There seems to be an assumption by many on both sides of the #DisruptTexts debate that there is a conflict between classic texts and diverse texts. I have to admit that I find this assumption incomprehensible. Any meaningful list of canonical texts would inevitably be diverse.
A list of world great books would surely include the Bhagavad Gita, Confucius's Analects, Monkey, the Qur'an, the 1001 Nights, poetry by Basho, Tao Te Ching, the Vedas and Upanishads, writings of Dogen, the Dhammapada, various sutras, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and many others
Any serious list of American classics would have to include texts by WEB Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, Morrison, Booker Washington, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, MLK, Charles Chesnutt, Nella Larsen, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, etc.
In short:
If your canon is not diverse in just about every way, the problem is probably with you and not with the canon.
If your canon is not diverse in just about every way, the problem is probably with you and not with the canon.
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