‘Mockingbird’

* Despite my fond memories of the book and movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” I am relieved that teachers have finally realized that this is not the only story about racism (June 21). However, the critics have it only half right. Yes, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a white story, but it is a 1950s story. Whites writing today would not tell the same story.

When will English teachers teach fiction as representative of the time period in which it was written? Compare Harper Lee’s work with Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” or something else written by an African American at the same time to teach differences between white and black perspectives. Don’t compare white writers from the 1950s with African American writers from the 1970s or 1990s, even when they discuss the same time period. Their views differ. We are all products of the time in which we live.

CAROLE SROLE

Department of History

Cal State L.A.