My stance in the "insider/outsider" debate

Before I state my stance I would like to comment on each of the individual articles assigned for the week. As stated in the articles, multicultural children's literature is a complex and controversial subject and therefore my stance on the "insider/outsider" issue naturally follows suit. To begin, I disliked and disagreed with Shannon's article the most. Like Harris, I found it unnecessary that Shannon stated his ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. and questioned his motives for doing so. I was surprised at Shannon talking about his class being unable to connect to certain multicultural texts that focused on race and ethnicity. In my opinion, as well as Cai's, it is the teacher's, as well as the students', responsibility to recognize the relevance of different cultures in their own lives. Cai states that if "discussion stops at seeking out the experiences that the readers has in common with the characters and does not examine closely the social inequality and injustice caused by racism..it misses the point of reading about the Other" (322). I think it is ludicrous to assume that the only way students can learn about different cultures is to portray those cultures in a way that relates to the students. That in itself is reducing those cultures and changing them for the dominant culture's purposes as they have done for centuries before this time. 

Another issue I wanted to address was the issue of considering all literature as multicultural literature and how it reduces the name and as Mingshui Cai states, "loses its meaning" (313). I disagree with the reasoning but understand the need for a separate category for multicultural literature. However, I do not necessarily feel that all literature that portrays the dominant culture must be omitted. I feel that multicultural literature by definition means "many cultures" in literature. The dominant culture should be considered one of these many cultures. I feel that multicultural literature should be considered anything that addresses any one or multiple cultures in an accurate, authentic, and diverse way that builds understanding of major issues and characteristics involved with each of the cultural groups. 

I would next like to address certain issues in Harris's article. To begin I disagreed with her when she stated that Shannon could choose to join in the multicultural struggles while she had no choice. In my opinion everyone is affected in some way by the multicultural struggle and the issues surrounding it are unavoidable even for the dominant culture. Reaching equality and appreciation will require the work of both minorities and members of the dominant culture. For once can't people on both sides of this argument recognize that minorities and the dominant cultures must become WE and work together to become US. On the other hand, I did agree with Harris when she stated that she disagreed with "burdening children's books with the responsibility of reforming society" (12). I appreciated the fact that she recognized that children's literature had other purposes for reading besides politics and social analysis. 

Lastly, I especially enjoyed Cai's discussion of the necessity of adopting an "issue-driven approach" through "thought-provoking books that challenge children to think about issues that they may face" (319). I think giving purpose to all forms of literature is vital in helping students to recognize the application of multiculturalism and respect  for others in may different aspects of their lives. 

So in conclusion my stance on the "insider/outsider" issue is a complicated one. Like most of the authors of the articles I feel that a well researched and informed "outsider" who has a wide variety of "insider" sources is perfectly capable of writing a quality, thought-provoking piece of multicultural literature. It can even be considered that perhaps an "outsider" has different perspectives on the culture through their research that provide a wide variety of knowledge that may be unknown to an individual "insider" of a group. I feel that just because someone is a member of an "inside" group, it doesn't necessarily automatically qualify them to speak on the behalf of the entire group. This issue is a complicated and controversial one and I expect to not only learn more about it in this class but also through teaching multicultural literature myself one day.