Some parents and community members had complained the list, which includes How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, promoted critical race theory.
Now students will have the option of picking a nonfiction book dealing with science or nature or a memoir for their pre-AP reading.
I’ve only read two books on the list: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and Black Boy by Richard Wright. And maybe Alex Haley’s Autobiography of Malcom X.
Students in the elective course were asked to think about how they would define “social justice and racial reckoning,” “antiracism and structural racism” and “white privilege and authority,” before reading their chosen book, writes Duggan.
Perhaps parents thought students needed to see their identities and experiences reflected in their summer reading. The population of Gardiner, a town in central Maine, is 95.4 percent White, 1 percent Hispanic, 0.7 percent Asian, 0.7 percent Native American and 0.3 percent African American.
Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson