Miles Morales: Spider-Man
In this novel based on the comic book series, Miles Morales–who every day at school learns about the historical “benefits” of slavery and the modern prison system—takes on a supervillain who’s existed for hundreds of years. The villain has been spreading its racist beliefs and over-policing his fellow Black students, and Miles has had enough. “Yes, Spider-Man is literally fighting the embodiment of white supremacy,” Gresko says. “This novel is mind-blowing, because it’s both a superhero story and a radical political allegory, which gives kids multiple levels on which to engage with it.” [1]
Controversy
In Miles Morales, Miles is suspended for leaving the classroom to use the bathroom. His crush and classmate Alicia is suspended for protesting Mr. Chamberlain’s explicit anti-black racism and his attempts to dehumanize Black people.
Alicia is punished for peacefully protesting against a teacher who singled-out what may have been the only Black students in the class as he went on to say things like:
“Slavery was the building block of our great country. We shouldn’t just blindly write off the argument for the Confederacy wanting to keep it.” (60)
“We underestimate the bond between slave and master. So many slaves were comfortable with being enslaved. Happy even.” (115)
He romanticized the antebellum South, praised the prison system for keeping slavery alive, and actively worked to dehumanize two Black students under his charge. His goal, and the goal of the other Mr. Chamberlains that have made flooding the school-to-prison pipeline their game, is to enslave Black people in the 21st century.
Their mission is literally to make sure that young Black students are so disheartened from being disenfranchised that they feel as though they have no choice but to drop out of school and (automatically, according to the Chamberlains) turn to crime. There’s a scene during the aforementioned Halloween party where Miles has an opportunity to spy on the Chamberlains and they’re all standing around crowing about how well they’re doing in their attempts to return to what was, for them, “a better time”. [2]
