ABSTRACT
I was tempted to write this article as an open letter to Toni Morrison till the unabashed sentimentality of that idea overcame my enthusiasm. Instead, I have opted for a less personal but also self-revealing narrative form.1 Recently I experienced for the first time stressful ecstasy of inviting students at a whitedominated institution to undertake the hidden passage to cultural ‘otherness’ through their reading of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. As I assisted with this ritual passage-though not every one made it through to the other end, and those who fell remain unidentified-I persistently questioned my particular agency in the multicultural classroom.2 Questions of power, identity, and multicultural pedagogy were in the forefront of my inquiry. Especially, I asked myself the following question: what pedagogical and cultural site do/ occupy in the current multicultural wilderness as third-world, but not African American, female teacher in the United States? What authorizes me to represent, interpret and exegesize-as I am supposed to for my students and for some of my employers-other ethnic cultures whose roots and contemporary reality are historically different than my own?
