Leo Nin
The first day I walked into English 2150 I was a bit skeptical. A theme of race and justice seemed to be better suited for a Law or maybe Politics class than an English class. The first few minutes of the class did not help my skepticism. Professor Moriah was frankly a bit intimidating when being completely straightforward about the class being a serious one with no room for fooling around. She was apparently too intimidating for a few people because they walked out of the room before the period was over. With all this being said, however, I have enjoyed the semester thus far.
The main thing that I have enjoyed about the semester so far is the required readings. While race and justice focuses on a specific topic, there are plenty of more popular works of literature that could have been chosen as require readings. One that comes to mind is To Kill A Mockingbird, which tells the story of Atticus Finch. However, the readings which were chosen, Brothers and Keepers and Prison Writings, are lesser known works which perhaps fewer are aware of. Before this class, I was unaware of both works and their authors, Leonard Peltier and John Edgar Wideman. This class allowed me to broaden my horizons and learn about new issues I was previously unaware of, such as the true misfortunes of Native Americans throughout history.
I have no doubt most, if not all, of us have already been required to read To Kill A Mockingbird or will be required to read it in the near future. I have already read it. I wouldn’t want to take an atypical English class with the typical readings. That is what has made this class special so far.