480
JUNE JORDAN
to aid accuracy, control and usable translation. Not abandon - inten–
sify. For the literature and the language of English pose problems
be–
yond those of a foreign but neutral body of social knowledge. In
America, we grip with a language and a literature frequently hostile
to the self-esteem, frequently destroying the valid history, of Black
stuc.ents. Any child can tell you what to expect if somebody says: "I'm
putting you down in my
black book."
Lawrence Durrell has written
one of those.
Or, consider two examples from Shakespeare: It so happens that
Caliban in
The T.empest,
an emphatically black creature, is the product
of copulation by a witch and a devil. And it so happens that Othello,
«such a thing as thou,"
confronts the question: "Are you a man? Have
you a soul or sense?" It so happens that William Blake, in his time
a poet characterized by rare humane concern for all society, wrote a
poem called "Little Black Boy." And this poem culminates with the
promise, meant to reassure the little black boy, that when he gets to
heaven he will be like the little white boy. Note: heaven will not bless
the black boy's identity, it will change his identity. Now you may have
some trouble teaching
The Tempest,
or Blake's
poem,
to students, gen–
erally.
If
you attempt the teaching of these to Black students, you
will
have a whole lot of trouble, i.e., a whole lot of work to do.
If
not, some–
thing is wrong. Translation is not taking place. Relevancy has not been
sought and found. The foreign phenomenon remains remote material,
i.e., useless to the student.
Across the country, Black students call for Black Studies. It
has
been asserted that "the proper study of mankind is man." Let us surely
understand that Black Studies for Black students is absolutely just one
phrasing of a universal summoning: Studies Relevant to
my
Life. In
the instance of Black students, the summons comes out of a social
his–
tory that has denied the factual relevancy of Black American life. Cur–
riculum changes, to present, accurately, the continuing fact and relev–
ancy of Black life, should be demanded by all of us. That is: perpetual
revising of curriculum, in the light of truthfulness, should undergird
all the knowledge we accept as humanly valuable.
In the instance of English teaching, Studies Relevant to My Life
translates as progress towards a personal politics of language.
It has been m7 privilege to teach a perhaps unusual variety of
students: I have taught Freshman English at City College where my
students were mainly young, white men interested in engineering or
medicine; students of an Upward Bound Program-who were mainly
