Brown Girl Dreaming #3

                                   Children's Literature

      In Brown Girl Dreaming, a book by Jaqueline Woodson, we learn of a young, African American girl’s experience with segregation. Do I think this subject should be ban from a school? Not at all! I agree with the idea in class today, that suggested she “soften” the content in the book. I think that proves Woodson’s reason for writing the book in poem form, with meaning behind her words, that suggests a different, deeper context is hidden. She wanted it to be a young children’s literature, and I admire that.

          
The training- “You know you have to get those trainings, she says, and out mom nods. They won’t let you at the counters without them. Have to know what to do when those people come at you.” (p.76).

   
    In this memory, we understand that there was a specific training involved in the fight to end segregation throughout the south. Woodson doesn’t involve any type of serious violence, and imagery of violence, as she could of. So I continue to believe that there is no reason to look at this literature, as unfit for young children.

      My sister and I have different dad’s, she is molto. I want to think that racism no longer exists, and no African American has experiences segregation today, unfortunately it’s not true. I Have witnessed my sisters struggle in situations where she was named, and degraded in ways I have never experienced. The misunderstanding that African Americans are any less than white Americans, is ridiculous. I simply cannot understand at all, how a person can think like that. But, I grew up never realizing the difference in color. Calling my sister’s dad, dad, I had no clue. It’s all I knew. Until my mom asked me if I wanted to see my biological father. Shocker! I was about eight when I really thought about the difference in skin color. Though nothing between any of us had ever changed with that realization. Skin color doesn’t make up who we are.

      I think Woodson’s story is good for young reader. To me, this book serves at an important truth in our history. As a white girl, or any other ethnicity, and either gender, this is a part of our past. I would never think of this information as a threat to young readers in any way. Taking this away from a child’s knowledge would be unethical to me.