The articles written by Doug Barry and Ashley both played on ideas that our group picked up on in class during the group assignment. The main idea being that the literary canon is almost entirely made up of old, white men. In terms of learning about canons, this idea is just being reinforced and doesn't do too much in terms of bringing new ideas to the forefront. However, Ashley does bring up a point that escaped my first look at the list; there are rarely any African-American authors on the list for canonical literature. Ashley backs up her comment with solid facts; I mean, racism did keep African-Americans out of many a profession, author included. Even one of the most cited books of the past decade was, in fact, racist or depicting racism. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness depicts the horrible conditions that native Africans were put through during colonial times in Europe. Even in my high school, which is known to challenge the regular way of thinking and try to change the way students look at the world, did in fact have the typical canonical works and authors, mostly dead white guys. I think that in order to have a more diverse curriculum, we need to also have a more diverse canon. Add more women, add more than just dead white guys who's works are phenomenal, but could also be outdated. The more I read from the two authors the more I thought that these two people hit the nail right on the head when it comes to their ideas.