Literature, Life-Writing, and Identity

The Stories of Others, the Making of Ourselves: Teaching Strategies for Multicultural Learning

Part 1: Multicultural, Multimedia Studies and the Personal Narrative

In her sweeping first chapter, Nelson “defines” identity at least four times, with different wording but similar feeling, while describing different aspects of narrative repair of damaged identities. This indicates that even a scholarly work on the subject cannot produce a single, definitive meaning of the huge scoping concept of identity. One could spend a lifetime debating it, and that life would be well-spent, and still conclusions would change and evolve and adapt. Our identities involve everything we perceive, everyone we meet, everyone whom we care for or who cares for us, and everything we watch, see, listen to, and read.

The reason that it is important to explore identity in art also harkens to why it is important to explore any human condition in art. It is formative, it is reflective, it is beautiful. To use, for example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the context of otherness or being alone: the creature in the book, created from parts of dead human bodies, given life through science, is utterly alone.

There is no more foremost an example of this condition, this loneliness. It stands therefore as, although hyperbolic, a prime example of what it may feel like to be an outsider. This creature had no like person, no mirror for personality or action or agency. He ended up an outcast, a pariah, and turned to severe violence. Again, if we view this as hyperbole, it may help us understand a bit better the instance of crime within communities outside the dominant culture. When there is less opportunity to have mirrors of ourselves in art and media, in fact when we see a lot of adverse versions or examples of ourselves in art and media, it is more difficult not to buy into it, not to believe it of ourselves. Or, at very least, to be frustrated and offended by it. Either way, this condition affects people who deal with it daily in their lives, because what members of a dominant culture can fail to understand is that it does not affect theirs in anywhere near the same degree, if at all.

The first texts we will deal with in this unit will confront students immediately with the black-white divide in America through two powerful pieces: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, and “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo. Citizen, a multimedia, genre-defying book of poems, narrative and images, is a hard-hitting account of the experiences – and, importantly, ruminations on those experiences – of a black woman and of what she perceives as general black American experience. This book alone is the first foray into our multimedia approach, but we will then take that a step further by pairing it with an analytic essay in “White Fragility.” Students will respond to both in different ways (see Classroom Activities). If students are moved, if perspectives are disrupted, then these texts have fulfilled their intended purpose. If students are not surprised, if viewpoints are reinforced, the texts have done their job. If there are students who are offended or defiant or disagree with viewpoints or content from these texts, then a conversation needs to be had. Everyone, of course, is entitled to their opinion, and since what these counter-stories are intended to do is correct existing rifts between peoples due to the influence of a dominant culture, they must be confronted with sensitivity and decorum. Just like these authors, each student deserves a voice. It will be necessary to prelude the study of this material with a conversation about what a “safe” learning atmosphere consists of. It’s a conversation many educators and students have on a fairly regular basis and is always recommended when teaching any material dealing with big issues. And these issues are huge. For resources on recommendations for having this conversation with your students, see the Teacher Resources section below.  

For each aspect of this introductory multicultural study, we will be pairing two works, each in differing media. This will challenge students to learn that: 1. multiple sources and multiple formats are important to explore to discover truth; 2. art is many things, as is literature; 3. the students, too, can draw on art-forms to explore their own experience through creative expression, as they write their own Personal Narrative.  This Personal Narrative, the first performance task (product) for this unit, is outlined in the Classroom Activities section.

Citizen: An American Lyric and “White Fragility” 

In Citizen, Rankine explores days-in-the-life of a representative African-American woman through a genre-bending work of narrative, visual art, and poetry. This format, right away, inspires engagement and interest. The cover is a provocative image by David Hammons – it depicts an image of a black hood torn from a hooded-sweatshirt that appears to be suspended in stasis, torn, formed as if holding, but empty of, its wearer. Inside, she holds nothing back about her adverse experiences as a black woman. She explores tender moments with her husband and friends, but far more frequent are the nagging instances of racism she faces. One of the most intense is a moment when she is scheduled to see a new therapist – a trauma counselor – and comes to her door to meet her for the first time. “When the door finally opens, the woman standing there yells, at the top of her lungs, Get away from my house! What are you doing in my yard?” The speaker, shocked and despondent, responds that she has an appointment. “You have an appointment? she spits back. Then she pauses. Everything pauses. Oh, she says, followed by, oh, yes, that’s right. I am sorry. I am so sorry, so, so sorry.”¹²

There will be people in class who can relate to this experience. There will also be people who, like me, cannot. The intense awakening to, or reinforcement of, the reality that these types of interactions are part of, nay, define the difference between a dominant and a suppressed culture, are exemplified through Rankine’s experiences in Citizen, and analyzed in DiAngelo’s scholarly essay “White Fragility.”

From DiAngelo: “For many white people, a single required multicultural education course taken in college, or. . .in their workplace is the only time they may encounter a direct and sustained challenge to their racial understandings.”¹³ I’m sure my white students will be surprised to consider this, as well as any of my students – they deal with these challenges daily and are usually quite mature and forwardly-minded about it. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a bubble of racial acceptance (and acceptance of other descriptive identity-markers). We should be so lucky for racism and discrimination to be limited to these bubbles instead. But even my students need to read this literature to see some of what’s going on, to analyze it and to argue about it, and to write about it, and to change it. This was made apparent to me when one of my black teenage male students once told me he didn’t even realize the amount of violence perpetrated by police against black people until the media coverage of the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Interlacing the stories and art of Claudia Rankine and the social analysis of Robin DiAngelo, this opening to multicultural studies for freshmen is intended to serve as a shock to the system, hopefully inciting awareness and understanding that the tone of this class will often flow thusly. We will be dealing with heavy subject matter, having conversations that are large in scope and loom over every American. There will be opinions. There will be sharing, emotion, perhaps disagreements. All will inspire debate, class discussion and, for sure, written response. Students will spend time writing analytically about the art and poetry of Rankine, and responding artistically to the dense, academic narrative of DiAngelo. This is outlined in detail in the Class Activities section.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “The Danger of a Single Story” and “Olikoye”

“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people but can also repair that broken dignity.”¹⁴ -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  

Chimamande Ngozi Adichie is a young-ish, attractive, eloquent Nigerian woman with an appealing accent. I describe her thusly because these attributes contribute to her being a good spokesperson, aesthetically, as it were, for the exact subject she is proselytizing: not tying yourself to a single story about a person, or culture, or anything. It is ironic then that we all have similar ideas about what makes a person attractive, regardless of other aspects of their identity. Janet Mock, for example, a writer whose work will be analyzed in the next section, is a very attractive woman by classic American standards. She just so happened to be assigned the gender of male at birth. Spokespeople representing transgendered people or, for this section, Nigerians, or any subgroup of people seem to need to have some sort of marker or flair of attraction to be paid attention to; to be heard. It makes sense that they would decide to tackle that American flaw next. They have bigger fish to fry yet, so to speak. 

But for now, we look at Adichie, not because of these attributes or indeed not despite them, but simply because she has an important message, and tells wonderful stories. In this unit we will take a look at one of those stories – “Olikoye” – a high school-friendly, sentimental story about a woman in Lagos. We will start with the creative short story and then foray that conversation into her TED talk on the danger of the single story. After reading “Olikoye,” a story about life very different from the one we know in America, we first use the idea of names to talk about otherness and how we feel about our own perspectives and worlds as compared to how often we think on that of others.

“Olikoye” uses all Nigerian names. Most notably is the titular character, the newborn, whom the mother (narrator) names for the Nigerian Health Minister of the time Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. It is clear through this story how revered he was by the proletariat class for his efforts to educate the people on proper hygiene for childcare and ensure vaccinations were given to all babies in Nigeria (during a time when there was high infant mortality rates; when that was just a part of life for many). Mini-lessons on general knowledge of Nigeria and on Ransome-Kuti himself are appropriate here, and are outlined further in the Classroom Activities section.

This is a good story; one students will likely enjoy. It is sensitive and engaging and has a baby in it! It is intended to open the door here for students, and to give a voice to this author whom they likely haven’t yet heard of. Establishing credibility of an outsider is important, if for no other reason (and the hope is that there is no other reason, but these conversations presuppose that there often is) than they are not commonly exposed to stories from other countries. Even though American books, films and music flood cultures worldwide, we will see through Adichie’s TED talk and discussion of it that this consideration in and of itself cuts us off from experiencing wonderful stories like “Olikoye,” we being too overexposed, too flooded by our own single story.  

Adichie begins her TED talk with a story of when she began reading at age 4 in Nigeria. She read mostly American and British children’s books and so for a long time only thought there were such stories. It seems so mundane to us Americans. Of course she read American and British stories. Don’t we all? What Adichie attempts to educate us on through this talk, what we will explore here as a class, is that we take for granted that America is the dominant culture worldwide, and how easy it is for us to disregard that and think we don’t need to know anything about other cultures. “Because of America’s cultural and economic power, I had many stories of America. I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskell. I did not have [only] a single story of America,”¹⁵ Adichie professes. This is dangerous for both parties – Americans, and other cultures who only have the opportunity to view the world through that western scope. “So that is how to create a single story. Show a people as one thing; as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”¹⁶ Growing up in Nigeria, she did not see herself in the world’s stories, and so in a way did not see herself at all.

And this, as we will strive to do in this unit, can be seen as dangerous from both sides. It was unfortunate for Adichie to grow up without seeing herself in stories. It is also dangerous for Americans, or any subgroup of American or indeed humans, to only see themselves in stories. In an increasingly global landscape it is not only dangerous culturally, morally and existentially to persist with single, uninformed stories of people different or far from ourselves, it can also conceivably hinder future prospects, options, and opportunities. Focusing on stereotypes and assumptions based on media or movies (single stories) “flattens [the] experience”¹⁷ of others and in doing so has the potential to mute or restrict our own experience. When we deny ourselves a more dynamic perspective, we deny ourselves possibilities for change and enlightenment. Some people somehow are okay with this. But we are also denying ourselves opportunities for joy.

“I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person,” Adichie says in her TED Talk which we will explore in detail. “The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.”¹⁸

Transcending Culture and Physical Self: Janet Mock and Geena Rocero

Race has been an issue in this country since its inception. Gender equality has been for nearly as long. Gay rights have been a hallmark of civil rights during this century. Yet the rights and even the stories of transgendered, multi-gendered, and gender fluid people are still considered by many as taboo, and are even in many cases under attack. Arguably, the counter-stories of trans people are among the most important for study – certainly the most modern – in this context (the purposeful exploration and analysis of counter-stories).

We will spotlight two empowered activists for transgender rights, Janet Mock and Geena Rocero. The first, Mock, is the author of a recent, groundbreaking memoir in which she reveals her experience and revelations surrounding her life and world as a black, Hawaiian trans woman who grew up in poverty and family strife.

Geena Rocero, a model, has an effective story to tell for introducing this aspect of the unit. I have shown her TED talk “Why I Must Come Out” to students in class before. The talk opens upon a tall, beautiful Asian woman, talking about her experience as a model. She is the very picture of the gender-normative woman in beauty, dress, voice, and demeanor. She reveals about 10 minutes into her talk that she was assigned the gender of male at birth, while projecting a picture of what appears to be a little boy on a screen. The little boy is, of course, herself, and she continues on with the story of her transition, surgery, family support, and entry into a career as a successful model. She goes on to talk about activism for trans rights and it always inspires a good conversation.

After this introduction to transgender studies, students will read the introduction to Janet Mock’s memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, wherein she begins with a story of romance. She meets a man after moving to New York City with whom she is utterly enamored. In her well-written description of his pursuit of her, their meeting in a club, and subsequent first date, she pairs the anxiety of new love that we can all relate to so well with another type of anxiety that is less relatable to many: the anxiety of a woman over how to tell a man she just met and is romantically interested in that she was assigned the male gender at birth and has transitioned.  

Many activities, journals, discussions, reflections and writing can be easily inspired by these rich sources, and will lead to the students’ writing of their Personal Narratives, outlined in the Classroom Activities section below.

Part 2: American Born Chinese and Literary Analysis

For the second part of this unit, students will synthesize their learning from the previous multimedia study while compounding upon the multicultural theme, combining two types of media in a counter-story graphic novel. The book, American Born Chinese (2006) by Gene Luen Yang, is a graphic exploration of the experience of a Chinese-American boy, his struggles to fit in while maintaining the identity of a culture from which he is descended but unaware, and also a touching look at adolescence (particularly the early excitement and anxiety of romantic feelings. Even in a multicultural studies unit, we can find some time to address some of the things these teenagers will be going through regardless of their origin or identity).  

While it is a true counter-story, exploring the Chinese-American experience from the perspective of the titular boy, it is also relatable to many if not most American kids, especially freshmen starting at a new school. The heading on the back of the book describes the story as including “Three very different characters, one simple goal: To Fit In.”¹⁹ Many students share that burden or, at least, the perception of it, which for them makes it just as real. Through American Born Chinese, we will explore an example of that experience in Jin, the main character in question, whose struggle is not only internal: he is teased by classmates, rejected by peers and girls, and even misrepresented (and indeed misunderstood) by well-intentioned but culturally insensitive teachers. The narrative is literally illustrated in the comic cells of a graphic novel, and in three separate storylines: Jin’s at home and in school, a Monkey King who has designs on being a god, and a white boy with a (highly) stereotypical Chinese cousin who embarrasses him at school and affects his relationships. We learn ultimately, of course, that these are all different aspects of Jin’s own struggle with identity, other’s acceptance of him, and, most importantly, his ultimate acceptance of himself. In this way, the study of this book will synthesize those exact themes focused on in Part 1 of this section.

In the end, Jin learns what I hope my students have by now – that even after exploration and discovery, this self-acceptance is not complete. He learns that it grows over time and through experience and thoughtful consideration of oneself, one’s surroundings, and our interactions with others. This, ultimately, is the lesson to express to students, and doing so through the graphic novel format does several things. It is, in some ways, more accessible to students of this age. As a source, it is less challenging and provocative than other sources we’ve analyzed in this unit, though no less complex or emotive. The graphic novel has also in recent years become as viable a literary genre as any. In her article, “Between Realism and Genre Fiction: American Born Chinese and Strange Fruit,” Jiahong Wang reminds us that graphic novels “have not only attracted modern readers’ attention but also earned the acknowledgement of scholars.”²⁰ Wang goes on to site Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1992), Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000), Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), and indeed Yang’s American Born Chinese (all, by the way, rife for multicultural reflection, study and immense enjoyment) as hallmarks of the evolution of the graphic novel as a viable and valuable literary genre, not to mention popular. It is with this scholarly acknowledgement that we will tackle this graphic novel. Also, however, anecdotally and informally speaking, kids just love it.

By this point, it is hopeful that we have accomplished something through this unit: the general understanding that our consideration of others and their experiences is imperative to the understanding of ourselves and our growth. Through the experiences and reflections of Rankine, DiAngelo, Adichie, Rocero, and Mock, we have hopefully come to appreciate that we all experience life differently, and all those experiences, as well as our own, are equally valuable, important, and worthy of respect. I have mentioned before that I expect this will not be hard-learned for many of the students I teach, so I am also hopeful that by this point they have also considered that it may be hard-learned for others in this world, and it is important to proliferate counter-stories and stories of others for our whole human family to grow and understand, and that the multicultural material in this unit and beyond are imperative to that global understanding: that humanity cannot persist under a mere single story.

Therefore, by the time we tackle American Born Chinese, students should be able to take these skills and understandings, incorporate the new dimensions offered by reading a graphic novel, and apply it to an analysis of literature, outlined below in the Classroom Activities section.