white literature speaks to only white men
Shit reminds me of a long story about books I heard from a wise man.
One of My professors is a former sureno gang member. Dude grew up in a first generation Mexican immigrant household with a single mom who came to Los Angeles to escape her alcoholic and abusive husband.
He got in and out of trouble, joined a varrio, even got shot and is totally paralyzed from the waist down because he and his cholo friends went to steal beer from a liquor store, the old paisa who owned it spoke no English and was afraid of them raiding on weekends until one night, he pulled a gun and told them in broken English that he would fire if they didn’t put the beer down, he did, the next thing he knew he woke up with his family in a hospital room telling him he’ll never walk again and is stuck to a wheelchair.
This dude went to juvie at 12, in and out of the joint and continuation school, finally got out of prison for good around 18-19, that was before he went and shot some rival dude after a Mike Tyson fight and nearly did 12 years on a plea deal. The judge saw him changing himself and how he was getting an education and reforming himself, told him he was on probation and if he fucked up once, he’s going 20-50 years, dude never fucked up again.
Shit may be a long ass story and I’m sorry for it. but You know what I find funny. The dudes life turned around by reading books from old white guys, he’s dyslexic and has ADHD, dude stopped going to school in the late 80s and early 90s because he got bullied for being special ed, but some classic books helped him change.
While he was in, His mom gave him a book to read during Sunday visitation while he was in Isolation for fighting, she gave him Tom Sawyer one week and Huckleberry Finn the week after, and he insists he read them both, entirely, in a single night stuck up in the corner of the cell with the light coming through the door’s window.
This dudes is about as brown and indigenous as a Mexican can look. Yet some white dudes novels motivated him enough to start writing and reading. Dude got his GED, denounces his affiliations, and he has a PhD now, because some white dudes novels spoke to him as a troubled kid. I’d say that’s pretty great.
A book doesn’t know the race of the reader, and it doesn’t fucking have to. The issues and lessons it can teach are universal and relatable. These people do whatever the fuck they can to bag on white people, straight people, even other minorities and people of color who oppose them, just to fit a fucking narrative. And that’s all that matters to them.