They are the enemies of education and equality. If the teacher was also race-obsessed, seven of 10 could come from the Lani Guinier classics of world literature. But there could be complications. Part of the reason is that the curriculum is not engaging them.
Students get more interested in reading and language when they see themselves in the curriculum.
I grew up in a small town in upstate New York in the 1950s and fell in love with Robert Frost and F. Scott Fitzgerald, even though neither was a Jew. I saw myself in the heroes of American history, notwithstanding that none had grandparents from the Pale of Settlement. We were told that beneath the skin, behind the accents, outside the houses of worship, we shared a common humanity. We all took the same voyage, from birth to death. We learned, loved, laughed, toiled and experienced the emotional hungers and psychic aches peculiar to our species.