Critiquing two approaches that English teachers use to teach Black, or African-American, literature in the secondary classroom--one that centralises races and the other that ignores it--this article proposes a hybrid approach that combines both. This double-faced approach recognises the culturally specific themes that give the text and the Black author their unique voice while also recognising commonalities that bridge the text to others--despite the race of the authors. To demonstrate the feasibility of the double-faced approach, the article concludes with an examination of three texts through the lens of this "race both matters and doesn't matter" perspective.