While studying August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ this week, I noticed Troy ‘corrects’ himself from saying n—-r to Negro. This only happens once in the play, so I knew this was significant, but couldn’t put my foot on how to communicate this to students.

So, I went on a search. 1/5

I came across Gloria Naylor’s essay titled ‘The Meanings of a Word’. It’s an essay originally published in The NY Times, on her encounters with the n word. A few quotes:

“Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power” 2/5

“there must’ve been dozens of times that n—r was spoken in front of me before I reached the 3rd gr, but I didn’t *hear* it until it was said by a small pair of lips that had already learned it could be a way to humiliate me.” 3/5

I’m thinking of all of this also in context of being an English teacher.

The difference b/t a Black author writing it vs a non black author.

The way that specifically African American students may experience this word in classrooms w/a teacher that most likely is white. 4/5

I taught To Kill a Mockingbird and came to a similar impasse, and while we never said the N word in class, I wasn’t the person that established the protocol around it.

I was the student-teacher then. Now I’m the teacher-teacher.

5/6

The article by Prof Justin Grinage, Combatting Huck Finn’s Censorship, has shaped my thoughts around teaching the n word,& we’ll analyze the Naylor article as an intro for the play.

Not totaled finished here, but ignoring the word as if it doesn’t exist is not a choice.

6/6

PT: Links to aforementioned articles

Prof Justin Grinage’s ‘Combatting Huck Finn’s Censorship: A Step by Step Guide to Discussing the N word in the classroom’ https://drive.google.com/file/d/10u1b1VgQEfn2SewMue4rt9zmm7COCfPW/view?usp=drivesdk

Gloria Naylor’s ‘The Meanings of a Word’ https://www.wqed.org/augustwilson/sites/wqed.org.augustwilson/files/The%20Meanings%20of%20a%20Word%20by%20Gloria%20Naylor.pdf