Barbara A. Sasso
I teach English Language Arts at Wilbur Cross High School, a large comprehensive high school in New Haven, Connecticut. Demographically, 52 percent of our students are economically disadvantaged. Around 53 percent of the students are Hispanic and 32 percent are African American.
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Our school is populated by a large majority of Hispanic and African American students who live in poverty. In this unit, I want to address some economic data that might help them as they step into their futures.
I would like to help my students understand the history of economic inequality, and in particular, how it is tied to race in the United States. How have unequal differences in income, wealth, and opportunity affected minorities in particular in the past, and why does it seem to persist despite changes in laws? I would like my students to gain perspective on their own ability to build economic success as they move forward into their futures. Many novels in American literature take place in the 20
th
century, and many of them follow the stories of characters who struggle with poverty. Is there a hopeful way to move forward? Do the narratives only reveal part of the story? This unit could be used with a number of different works, but A
Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry in particular has a set of issues that can be viewed through an economic lens.
