When I began studying black literature, on my own when I was 15, the only child of color in Catholic Chicago High School, I was shocked when my classmates were opposed to open housing. Thus, reading books by African-American authors, was my first conscious spiritual awakening. Although based on social, historical, and political information, the discovery of African-American literature had the same feeling and effect on my life as my adulthood spiritual discoveries of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Fortunately, experience led me to realize that beliefs limited by social, historical, political, and racial ideas could bind one into a narrow, closed world. The reason for people failing to be open to other people, I believe, is deeper than race and goes basically to how people look at the world.
Some people see the world as a place of limitations, threats, deceptions, abuse, and injustice.
Others see the world as a place of expansion, discovery, sharing, and inclusion. With all of this rambling, I conclude that Greene's article could be inspiring and informative to teachers who are trapped by the traditional Western canon and education. I, like her, quote from Freire and am happy to see his name again. Who introduced me to his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I would have to re-read it to trace that influence.