A second try at this post....Outsider vs. Insider Debate.

I already posted once about this, but for some reason the post didn't work and then all my work was lost, so I will attempt to somewhat rewrite what I wrote, and get past this frustration I am currently feeling about imperfect technology! =]


On discussing the inside vs outside debate, I found these articles very helpful in forming an opinion on the subject. These articles helped me to see the different aspects of what is and isn't multicultural literature and who and what constitutes an insider and an outsider.

So, after reading Bishop's article, I agree with her statement that, "White writers frequently bring to their fiction about African-Americans a perspective that is not well informed about African American culture as do writers who know it from the inside because it is the way they have been acculturated."
This is what I would label an "outsider." One who is not well informed and writes on what could become stereotypical to a culture group or even offensive to the group.
On the other hand, I do believe an "outsider" can become an "insider" on a culture group and Harris supports this when saying, "Critical consciousness eneabled her to create an excellent examination of the depiction of Native Americans." Harris was discussing a non-Native American writer who wrote about the Native American. Have critical literary consciousness is what is key and necessary to being able to accurately protray a culture group and write good literature. This is what makes an "insider," in my opinion.

Also, after reading Bishop's article about multicultural literature, my eyes are open to the fact that multicultural children's literature should be synonymous with children's literature because multicultural literal should be the same. I like how Bishop pointed out that multicultural literature often leaves caucasians out and focuses on 'folktwles around the world, people who live outside the united states, religous groups, and people of color' etc and I realize that is quite true, and is not what we should be focusing on. Because multiculturalism focuses on 'several aspects of difference' such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, dis/ability, etc., it is important to make sure to include all these culture groups in our libraries as future teachers.
I appreciate the fact that these article opened my eyes to all the groups that are/have been left out by the label 'multicultural' and how it was more synonymous with 'race' than with culture groups.

Until next post.