Critical Race Theory Bans and the Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation in Narrative

Authors

Susan Ayres, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2024

Journal Title

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

ISSN

1081-549X

Abstract

Thirty-five states have enacted critical race theory bans at the level of elementary and secondary public education, and seven states have extended these to the university level. One way to resist these attempts to repress a healthy democracy by whitewashing history is through a pedagogy of antiracism, including literary works. The question of what that would look like involves questions of cultural appropriation, which occurs when one takes from another culture, such as a writer creating a narrative about a character outside of the writer’s cultural identity. This Article considers the story of Ota Benga, brought from the Congo to the United States to be exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as a pygmy, and in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. In addition to discussing Benga’s physical appropriation for the purpose of demonstrating scientific views about the racial superiority of whites, this Article considers literature about Benga and the literary canon in general, in order to explore the complicated question of when does a cultural appropriation harm the insider or marginalized community, such that the work should be deemed a failure and excluded from the literary canon. Literary works that succeed in depicting another culture are important and effective tools for a pedagogy of antiracism because they offer empathic portrayals and social critiques of racism.

First Page

207

Last Page

268

Num Pages

62

Volume Number

30

Issue Number

2

Publisher

William & Mary Law School

Recommended Citation

Susan Ayres, Critical Race Theory Bans and the Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation in Narrative, 30 Wm. & Mary J. Race, Gender & Soc. Just. 207 (2024).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1998

File Type

PDF