Students are to post reactions (minimum 250 words) to the assigned reading/listening linked below. Students are encouraged (but not required) to additionally respond to other student reactions.
Click HERE to read "The Ongoing Problem of Race in YA."
Click HERE to read Daniel Jose Older's Buzzfeed essay: "Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing." Click HERE to listen to an excerpt from Older's acclaimed YA novel, Shadowshaper.
Click HERE to read an excerpt from Tomi Adeyemi's acclaimed YA novel, Children of Blood and Bone. Read at least the first five pages of Chapter One (which starts on pg 11).
Click HERE to visit Rich in Color, a site dedicated to YA Books starring or written by BIPOC.
Click HERE TO review a list of "2024 YA Books by Authors Of Color To Add To Your TBR."
11 comments:
Gummi / Claire Lee:
The discourse around stories involving people of color and their lived experiences not being accepted in the publishing industry while authors of color feel driven to tell them, reminds me about our discussion in class regarding “dangerous writing;” the things that will not leave you alone, but you might be afraid to write about. It seems like it could be applied to this situation, as these authors seek to reach and have a conversation with the youth of their ethnic communities confirming and celebrating their identity through their literary works, but there is a daunting uphill battle to get them published and out there without being whitewashed.
Through their lived experiences, and Anika Noni Rose’s assertion towards white editors who say “We don’t relate to the character,” being “Well it’s not for you to relate too!,” another concept we learned about came to mind: the expertise of the writer, how you don’t know what your readers know, you just know what you know and what your characters know; rather than being concerned with tailoring writing to be understandable to these editors and those outside of their community, it is the full on embracement of what the writer knows about their world translated through their characters. It is the reader being able to trust the writer.
The incorporation of the writer’s web of knowledge certainly was present in Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. There were specific, unique terms such as ahéré and names such as Lazaro alongside the inclusion of non-English languages such as Spanish that were not only a passing aspect of the stories, but integral to them through the identity of the characters and the culture of their world.
The concept of “the market” came up several times in these readings. In the New York Times article, it is stated that members of the publishing industry often cite the market as evidence that white children won’t buy books featuring Black characters on the covers. However, as Daniel José Older argues, this perspective allows the industry to absolve itself of responsibility, blaming the lack of diversity in literature on an intangible, external force. In reality, the market is heavily shaped by the industry, which decides which books are promoted and advertised. Additionally, it seems ridiculous to assume that white children inherently avoid books featuring characters different from themselves. Young girls, for instance, often read books where boys are the main characters without issue. If readers truly needed to directly relate to protagonists, genres like fantasy and science fiction wouldn’t exist—it would be “impossible” to enjoy stories about wizards or aliens, which is obviously not the case. Furthermore, even if this assumption were true, it overlooks the many young readers of color who long to see themselves represented in the stories they read. I really appreciated Anika Noni Rose’s point that a character doesn’t always have to be someone you personally relate to—they might be created for someone else to connect with. Enjoying a book doesn’t require direct relatability; it can come from learning about another person’s experience and sympathizing with their emotions.
I also found the reference to Judy Blume’s “Iggie’s House” interesting. Though I haven’t read this particular book, I grew up reading and loving many of Blume’s works, especially the Fudge series. I would be curious to learn more about how “Iggie’s House” has aged. Does Blume’s decision to write from the perspective of a white girl, reflecting her own identity, enhance the book’s authenticity? Or does it risk reinforcing a narrative where people of color are marginalized, serving primarily as background to the white protagonist’s personal growth?
Additionally, I really liked the inclusion of sites like Rich in Color. This seems like a great resource for discovering and sharing young adult books by and about people of color, effectively countering the excuse that someone “just doesn’t know any” or that books by people of color don’t exist in their preferred genre.
Doll’s The Ongoing Problem of Race in Y.A. from the Atlantic shares some of the same issues I have noticed with the YA genre, both when I was an active participant in the market and when I got out of it. To me, diversity on the page is very different from diversity on the screen because of how easily accessible visual media is. Using The Hunger Games as an example was a good one made by Doll because even though Collins inserted diversity into her world, diversity will continue to be scarce until stories accurately reflect our world.
Older’s Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing from Buzzfeed has a solution to the ‘issue of diversity’ in writing that I would agree with. “This is work for white people and people of color to do, sometimes together, sometimes apart. It's work for writers, agents, editors, artists, fans, executives, interns, directors, and publicists. It's work for reviewers, educators, and administrators. It means taking courageous, real-world steps, not just changing mission statements or submission guidelines.” Too often, the solution of diversity has been to insert people of color here into a story by non-people of color while telling people of color to write new stories that will never be seen. The collaborative work between people of color writers and the industry is needed because the latter has to be willing to accept new viewpoints, and there must be stories by people of color to be accepted.
I think that Myers’ The Apartheid of Children’s Literature from the New York Times makes good notes about books' effect and power on children. They can be mirrors to allow themselves to be seen in more ways than one. Or, they can be paths to different places and perspectives they have not been exposed to in their ordinary lives. That is why the lack of diversity in children’s literature is an issue. The lack of representation limits children's scope.
Older's statement of, "Diversity is not enough" really spoke to me when I read this article (Older 2014). Diversity has become something of a buzzword in the past few years (probably more). It's something that's stuffed in there to claim exactly what Older says, "Maybe the word hasn't been invented yet – that thing beyond diversity" (Older 2014). Literature should not be all about the same kinds of people all of the time. This does not only limit what literature can be, but also limits people around us. Myers spoke about how the industry blames "the market" for why they can't publish diverse books, and it's partially true, but the market changes from within. And this excuse at its core does not make sense because are people of color not part of a market, not part of the world that reads literature? I feel as if a lot of diversity is put in books for the sake of being diverse, so that they can say this has this and that has that. Rather, diversity should be for the sake of equity, like Older mentions. POC characters should be in literature because they exist in the world. Literature does not always reflect what’s in the world around us (like fantasy) but we read to see new experiences, and new types of people. If we center all of our literature around the standard, then there will be more backlash against it when it does happen in real life. Because people of color exist in real life, and literature is such a huge part of familiarization and normalization, especially for younger people. If they learn about these other cultures and religions from books that they read, then they will be less inclined to be confused about these cultures when they come across them. Both these articles really spoke to the larger problem of publishing, a fear that I’ve had when thinking of trying to publish. Writing about people who are like me instead of like what so many other protagonists are. Equity is key in literature as it can act as the first step to much needed equity in our society and all around the world. Literature reflects reality and reality reflects literature, so it’s time to expand that reflection to truly represent what is actually happening.
Reading these articles has definitely opened my eyes on this topic. That is important, as it shows how problematic this issue is. These articles bring to light how the lack of diversity in Y.A. is problem that spans many genres and promotes disparity as it does not allow everyone's voice to be heard. Myers states that the lack of representation is an apartheid. This is where stories of white protagonists eclipse all others, denying kids of color a story which could help real readers find representation.
This absence of representation harms only the marginalized readers who need a mirror, while stereotyping reality also harms white readers, who will be deprived of a window into cultures and perspectives other than their own and this would limit their empathy. So, when there's no diversity in literature, everybody suffers as marginalized voices continue to be unheard, and the collective, general literary landscape is not as rich and not as truthful.
Fixing this would take systemic change. For publishers, that means moving beyond token gestures of inclusion to real support and promotion of works by authors of color. Also readers and educators should have a critical role in actively seeking out diverse books and fighting for their consistent presence in schools and libraries.
Ultimately, stories shape how we see ourselves and others. Greater representation in literature is not a matter of fairness but rather one of creating a complete world where any readers can see and feel valued and understood as well as ready to give that to others. By fostering authentic diversity, publishers can reflect the complexity and richness of the human experience, benefiting everyone.
Iman/Yzma^
The lack of diversity has always been a problem in stories, especially children's stories. I think it is an important problem that needs to be pushed against because of how important it is to gives young viewers a diverse mindset. We should be teaching kids about all kinds of people, whether that be, race, gender, among many other important topics. People are all different, so the books kids should read should have different people. On the other side of this problem is the representation that there should be for authors as well. Having more viewpoints from different types of people is a vital thing to growing up in a society and especially one that we want to improve. A lot of discrimination and separation of people are deep rooted problems so if writing could step in at a young age to prevent that from happening it would make a big difference in a much wider context. The content we intake does effect how we view the world and if children are only given one way to look at the world they will continue that way of thinking and will be unable to function with those different from them. We all come from different places and cultures, and we alone cannot learn or teach about all of them which is why writing should be a globally equal community that has input from all types of people across the world. While I do think it is still a problem there has definitely been improvement and I hope that will continue on.
An interesting and pressing issue in the narrative space, the lack of representation and its effects are an unfortunate casualty of the dictations demanded by the Market and the constant pursuit of the bottom line. The limitations set by past and perceived trends makes it far more difficult for us to explore new avenues of the literary media, making it difficult to embrace other groups and their insights due to the lack of assurances in the media will succeed. This doesn’t mean there aren’t success stories that draw from other groups, but the scarcity means that they may not be represented as frequently and as such may find it hard to gain an interest in the literary world. I think its good though that this problem is getting acknowledged at least, but I do wonder what the best course of action is to deal with this issue of representation and inclusion. Diversity as said in some of these articles is a good step, but what we really need is to go the next level beyond that. We know that there is a problem in terms of representation, we know that there is a lack of opposing perspectives in our media, and we know that this is all elements of a larger systemic issue in our world at the moment. I can’t begin to guess how, but I think beyond inclusion and diversity we need to find some way to bridge the cultural gap that exists in our current society, and eliminate the racial/social walls by learning to see things from a different perspective. This is why stories are so important, they can act as a catalyst that allows people to immerse themselves in an entirely different world or context and see things in a brand new light, and learn things that they can bring into their daily lives.
I never considered that diversity could be such a pressing issue in Children's or Young Adult novels. But if you look back at some of the biggest controversies depicting book to movie/stage adaptations to be surrounding the idea that certain characters were automatically thought of as white, that any change to the status quo would be considered outrageous and "woke" when in reality it could be seen as legitimately a casting choice, such as the casting choices of Rue and Cinna in the Hunger Games. African American actors portrayed both characters in the films and yet, just because their races in the books weren't explicitly said to be of that ethnicity, they were automatically thought of as white. And while Lenny Kravitz didn't get as much backlash in his casting decision (being already a well-known celebrity), Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in the films, received so much backlash, even though she was only just a little girl. The same could be said of the actress playing Hermione in the stage adaptation of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, most of which were black actresses, but most already being used to the Emma Watson version of the character, saw it as "woke" culture, casting a black woman to be a thought of to be white character. Lastly, while this was not a topic mentioned in the readings, in the book series "Crazy Rich Asians," Rachel is a character explicitly stated to be a Chinese woman, and yet, the only reason we got Constance Wu as our leading lady, was due to the outrage the movie was already getting after there was a leak that they'd been considering casting a white actress, despite this "explicit race reference" that readers are so obsessed with.
The articles all explore the lack of diversity in literature and media through the lens of marketability, representation, and systemic racist beliefs of what people of color do and don’t enjoy. “The apartheid of literature” mentions how the story of characters of color are often limited to the struggles and historical experiences of their communities and aren’t allowed to “traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth”. This made me think of the boom in films on slavery and the common underlying theme in movies about Black people that draws on the more depressive elements of the community than their ability to flourish and accomplishments in society. In “The Ongoing Problem of Race in Y.A.”, Doll mentions how although diversity in literature has expanded from what it once was, it still is severely lacking. One thing that stood out to me was the mention of the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games and how people were “alarmed that two important characters were black, having not understood that fact in the books”. It is very common for people to try and erase the insertion of black characters in literature, especially that which is widestream, and then they attempt to whitewash them. When this whitewashing doesn’t happen the value of a work is seen as lesser than, and it can still be seen today how diversity in literature and media is fought against, not just in the casting of movies but the fan casting as well. In “Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing”, Older mentions how “The Market” for books is something that is unwelcoming of the stories of people of color and minorities. There is an expressed belief that no one would read their stories but he mentions how this is in fact an extension of the belief that “you people don’t read”. I can see how this is a prominent issue still today, with many books that are mainstream being mostly from white authors with white characters, and having to dig to find representation in books, and often being told to accept the little representation that is given although often minimal. Reading an excerpt from Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone , shows how stories about Black people don’t need to be one of minimal representation but can be wholly inclusive of African cultures, and how the fantastical is not something only of white taste. I liked how off the bat you could tell the culture of her book is one of African descent through the names and the setting. The organization “Rich in Color” also shows how there are resources out there to help readers and people of color find BIPOC books that they can connect to and help those who want to read more diversely achieve that.
It is disappointing that Myers was told that the market doesn't demand stories featuring Black children because ‘white children will not buy a book with a black kid on the cover.' Children from all backgrounds should be exposed to diverse stories. The unfortunate reality is that psychologically, many adults have already developed negative schemas towards Black people or People of Color. On the other hand, children and young adults are at a much earlier stage of social development. Although children may start to internalize racial stereotypes from a young age, their thinking is more malleable compared to adults. Their schemas are not as fully ingrained, and they are often still being exposed to new social situations. Furthermore, adolescents are just starting to develop more abstract psychological thinking such as empathy, and are often easily influenced by the media that they consume. Pushing for more books with diverse representation geared towards all ages is extremely important overall, but especially for children and adolescents as they are likely to be more open-minded to change.
I picked out Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older at my school’s library when I was in middle school. I remember the story being intriguing and magical, but I had to look up a summary of the book to jog my memory. I do remember grasping some of the concepts of racism in the novel, but I probably did not fully understand the nuances of certain topics like gentrification. However, although children and young adolescents may not necessarily grasp some of the deeper contexts, it is still important for these kinds of books to be published. It opens up conversations about these topics from a young age. Also, people can go back and reflect on children’s or young adult literature as adults.
Post a Comment