  Larsen’s work is accessible, exploring the life choices of a disappointed upper class woman in a way that Chopin’s work can’t.  Activists like Sojourner Truth revealed the subtle ways that the voices of Black women were diminished, doubted and ignored.  She was a forerunner to feminism, asserting that gender and racial binaries are often used to silence women who do not conform to cultural norms. 

 So many voices shaped American identity, and we don’t have to privilege one voice at the expense of another.  Our cultural norms, heritage, conceptions of self, and identities are, in fact, shaped by the many brown, black and white voices of America.  Our educational norm is to celebrate and memorialize the white voices, rather than to openly teach a wide variety of perspectives, recognizing the myriad voices that shape American culture, literature and history.  We are not products of brown labor and white innovation; we are the culmination of many voices expressing their God-given giftedness to help us translate and understand experiences of life in America. The hope of this moment is that diminished voices of color have always existed, we only need to recognize the deficits we have and do the work to complete our education. 

Idealist that I am, I suppose I hope you will make a habit of searching for and then relishing the rich cultural traditions that our American educational system has often minimized or erased. Don’t be the victim of an incomplete education. I spent nearly 24 years getting educated, and I would have missed so much of the literature and history that now shape my vision of community, heighten my awareness of the breadth of human experience, and humble me at the stunning beauty of the resilient human soul, had I not finally, in Graduate School at the University of Miami, been exposed to brilliant voices of color. I fell in love with their words and stories, and I invite you to discover the beauty and insight that captured my imagination and respect. These voices have, in fact, shaped the places we call home, and it is time we recognize and delight in them. Enjoy!

Below is a list of books I recommend, with newer (last 4 years) books **. For a list of kids, tween or teen books, let me know!

#BlackHistoryMonth Reads!

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

Haitian, now Miamian whose poetic prose crafts a story about the devastation of poverty, the trauma and hope of adoption, & the choices we make for the people we love. Gorgeous book!

*Deacon King Kong By James McBride

One of the best books I’ve read, McBride masterfully crafts a tale of the resisting and reviving power of Black churches in urban centers (set in New York city), and of the networks that sustain communities. These characters will move in and stay with you in wonderful ways.

Omeros by Derek Walcott

Saint Lucian Nobel Prize winning poet who offers a postcolonial, African, diasporic reworking of Homer in this epic poem. Caribbean poetry at its best!

*The Vanishing Half By Brit Bennett

A new take on an old genre, Bennett explores the way we construct our identities and experience belonging through the phenomenon of passing. For Bennett, understanding the ties we have to race and family is a process always in flux. It is fabulous.

Stamped from the Beginning

*How to be an Antiracist By Ibram X Kendi

Kendi explains the history of racialized thinking in the first, and helps Black and White folks explore how they were taught to think about race, identity, and value in the second. Under Kendi’s tutelage, you will begin to notice racialized thoughts or instincts, deconstruct them, and take away their power.

*Black Bottom Saints

*Soul Food Love (a Cookbook, written with her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams) By Alice Randall

These new books ooze with family strength, habits and drama, stories told with food or drinks to go with them. I am cooking my way through, and loved every Saint’s story (with a cocktail to match). Nashville is one of the stars in both books, so drink up!

A Gathering of Old Men By Ernest Gaines

Gaines grew up in Louisiana & writes better than anyone about the importance of community in our efforts to tell our own stories. For Gaines, confessing the way we participate in oppression brings healing.

*An American Marriage By Tayori Jones

A remarkable novel that tracks the devastation of incarceration on a family system, the conflicting legacies our families leave us, & the ambivalent journey we all must take to claim (or even understand) agency.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem By Maryse Conde

Telling the backstory of a West Indian woman mentioned in the historical record & imagined first in Miller’s The Crucible, this novel troubles the history of the Americas from a postcolonial point of view.

Americanah

Feminist Manifesto By Chimananda Ngozi Adichie

A Nigerian writer who also lives in the US, Adichie offers stunning clarity into how we find our normal, & how we manage our national, class, gendered & political identities.

Passing By Nella Larsen

Written out of the Harlem Renaissance about the Harlem Renaissance, Larsen writes of friendship & loyalty, the temptation to perform our race, and the fluid nature of identity. A beautiful, heartbreaking book.

Feeding the Ghosts By Fred D’Aguiar

A Guyanese poet, novelist and playwright, D’Aguiar’s novel reveals the excruciating acts of resistance that empowered the victims of the middle passage. Haunting & empowering, it stays with you.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man By James Weldon Johnson

Johnson captures the rich creativity and cosmopolitanism of the Harlem Renaissance, all on a backdrop of racial ambiguity, power dynamics and cultural appropriation. Fantastic.

To Pimp a Butterfly By Kendrick Lamar

Pulitzer Prize Winning poet who deconstructs the American experience in stunning ways. Lamar elevates and explores the fluid nature of identity construction in the search for agency.

Between the World and Me

Black Panther By Ta-nehisi Coates

Wielding comic book power, long form cultural critique (the Atlantic) & the memoir as a force for contextualizing historical erasure, Toni Morrison calls him “required reading.” So, yeah.

Cane By Jean Toomer

Toomer’s only novel is remarkable for his fearlessness in content & form. He raises questions about the possibilities & realities of black lives in various parts of the country, showing the gap between the dream & the reality.

*The Nickel Boys

*The Underground Railroad By Colson Whitehead

Whitehead’s novel sears images of abuse and courageous sacrifice into our American collective consciousness, calling us back to a history we erased through his liberal imagination.

*I’m Still Here By Austin Channing Brown

A prophetic witness to the indignities of carrying one’s blackness into nearly all-white spaces, Brown narrates her life, revealing deep wells of resistance & calling everyone to sit at a new table.

*The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas

Thomas burst onto the literary scene, shaping the shared experience of a generation of young people seeking to reach across lines of difference as they understand what it means to grow up knowing BlackLivesMatter.

Blake, or the Huts of America By Martin Delaney

Written across the African diaspora in the Americas, Delaney articulates a vision for resisting racialized oppression through black nationalism. Politically intuitive, he shapes a generation.

Mama Day  

The Women Of Brewster Place By Gloria Naylor

Naylor describes and celebrates black women, celebrating the places they belong, the homes they create and the power they display. Beautiful texts.

My Brother

See, Now, Then

Autobiography of my Mother By Jamaica Kincaid

Antiguan born, Kincaid writes better than anyone on the ongoing erasure of African diasporic peoples, of the complicated mobilities/voices left in colonialism’s wake.

*Red at the Bone, By Jaqueline Woodson

Showing off her agility to write for kids and their parents, Woodson explores how family legacies empower and suffocate the young people growing into adults around us.

Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison

Ellison’s iconic text makes room in the American canon for the voices and bodies of those whose presence shape & form a nation who refuses to acknowledge their existence. DuBois’ musings come to life here.

*Sing, Unburied, Sing

Salvage the Bones By Jesmyn Ward

Ward crafts tales about generations and the places that shaped them, about families who survive at great cost, about systems that destroy us. She reminds me of Faulkner...

Paradise

The Bluest Eye

Beloved

Sula By Toni Morrison

Too many to list & too necessary to describe, Morrison writes so compellingly that literature in America had to readjust, not just to make room, but to place her stories in the center.

*The Awkward Thoughts Of W Kamau Bell By Kamau Bell

Hilarious and pitch perfect, Bell describes what it means to create art as a defiant act of communal meaning making in an age of independent arrogance. You will laugh and cry, and wonder.

Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? By Beverly D Tatum

She gave sociological roots to a necessary reality: in the best hope for integration we all have to find a way to belong. The *updated introduction is CRUCIAL.

Notes of a Native Son and Go Tell it on the Mountain By James Baldwin

Baldwin epitomized the beauty of Black cosmopolitanism, as black cultural appreciation rose in America, the West Indies, and France among others. Gorgeous writing.

*Ordinary Light and Life on Mars By Tracy K Smith

Former National Poet Laureate, Smith is an artist, a mom, a poet, a philosopher, a prophet, and a pro. Her voice is shaping our time, in real time.

On Beauty By Zadie Smith

Everything she writes is worth reading. Her way with words is so gorgeous that one could be forgiven for overlooking the astounding insights about humanity she layers into each page. She is the best writer going...

Selected Poems By Langston Hughes

His way of capturing the angst, the pride, the grief, the beauty, the longing, the being...of black folks in America...simply can't be matched. He's better than you remember.

Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi

Capturing the migratory paths of a family, Gyasi layers intra-African journeys on top of the Middle Passage, then explores diasporic wanderings across America as figures discover & create meaningful contexts for life.

Amanda Gorman’s forthcoming books! Read and relish (and Youtube her!)

Newish Christian Picks

The Color of Compromise & How to Fight Racism By Jemar Tisby

Reading While Black By Esau McCaulley

Bonus Picks (because February is too short!)!

The Color Purple By Alice Walker

The Dragon Can't Dance By Earl Lovelace

Black Skin, White Masks By Frantz Fanon

Brown Girl, Brownstones and Praisesong for the Widow By Paule Marshall

The Piano Lesson By August Wilson