Insider/Outsider Debate

The insider/outsider debate is a tough one for me to decide where I stand. After reading these articles, I find that I agree with some of what both sides have to say. While reading Patrick Shannon's article, I found myself feeling very similarly to what he was talking about. Personally, I am confused at how I should respond to multicultural literature because I am particularly nervous about coming off offensive towards issues within groups that I am not a part of. Sims Bishop also brought up a valid point that I agree with when saying "you have to know a culture intimately if you're going to reflect it accurately in your fiction" (Bishop 73). This is where I get lost in the debate because through this quote I get the impression that any outsiders' writing is invalid. I do believe that there are accurate pieces of literature written by outsiders but I just don't know how to critically read something and be able to tell if it is an acceptable representation. This is the main reason as to why I am taking this course. I want to leave here with a solid list of books that correctly represent the people/cultures written about. I also want to be able to identify stereotypes that are inaccurate within the literature we read/discuss so that I will have some practice of critically analyzing texts.

Bernacki-Introduction

I am a senior in the Special Education-Learning Disabilities program. Two of my placements have been in a resource room, including the one this semeseter, and the main focus of both rooms is literacy. For this reason I am very interested in finding diverse literature that will accurately represent many cultures and types of people. I am especially looking forward to finding literature that deals with students with disabilities since that is the field I will be working in.

Some questions that I would like to explore throughout this course are:
How do you know if a piece of literature is aunthetic?
Is work done by someone outside of the group/culture that is being represented within the piece still authentic?
How can you go about addressing issues within literature without coming off as stereotypical or judegemental?