Right SO.

When people say we need to #DisruptTexts, what they’re NOT saying is non-white readers can’t/don’t know how to/are incapable of/are too different too/aren’t smart enough to relate to white characters. That’s...you’re just reaching, at this point. Especially since

non-white readers have been doing just this very thing since, I don’t know, birth. The same goes for watching TV and movies, playing video games, etc. The point is, they shouldn’t have to. Especially when most, if not all, of these texts tend to reinforce white supremacist

and colonialist ideologies even without meaning to. And some of them definitely mean to.

You wanna defend the merit of Scarlet Letter but not talk about the narrative surrounding Tituba. Telling.

How about Bertha in Jane Eyre?

Look, I get it. It sucks looking back on things

you enjoyed, stories that meant or did a lot for you, and realizing they’re kinda sorta maybe super racist. And you can try to say they didn’t impact you in that way, but we all know internalized biases are a thing and how they’re developed.

But that’s the cost of learning and

and growing and doing better for the next generations of readers.

“This is history! This is culture! If you stop teaching them, you erase the lessons to be learned here!”

Not really. Also, that’s the same defense used by people who wanna keep confederate statues around, so...

Monuments to racist history aside, the books will always be around, because white supremacy yo, so you’re in no danger of never being able to read your problematic fave again.

On a COMPLETELY related if not intrinsically linked note, it’s funny AF that a lot of these people making this argument would in fact claim they believe representation matters. Except for when it comes to their favorite books, I guess.