Reading Relational in Mildred Taylor: Toward a Black Feminist Care Ethics for Children's Literature
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Wesley Jacques
Issue Date
Type
Journal Article, Academic Journal
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Even as Taylor's 1976 award-winning novel <i>Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry</i> presents formal educators, business owners, community leaders, and friends as morally compromised by Jim Crow-era white supremacy, the story suggests that young people remain indispensable to ethical work, both in theory and in praxis. Cassie and her first-person perspective are squarely placed at the core of this narrative work. This paper argues that Integrating the rhetoric of care ethics with Black feminist thought, calling upon the work of scholars from Nel Noddings to Patricia Hill Collins among others, reveals that considerations of alternate standpoints add significantly to politically-attuned ethical praxis and teaching.