Steffany
I’ve pretty much completed the first week of my second semester. After a lot of tweaking, I’m content with my schedule. The shuffling of professors has led to less interesting course offerings this semester. I also start taking courses within my major: communications. I picked it because it’s broad enough for me to get a job once I leave college. At least, if the world hasn’t ended by then.

I’m taking the lessons I learned last semester and applying them so that I can be a productive student this one. Don’t hold me to this, I have a tendency to renege on goals and whatnot. Sometimes, my peers are obnoxious, but I have to just brush that off—that’s life. In my Advanced Critical Writing class, I’ve been trying to find the balance between being assertive and giving my instructor constructive criticism. One of our assignments included picking a two novels/bodies of work by a Nobel Prize winner in literature.

Immediately, I knew that only three people to win the Nobel Prize in Literature have been of African descent: Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer; Derek Walcott, a Saint Lucian poet; and, of course, Toni Morrison, inventor of words. I felt that having such a limited pool would be doing my classmates and I a disservice. Talking about race, especially within a literary context, should not be sidestepped because it’s uncomfortable. Reading outside of the U.S. American literary canon should be encouraged. I love Toni Morrison, but she isn’t the only Black writer to hold a pen, she’s just one of the few to be in the canon, and so she should be! However, I know that in recent years I’ve been immersing myself in some amazing contemporary works by Black authors.

Even when picking essays to read, some of the best essayists on the internet right now are Black. They’re not necessarily publishing on traditional newspaper platforms, but rather sites like MTV News, ushering in an era of pop cultural criticism that’ll be studied for years to come. We read a piece by A.O. Scott, about how shows like Mad Men and Girls are a reflection of American life within their respective times. I had to disagree. They aren’t a definitive portrait but represent a portion of America. I, wholly American, don’t see myself represented in those shows. That isn’t such a bad thing. That’s not necessarily the responsibility of the shows’ creators. What can be done instead is giving equity to those who make shows about people like me.

I brought all this to the forefront in class. I was very meticulous about what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Being outnumbered, I was aware that at minimum this outlook could be brushed off. Sometimes, there’s the whole “it’s isn’t always about race” remark, which annoys me. I was prepared for all of that, except my professor was incredibly receptive. He said he was giving me extra points for pointing that out because that was a part of the assignment, seeing how few and far between people of color are. I’m not sure if he was bullshitting me, but I’ll take it. It felt like a small victory. My voice was heard. He assured me he’d actively seek out more diverse writing voices. We’ll see if he keeps his word. ♦