Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Reimagining the Canon for Racial Justice
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MARIO WORLDS AND HENRY “CODY” MILLER Mario Worlds and Cody Miles Morales: Miller argue that to disrupt racial hierarchies Spider-Man and we must purposefully disrupt the canon Reimagining the of literature. Canon for Racial Justice acial hierarchies within English courses are As educators and researchers—Mario is a Black perpetuated by the reverence for the literary cisgender straight male, and Cody is a White cisgen- canon. When left unchallenged, the canon der gay male— it is our belief that English language R is a weapon of the colonial project, which arts classrooms must be sites to name, challenge, and perpetuates Eurocentrism and violence against peo- ultimately dismantle oppressive systems. Traditional ple of color (Durand and Jiménez- García). Often, canonical curriculum and pedagogy will only rein- canonical texts that are used to discuss racism, such force the systems we seek to disrupt. Young adult as To Kill a Mockingbird and Adventures of Huckle- literature, when paired with intentional pedagogi- berry Finn, are centered on White characters’ expe- cal choices, is a powerful tool to fulfill our aims. E. riences learning about racism and/or take place in Sybil Durand and Marilisa Jiménez- García argue the past: Invisible Man and Black Boy are examples. that young adult literature allows students to “engage While texts associated with the canon certainly have social issues that the established canon obscures” a place in English classrooms, we worry that neglect- (16). Jason Reynolds’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man is ing contemporary texts that address racism results in a text that opens conversations about contemporary students associating racism with the past. Legisla- manifestations of racism. Reynolds’s novel can be tion and policy have added to this concern. part of a larger effort to reimagine the canon. In an For instance, the Common Core State Standards exchange with Trevor Noah, Reynolds vocalizes what draw from canonical texts and Newbery Award win- that effort entails: ners that are overwhelmingly historical narratives, We have to rethink what the literary canon is and which can lead students and teachers to believe rac- whether or not it should remain fossilized and con- ism is a relic of the past (Thein and Beach). Mer- crete as it is today. It’s stagnant. It’s static, right? edith Sinclair criticized the exemplary texts set that Why not figure out how to expand the canon? To be accompanies the Common Core as being “colonized diverse. To be young. To be old. To have like, poetry, poetry should be, Shakespeare’s sonnets and it should by whiteness” for centering White authors as being be by Queen Latifah. Teach comparative literature “worthy of study” while largely omitting or margin- where you take Queen Latifah’s “Ladies First” and alizing authors of color (90). Subsequently, teachers’ Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” and you inability to challenge the status and content of the show young people that nothing is new. This is all canon emboldens a hierarchy that places White char- a continuum. We are working with tradition. Then acters learning about racism over characters of color they can start to see their place in the things that they’re reading. experiencing racism. In short, an uncritical accep- tance of the canon prevents students from addressing We agree with Reynolds’s call and want to place his racism in its contemporary contexts. young adult novel, Miles Morales: Spider- Man, in ENGLISHJOURNAL 108.4 (2019): 43–50 43 EJ_Mar_2019_B.indd 43 3/20/19 6:43 PM MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN AND REIMAGINING THE CANON FOR RACIAL JUSTICE the reimagining of the literary canon to discuss the position the themes of canonical texts as “objective racist policy structure that is conceptualized as the knowledge” and “universal in nature” despite the “school- to- prison pipeline.” reality that the construction of the canon reflects We work to illustrate how Miles Morales, along “values, ideologies, political positions, and human with a variety of other texts, can constitute a new type interests” of Western imperialism (Banks 5–8). The of canon that foregrounds addressing contemporary canon submerges knowledge in an unnamed White- issues of racism. First, we outline the key concepts of ness that masquerades under labels such as “univer- “White supremacy” and the “school-to- prison pipe- sal” and “timeless.” Vaught reminds us that labels act line” before providing a brief overview of the book as “ideological and structural gateways to the effec- Miles Morales: Spider- Man. We end our article with tive maintenance of racial hegemony” (148). When additional suggestions for classroom teachers. left unquestioned, the construction and continual credence of the literary canon acts as a “structural WHITE SUPREMACY, message” that teaches “consistent racial grammar” THE CANON, AND THE within English classrooms and schools (155). This SCHOOL- TO- PRISON PIPELINE structural message affects both students and teachers. Like education professor Sabina Vaught, we draw Scholars H. Richard Milner and Jane Murray Agee on legal scholar Cheryl Harris’s definition of White have demonstrated how a department’s or school’s supremacy as a strict reverence of teaching canonical literature mar- political, economic, and cultural system in which ginalizes teachers of color. The canon is not merely a Whites overwhelmingly control power and material collection of texts. Rather, the canon represents a cul- resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of White tural construction of knowledge centered in White- superiority and entitlement are widespread, and ness that institutions deem superior and essential. relations of White dominant and non- White subor- Similarly, schools can uphold White suprem- dination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings. (1714) acy through policies and discipline procedures by implicitly demanding compliance to White, middle- In Racism, Public Schooling, and the Entrenchment class norms of dress, speech, and classroom engage- of White Supremacy: A Critical Race Ethnography, ment (Hatt- Echeverria and Jo). Black and Latinx Vaught outlines how students are disproportionately punished within The literary canon schools are rooted in schools when they fail to succumb to those norms perpetuates White and sustain White by teachers who have not critically examined their supremacy by supremacy through a own cultural biases. Punishments, as a result of “zero positioning White number of methods tolerance” policies, often include suspension and authors as essential including policy, pro- expulsion. These punitive punishments frequently to cultural knowledge cedures, structures, occur at schools with heavy police presence, which through descriptors and curriculum. For statistically are schools that are underfunded and such as “classic” and the purpose of this serve predominantly Black and Latinx students. The article, we will exam- multiple and interconnected factors of underfunded “foundational.” ine how curricular con- schools, police presence, centering of White norms, siderations such as a devotion to the literary canon and harsh punishment result in Black and Latinx stu- and school policies and procedures relating to disci- dents being forced out of schools and into prison sys- pline uphold White supremacy. tems, whether directly or indirectly. This reality has The literary canon perpetuates White suprem- been conceptualized as the “school- to- prison pipe- acy by positioning White authors as essential to cul- line” to make the implicit threads between White tural knowledge through descriptors such as “classic” supremacist school policies and the prison system and “foundational.” Defenders of the literary canon explicit (Kim et al.). 44 MARCH 2019 EJ_Mar_2019_B.indd 44 3/20/19 6:43 PM MARIO WORLDS AND HENRy “CODy” MILLER The literary canon and the school-to- prison pipeline are different in form but manifest from the same White supremacist ideology. The canon posi- tions White authors’ experiences and language as aspirational and superior while the school-to- prison pipeline codes White cultural norms as essential for academic success. Both the canon and the school- to- prison pipeline are upheld, perpetuated, and even strengthened through the institution of school. For- tunately, schools, especially English classrooms, can be spaces to challenge these manifestations of White supremacy. Teaching Reynolds’s Miles Morales: Spider- Man disrupts canonical wisdom about what “counts” as a valuable text. MILES MORALES: SPIDER- MAN The titular character in Reynolds’s text is described FIGURE 1. as “Baby Einstein” and “Smarty Arty” (Reynolds Miles Morales: Spider- Man chronicles the titular 43). Miles is the son of Rio Morales, a Puerto Rican character’s experiences balancing the dual identities of student and superhero. woman, and Jefferson Davis, an African American man. Miles prefers to use his mother’s last name to avoid jokes about the musician Miles Davis and, for some to fathom because it challenges existing more seriously, to avoid the “dirt” his father’s last notions about who can and should be a hero. By name carries in the neighborhood (20– 21). Ganke, reimagining Spider-Man as an Afro- Latino boy from Miles’s best friend, is Korean American. Miles an urban environment, Both the canon and Morales: Spider- Man features a multicultural cast Reynolds problematizes that is significantly different from the nearly racially the belief that heroes the school- to- prison homogenous cast of the original