Now that you mention it, yeah.

[firecat]

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was published 50 years ago yesterday. This blog post by macon d points out some of the ways that To Kill a Mockingbird is racist. A comment by sanguinity suggests a couple of alternatives.

http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2010/07/warmly-embrace-racist-novel-to-kill.html

The comments on that post, as of right now, are mostly thoughtful.

Comments

[sqbr]

We were taught the book, but the teaching focussed as much on how it was racist as how it was not. Mind you this was a long time ago, I can't remember how deep the analysis was. Plus I went to a fairly academically advanced private highschool, a friend at a state school was taught it uncritically.

Being Australian probably makes a big difference too: It's not a Pillar of National Literature here, and it was taught more an interesting exploration of another culture than a depiction of how racism affected our society.

Anyway, yes: definitely a racist book, and a deeply flawed for anti-racism in the past or present.

[firecat]

I'm glad it was being taught the way you describe somewhere.

[sqbr]

Well, I'm not sure it's as important for Australian students to be made aware of how racist the US is, being smug at how racist you guys are is a common Australian trick for avoiding confronting our own racism :/ Though we did poke a little at the racism in some of Great Australian Books we read too.

[firecat]

If the way the book is taught is "Look at the racist USians, at least we aren't like that," then I agree an opportunity is missed. :/