Meghan Hjerpe

Personally growing up and going to school in a majorly white, affluent community, I have made the observation that conversations about race, particularly for white people, is very uncomfortable.  White people have become scared to say the wrong thing, so they say nothing at all.  It is both interesting and difficult for me to understand why we continue to shove history under the doormat; why we teach our children that racism is a word of a former, less enlightened time, why we ignore the challenges of our peers that we have historically caused.  It wasn't until I reached college that I began to have conversations about white priveledge, equity, and demographic inequalities.  Despite the positive direction this is taking, I often find that these types of conversations tend to exclude Native Americans.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is often labeled as an "edgy" text for young adults. In some of my own classes I have found that