Aronson vs. Pinkney

After reading both Marc Aronson's and Andrea Pinkney's articles regarding awards specific for certain cultures and groups, I was left very confused. I found that while reading Aronson's article "Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes" I was agreeing with a majority of what he was saying. His main point can be summed up when he said "By insisting on testing the racial identity of its winners, the CSK shifts its focus from literature to biography...Your community, your ethnicity, comes before your talent" (Aronson 273). I find it kind of unfair that people who do write accuate literature for a certain group that do not culturally belong cannot even have their work considered for recognition.

Bronx Masquerade Discussion

In class last week, I was very intereseted in what my group members had to say about Nikki Grimes novel Bronx Masquerade. I really enjoyed the book and thought the layout of the novel was very creative and kept me interested as a reader. One question that was brought up in my group was whether this piece of literature would still be considered "multicultural" if a Caucasian student was the narrator instead of Tyrone, to which my response was "yes." I think that since this book contains such an array of cultures within it that no matter what the background or ethnicity is of the main person speaking, it should still be considered a diverse book.

Bronx Masquerade is a book that can be incorporated into many activities as well as introduce poetry in a unique and non-intimidating way. I think that students, including myself, sometimes are afraid of poetry because we are usually exposed to older poets. These poems tend to have meanings that are difficult to understand and that was something that pushed me away from the genre when I was in school. I think that if students are shown work that is more directed towards their age then they will be more optimistic to try it themselves.