should “to kill a mockingbird” be removed from required reading lists?

[Rohan]

before i picked up this book, i remember seeing a tweet calling harper lee a white savior. i kinda knew what i was getting into and as a POC, i kinda bought into the white savior narrative so i was looking for instances where people might get this impression.

to be honest, i couldn’t find much that made me dislike the book. i didn’t expect to be experiencing the story from a child’s point of view and it was refreshing. the story definitely has some intense themes that would have made you depressed if it wasn’t for little scout’s perspective. atticus was a great role model figure (and which good lord, some of yall definitely needed an atticus in your life) and it was impossible not to root for him.

as far as the “white savior” thing goes, i don’t think harper lee deserves too much blame. the book was published in 1960, in the middle of the civil rights movement, and for ignorant white people, this book definitely talks some sense. for black people, however; i can definitely understand why they wouldn’t be big fans of this.

the fate of some of the black characters are tragic or unknown. the most prominent black character, calpurnia, is the family cook and practically a house slave. she is well respected by the finches but still. the story doesn’t do much to flesh out the black characters, either. the entire story is from a white perspective and now that we are in the 21st century, the messages the story is trying to convey is a “duh wtf of course.” some of the consensus from black people about this book is that it’s kinda embarrassing and doesn’t actually leave them with anything good to take away. for this reason, i don’t have anything against pulling “to kill a mockingbird” from reading lists.

i guess if you are in a white predominant area with very little exposure to other races of people, i think this book is amazing for the youth. in a diverse area that includes a lot of black people who’s been directly affected by slavery's long term effects, ehhh not so much.

but what are your thoughts? do you believe “to kill a mockingbird” should be considered a literary classic?? is it fair to want to remove it from required reading lists???

[Wisteria]

I think books like "Black is the Body" or "How to be an Anti Racist" Or "No justice in the shadows" would be a much more educational read for kids in white suburban areas.

I don't think TKAMB is a "bad" book, but I do think a lot of the books kids read are beyond violent and outdated. I remember being very disturbed by the SA on the young girl in the book, and I was told to read the book as a freshman in high school.

If the point of the assignment is to understand white privilege and the history of racism, I think there are many better choices written from POC perspectives.