Interview with a Black Literature Professor

In Black Women/Black Literature Joanne Kilgour Dowdy interviews Christina McVay about her experiences as a professor of “Black women and Black literature” (pg. 87). Throughout their interview, the reader is able to gain insight about McVay’s thoughts on the richness of Black Language.

            The interview begins with McVay explaining to Dowdy how she “stumbled” (88) into the Pan-African division of the English Department. McVay explains that this opportunity came while she was at a bar one night talking to one of the professors from the English Department. She explained to him her desire to teach Black students about Black Literature, “It’s White me standing in front of a White classroom” (pg. 88). Towards the end of the conversation, the professor invited her to teach in the Pan-African division when an opening became available.

            The statement that McVay made about her being White and teaching White students about Black Literature as if it were some foreign subject, reminded me of the Spanish classes I used to take in high school. This statement reminded me of my high school Spanish classes because, all of my teachers, except for my last teacher, were either White or Black. When they taught us the language and the culture they spoke as if it were completely different from American culture and language. However, when my last Spanish teacher, who was Puerto Rican, taught the language she was more personable.

McVay’s statement left me with one question. When teaching a subject, should one of the parties involved (either the students or the teacher) have a personal experience with that subject? I asked this question because it was not until she began teaching Black students about Black Literature that she really discovered the richness of Black language thus realizing that the black community is, “One of the communities that has the greatest oral dexterity is the Black Community” (pg.89).