Paneling to Avoid 'Deer in the Headlights' Moments in Class: Critical Race Theory Counterdialogues in a Seminar on Percival Everett's Novel James (2024)

There is much anxiety swirling around when three forces meet on the first day of class in a new semester: a new topic, a new group, and a new educator. "Paneling" is a guided group-work teaching tool that counters this uncomfortable atmosphere. It also equips every student with expertise within an academic framework at the very start of the semester, which can be helpful if a course addresses sensitive topics. This article describes paneling in a literary studies course that considered Percival Everett's 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James as a Critical Race Theory (CRT) counterstory to Mark Twain's 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, hypothesizing that Everett's novel equips the character James with the agency he is deprived of in the original text. This assessment is underscored by Twain's extensive use of the n-word and the complexity of navigating it in classrooms today. A CRT reading of both novels, and particularly dealing with the unspeakable word, necessitated that students have an astute understanding of the concepts of structural racism and sexism before engaging with coursework. Therefore, the panels were (1) The Magical "Negro" Trope, (2) CRT and The Deconstruction of DEI, and (3) The N-Word and Bookbanning. By the end of session four, the students were well prepared to engage with the course subject after actively participating in group work and in plenary presentations about the concepts surrounding systemic intersectional oppression, while being aware of fragile and defensive reactions that may characterize such discourses in a predominantly White space.