Bronx Masquerade... my perception

I thought I had made a post on this book, but I guess I was wrong. I enjoyed this book. I especially liked how every poet has a different style that reflects their own personal life/ experience. There are some stereotypes found in the book (lower class black students, an inspiring teacher that saved them from their turmoil etc); however, no matter what book we read and analyze, every reader is going to find some stereotype. There are black students who live in inner city schools and these students could maybe find some comfort from the book. While I don't want to generalize, there is a possibility that it could help. As we have discussed in class, it is apparent to have multiple representations of each multicultural literature as every book depicts some stereotype of a person. I find myself acknowledging the stereotypes, but understanding that you can't rewrite the books, so use this to your advantage when presenting the book in the class.

I am torn if whether or not I would use this book in the classroom, because it does depict African Americans in that they are poor and need a white teacher to save them. If I were to use the book, it would be in portions and I would mainly just use the poems depicted in the book instead of using the entire book. There is a lot of great things going for this book. Nonetheless, this book could present generalizations of how all black people live and how all black people are.

Overall, while I felt the book was good, I would only use bits and pieces of the book and not teach the entire book to the classroom to present the diversity of poems and to prevent further stereotypes of African Americans.