Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Reimagining the Canon for Racial Justice

Racial hierarchies within English courses are perpetuated by the reverence for the literary canon. When left unchallenged, the canon is a weapon of the colonial project, which perpetuates Eurocentrism and violence against people of color (Durand and Jiménez-García). Often, canonical texts that are used to discuss racism, such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, are centered on White characters' experiences learning about racism and/or take place in the past: Invisible Man and Black Boy are examples. While texts associated with the canon certainly have a place in English classrooms, we worry that neglecting contemporary texts that address racism results in students associating racism with the past. Legislation and policy have added to this concern.