Our task is to prepare students to think so that when confronted with these words in a text they can see what the author's intent is. Writer David Bradley agrees. We cannot avoid being hurt. Language hurts people, reality hurts people. . . . The hurt is that it still does have meaning. . . .
People sometimes think the book causes things.
It only causes things if there are things there that are waiting to happen. If I go into a school or talk to a school administrator who says, well, gee, this book is going to cause all kinds of trouble, I'm going to say, you've already got trouble. Some teachers may feel apprehensive about exploring racism and related issues. The following suggestions will help teachers deal with these or other emotionally charged issues. You may also want to inform parents in advance about how you will be approaching the use of the word in the classroom and in the book.