I think the status of publishing is definitely better than it was 20 or 30 years ago when I started, as far as African-American authors and illustrators and just books that are available for children of color to see themselves in. We still have a ways to go.
One of the things that bothers me about the treatment of books by people of color — that’s African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians — is the kind of systematic marginalization of those books, which I speak to all the time when I’m addressing teachers and librarians in particular, who are in the habit of bringing out books by authors of color — African-Americans for the month of February; or Latino work for Cinco de Mayo or Cesar Chavez Day; or slating Asian books for Chinese New Year. Nobody questions it. Also, the notion of focusing on books by authors of color in schools where those students predominate is totally a mistake on so many levels; but one in particular is that the artist creates work with a view to showing the reader — or the viewer, if it’s visual art — the ways in which we are all alike beneath the skin. So it is really critical not only to share those works with people of the same culture, but also to share those works with people of other cultures. So, it’s even more important that non-blacks, non-Asians, and non-Latinos are reading this literature. And where is a safer place to learn about another culture than between the pages of a book? So, these works need to be shared.
The other fallacy in that kind of marginalization is that the work is universal. The subject matter is universal. And how better to teach young readers that than to give them books in which they can see that for themselves, learn that for themselves, and move beyond this perpetuation of institutional racism.
When I talk to teachers and librarians about this, what I’ve discovered is that very little of this is intentional. So you can always start with the assumption that this isn’t intentional. And, generally, it isn’t. When they’re made aware of it, they stop doing it, and they say, “You’re right. I do that. I didn’t even think about it.” So, that’s really an important message to get out.
