Well, I have run across a number of misperceptions about multicultural, so-called multicultural literature. One is that the so-called multicultural books have as their purpose helping children from the dominant culture learn about these other cultures.
So, it leads to the folk food and festival school of multiculturalism. Let’s do Chinese New Year and let’s eat some rice and do dragons and whatever, and that’s multiculturalism. That’s a serious misperception. I think another one is that these books are meant for specifically the groups, the children from the groups that are represented in the book.
So, African American books are for African Americans. Therefore, if my class is 99 percent white suburban, I don’t need to have any of these books in my classroom because I don’t have any of those kids. Bad misperception. I think another one is that there is no market, that people of color don’t buy books. Therefore, Barnes & Noble does not have to supply them, keep them in their store.
And then it’s this vicious circle. They’re not in the store. People don’t buy them. Well, they don’t buy books. And so it goes. If we could get rid of those, we’d be in pretty good shape.
