Content warning: mentions of racism, enslavement, and sexual assault.
Last November, the Surrey School District pulled four books discussing racial issues from the reading curriculum for Grade 10–12 students. The reason? Students felt unsafe in their classrooms after reading through the normalized use of derogatory language in some of the books. These titles were To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and In the Heart of the Night by John Ball. These books no longer provide a contemporary representation of diverse racialized experiences. With the exception of Alexie, these titles are written by white authors. Students deserve better and more modern representations of racism, and this should have come earlier. Educating children about racial issues without any Black authors undermines children’s understanding of them. We now have literature that resonates with Black children and helps contribute to conversations surrounding racial inequality.
In replacement of these books, the District has proposed other books such as Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and Brother by David Chariandy, an English professor at SFU. Unlike the majority of the authors being pulled from the curriculum, these are all Black authors. Last semester, I read Beloved and The Nickel Boys, and both authors presented particularly poignant and authentic perspectives on “past” racial issues continuing into the present. More specifically, the authors illustrated the debilitating aftermath of being enslaved, in addition to reform schools where young Black boys were sent, even if they did not commit any crimes. Only now are these books being suggested for the BC curriculum.
Reading books like To Kill a Mockingbird did not even give me half as much insight into Black experiences as books like The Nickel Boys and Beloved did, which helped me gain a better understanding of how racism persists today. The district doesn’t cite a clear reason for the removal of Alexie’s book, other than “controversial themes.” However, it is notable that Alexie has already been deplatformed by multiple organizations due to allegations of sexual assault.
BC Premier David Eby called the removal of the older books from the curriculum a “wrong,” despite these books still being available to read in the library. Unlike others, Eby did not commend the remarkable efforts of the Surrey School District to better represent the history of anti-Black racism. Instead, Eby urgently tried to point out that larger issues are at hand, like children being able to easily access offensive or explicit content through their phones. He fails to recognize how these contemporary Black authors pull from their personal experiences and centre Black characters in their narratives, serving as powerful role models for Black children. Eby also overlooks how the scarcity of Black representation in the BC reading curriculum should have been changed much earlier.
I am not shocked to learn that our Premier does not agree with the decision to pull the older books, as governments often want to conceal authentic perspectives as much as possible. Though there is an important history behind the pulled books to learn about, that history is incomplete without any authentic Black perspectives.
Eby and others against the changes should be happy books like To Kill a Mockingbird were pulled from the curriculum. Why hold onto the same, old, and most notably, offensive books if there are more empowering, representative options? Contrary to Eby’s strong beliefs, the older four books are not the only books that could teach children about racism.
It is not the fact that the older four books do not tell us anything valuable about racism, but that we could use much more insightful pieces of literature to teach children. Pushing for these recommended books to be taught in more classrooms is crucial to actively deal with ongoing racial issues, create more empathetic citizens, and break down any barriers to creating the representation Black children need growing up.
