Tag: Institutionalized racism
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Junot Díaz and Literary Racism
Many have heard about the writer Junot Díaz. He is, or was, in the literary world, a rock star, the Latino writer. The only Latino writer. And that’s where the racism begins. Quick summary: Junot’s career took off in The New Yorker, when they published his short stories. He won the Pulitzer a few years ago for his novel The Brief Wondrous […]
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My Time In Iowa: A Final Reflection on Racism in Higher Education
After the last few articles on my time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I offer this reflection regarding MFA programs in creative writing, their ongoing default to whiteness in their administration, professors, and students, and how this injustice can be undone. Structures teach people how to think, what to believe in, who to value and […]
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My Time at Iowa, Part 1
In 1996, when we moved to Iowa, we had three kids in tow. Michelle and I had both resigned from decent paying jobs as community organizers in the South, to move north, where I, unemployed, would study poetry for two years. About ten minutes after we drove into Iowa City, Michelle gave birth to our […]