Who can tell a People’s Story?
Sam Bloom
Children’s Librarian and (sporadic) blogger
Opinions are all mine and do not reflect those of my employer!!
But... you’re a WHITE GUY. And that title?!
“When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read… they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.” -
But… I read that book when *I* was a kid! It’s a classic! People are so sensitive these days...
Lee & Low Diversity Survey
“While all racial/ethnic minorities are underrepresented compared to the general US population, the numbers show that some groups, such as Black/African Americans, are more severely underrepresented.”
2.7% of children’s books received by CCBC in 2017 were written by Black/African Americans
#themoreyouknow - Hashtags to Know
#ownvoices
#WNDB
CCBC - Updated Publishing Statistics
Of the approximately 3,700 books received at the CCBC in 2017, most from U.S. publishers, here's the breakdown:
Who can tell my story
How do you feel about white people writing about people of color?
“This movement isn’t about white people, it’s about people of color. We want the chance to tell our own stories, to tell them honestly and openly. We don’t want publishers to
say, “Well, we already published a book about that,” and then find that it was a book that did not speak the truth about us but rather told someone on the outside’s idea of who we are.” - Jacqueline Woodson
The Danger of a Single Story
“[It] shows a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
“I began to play I was a mighty hunter, stalking the wild animals and the Indians. I played I was fighting the Indians, until all woods seemed full of wild men…”
“What Indian?” Ma asked him. She looked as if she were smelling the smell of an Indian whenever she said the word. Ma despised Indians. She was afraid of them, too.
Ghosts - Raina Telgemeier
“For those who celebrate Día de los Muertos, the holiday is about honoring and remembering family and friends who have died… It is a 3000 year old celebration of birth, life, death and rebirth. It is not a “Mexican Halloween” which is how Telgemeier treats it.”
#ownvoices books you should own
Maniac Magee - Jerry Spinelli
“For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why these East Enders called themselves black. He kept looking and looking, and the colors he found were gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange. But never licorice, which, to him, was real black.”
#ownvoices books you should own
A Fine Dessert - Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall
“The real problem with the picture of a smiling slave, in a children’s book, has more to do with the truth and atmosphere the story and illustrations convey – especially if slavery is only part of the background of the story and not the central element, and how the aforementioned may impact a kid.”
A Fine Dessert (continued)
“Slavery is an open wound in America because we have been lying to ourselves about it forever and we continue to today. And I think you really didn’t want to continue that lie, and I think the book does… People of color don’t have the luxury of being able to sugarcoat history to our children. When we do, people die.”
#ownvoices books you should own
Buy the books!
How to make positive change?
Buy #ownvoices books whenever possible!
*Mixed reviews
In the fall of 2015, Kirkus began “naming white characters as well as characters of color when describing humans.”
School Library Journal has made an effort to recruit a more diverse staff of reviewers, while hosting online discussions and professional development to examine, among other things, “how [reviewers] recognize [their] own blinders or privileges when it comes to book evaluation.”
Be a #diversityjedi!
How to make positive change?
Wait… be a what?!
#diversityjedi are those who push for authentic representation in children’s literature. Author / activist Cynthia Leitich Smith coined the phrase (on twitter) in reference to Debbie Reese in 2015.
Twitter has been called “a hostile and toxic environment” for authors because it is a level playing field for fans, bloggers and writers.
There’s actually a lot of great social justice work being done on Twitter to call out problematic content in books. In some cases books are being pulled or revised for later printings!
Some revisions to problematic books/book sections
Thanks to blogger Edi Campbell’s work, Little Brown changed the illustrations in
The Bad Mood and the Stick
More revisions to problematic books/book sections
Rick Riordan removed an offensive phrase from
The Sword of Summer (Disney/ Hyperion)
Thanks to See What We See, Dial revised illustrations for Junot Díaz’s Islandborn.
Sam Bloom
Email: sibloom24@gmail.com
Twitter: @sibloom24
Facebook: sam.bloom.37
http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.com/
We have made progress, but there is still MUCH work to be done. Onward!