When I was a kid I loved to read so much that my mom would
ground me from reading the way other parents would ground their kids from TV. I
had to have a book EVERYWHERE I went, even the supermarket. This reading
addiction, while not always beneficial to social interaction, was beneficial
for my future as a “thinker and a doer” in society. Of all the skills I learned
from reading, the ability to empathize with a character and truly put myself in
their shoes was the most important.
Recently
while reflecting on these early childhood experiences with books, a thought
popped into my head. Would a little girl of a different color than me have had
the same experience? Would a little girl, like me in every way but color, have
had the same plethora of stories to identify with and dive into? Growing up I read a lot of books about girls
in different cultures and of different races, but how might my experience have been
different if I had been born outside the dominant culture?
With this
thought in mind, I decided to take a field trip to the Missoula Public Library.
After accruing my usual too-tall stack of books, I headed to the children’s
section. I began pulling books off the shelves at random and looked at the
illustrations. I only spent about half an hour reading (I was getting the stink
eye from a little boy eyeing my spot on the couch), but it was enough time for
me to notice something. The number of books with a person of color in them was
pretty darn low. The books with animals as characters had more diversity than
most of the books with people in them.
That’s not
to say there weren't some stories about, and including people of color, but the
point is that there weren't as many as there should be to accurately reflect
the reality of the world (fictional or not). This isn't an intentional omission
on the part of the library, it’s a symptom of a greater system at work, Portions
of our population are being left out of the literature we are using to inspire
our children and young adults (this coming from a youngish adult herself).
The more I
thought about it, the more I realized that most of the books I pick up in the
young adult section of the library don’t have a whole lot of characters of
color. If you take a second to think of some of the most popular young adult
novels out there, you might notice that most of them center on white heroes and
heroines. For example on NPR’s
list of the 100 best-ever teen novels, of the top five books listed, none
have a main protagonist who isn't white. To Kill A Mockingbird is the only book
in the top five that directly deals with race.
Under representation of minorities
is in no way new or surprising, but my little field trip to the library got me
thinking. What’s causing this under representation in the literary world? Is it
the lack of writers of color? Is it a lack of white authors being interested
in, or accurately writing stories about people of color? Is it a lack of an audience?
Are writers of color not being encouraged? What’s the deal? Male writers write
about females. Female writers write about men. White people obviously have no
problem writing in supporting characters of color, so why is there an absence
of main characters who are different colors? Personally, I think that when the
majority of writers sit down to write, they either write what they know, or
they write what they wish they knew, and somewhere in there, racial diversity
in characters is getting left out.
Reading is
supposed to be an immersive experience. It is an activity which is solely
dedicated to understanding the thoughts and feelings of other people, their
motivations and their desires, what makes them who they are as a human being. Books
can have huge ramifications in society; they are a pulse point of modern
society’s concerns and cares.
In order
for our society to grow we have to expand the diversity of our literature. I
don’t mean that we need more niche books specifically about race. I mean that
we should have more books that reflect the complexity and diversity of our
society. As long as people of color remain underrepresented in the literary
world, our children and young people are facing yet another arena in which
racial diversity looks like a token book here and there, not the status quo.
At this
point, as in many of my blogs, I am left with a question. What can I personally
do? I think the first step is to highlight the literature that’s already out
there that is inclusive. So here’s where I ask for your help. What
recommendations do you have for reading? What books do you read to your kids
that encourage racially sensitive thinking? Let’s compile a starter reading
list, so that we’re all a little better informed about the books which not only
entertain us, but make us more socially conscious people as well.
----
Related Information:
YWCA Missoula is excited to announce that the University of
Montana will be holding a conference on race and creative writing on April
10.
"The goal of the conference is to address the
relative paucity of discussions on the topic of race and creative writing in
the academy in general. The panels and readings will bring to the discipline
and teaching of creative writing perspectives from critical race theory,
poetics, performance studies, literary theory, ethnic literature, and Native
American and Indigenous studies."
For more information about the conference click here.
Posted by Juliana Rose, YWCA Missoula Racial Justice Intern
