 In the news

When the TAG kids (4-7 graders) were on campus last week they would walk in groups from one class to the next. Every time one group walked by the corkboard outside of my office, one of the kids would point to one image in particular and say, “ Mexican
White Boy ? That’s so racist!” Why do you think he believed that?

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Discussion Questions:
How is baseball a sign to be read?
How is his racial duality constructed?
What do we make of his self-mutilation?
How is self-mutilation gendered? How is the male cutter different than the female cutter?
How is disability portrayed here?
Let’s unpack this scene: pg 198
And this one: pg 46-47
Once again we are talking about borderlands - this time between the US and Mexico. How does this extend (or maybe even challenge) our conversation about Solar Storms ?
Sins of the father once again!
What does it mean (theoretically, not just literally) to be mixed race?
Why does Sarah Finch hate this book so much?

 http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/a wardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal/in dex.cfm

 Although Latino and black workers were on similar footing economically,
“Mexicans became socially defined against blackness, which ‘destabilized
[this] political alliance built out of resistence to an oppressive economic regime’…Mexicans did/do not fit into the black/white paradigm.”

 Overall, Mexicans were considered
‘more structurally assimilable’ than other minority groups because they, for the most part, were a Christian people,.
Spoke a romance language, had a politically powerful upper class, the female population intermarried with
Whites [sic], and, because of their
Spaniard ancestry, were perceived as
White [sic].”
 This, of course, changed over time.

 Non-Euro heritage side is shown as being a strong family. “White” or “American” side is shown as being less family oriented America as responsible for failing family unit.
 “The question must, therefore, be posed: is there no legitimate or satisfying way to present a pluralistic vision in literature, even perhaps extending to the presentation of Anglo characters who assume key familial roles?”

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Yet there is in those novels an Anglo rescuer
“who is able to teach [Latino] youngsters the supposedly superior values of the dominant culture and thus rescue them from hopelessness.”
“Anglo-Hispanic conflict stretches backward in time and extends over much of the hemisphere.
The historic rivalry over territory and over cultural self-determination has been complex and heated; it is not surprising that a propagandist effort has been directed at succeeding generations of children.”

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Mixed race lineage is often expressed as merely skin deep, appearances
 One side of the mixed heritage is often invisible behind the “bolder” half of the heritage. ie: Euro backgrounds are all but invisible and marked ethnicities (Cuban,
Puerto Rican, Japanese, African American, etc) are richly described and objectified
(games, drinks, food, customs of culture)
 Assume Euro audience who “need” to learn about these “Other” cultures.

 The Latino side is not “normal,” often antagonistic, Othered even when it is simultaneously depicted as rich and vibrant. It is “unusual.”

 Beth has a document to share with us.

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Discussion Questions:
How is baseball a sign to be read?
How is his racial duality constructed?
What do we make of his self-mutilation?
How is self-mutilation gendered? How is the male cutter different than the female cutter?
How is disability portrayed here?
Let’s unpack this scene: pg 198
And this one: pg 46-47
Once again we are talking about borderlands - this time between the US and Mexico. How does this extend (or maybe even challenge) our conversation about Solar Storms ?
Sins of the father once again!
What does it mean (theoretically, not just literally) to be mixed race?
Why does Sarah Finch hate this book so much?