You Never Read A Book Twice

Your understanding, connection, and emotions towards a book are dependent on your environment, experiences, and feelings at the time of reading. Our understanding of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is enriched by class discussions and projects. But our class discussions is with a class of solely Caucasian students, while race is oftentimes the highlight of these discussions. But what if it wasn't? How would our reading of Huck Finn change if the class was, say, half African-American and half Caucasian? Would it be a more enriching experience?

For one, African-American students would have the opportunity to share their first-hand accounts of race today. We often talk about the omnipresence of racism today, but from only one perspective. On the other hand, the analysis of racism could be a much more touchy subject. Although we have learned Twain satires racism in the 1830s South, the treatment of African-Americans is still repulisve and asinine. There is potential for a lot of hurt. The addition of African-American students could create the possiblity of an openminded, supportive classroom; or could cause a lot of discomfort and awkwardness.
If adding some diversity in the classroom can affect a reading of one sole book so greatly, it raises the question: How would diversity in the classroom affect the overall learning experience of all students?