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Before we launch into this week’s roundup of race and diversity links, I’d like to make a plea: help your local library. Many around the country are facing massive budget cuts, so let your elected officials know that your library is important. New Yorkers, NYPL has a handy form to help you contact your City Council member and the mayor, in the hopes of preventing massive service cuts, including closing ten branches and limiting the library to four open days per week.
Now, to diversity!
White people adopting children of color is discussed relatively often, but Charles Mudede looks at the other side: what it says when a black person adopts a white child.
The New York Times brings us a great story about Chinese teachers coming to the United States, and learning as much about the U.S. as they teach about China.
The Supreme Court is, of course, big news lately. ColorLines brings us a Fantasy Supreme Court, nine passionate legal scholars who happen to be a picture of diversity, and many of whom have worked on race issues. And according to a recent poll, the public overwhelmingly says that a nominee being black, female, protestant, or gay is not a factor.
Last Friday haiku
Thirty days of poetry
Ending with a verse.
Let’s start the week’s links with some history! It turns out that there have been biracial people for a long time, and we’re not just talking homo sapiens of European descent with those of African descent: a recent genetic study found evidence of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals. Pretty cool!
In more recent history, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about a history professor in college who taught him to honestly grapple with history, and not to get into racial myth-building just because we want our ancestors to have been blameless. (Warning: contains adult language.)
A new neurological study looked at how race relates to empathy, and found that how we identify ourselves affects how we react to other people in distress.
Tim Wise provides an exercise in alternate reality: what if the Tea Party protesters were black? (Warning: contains adult language.)
And looking to the future, the Brookings Institution looks at the immigration issue in relation to demographics—as a generational shift in a state where eighty percent of seniors are white, but only forty percent of children.
Your last comment, about the changing demographics of seniors vs. children, is very familiar to me!
In addition to being a writer of children’s books, I am on the school board of my local public school district. Many of our residents have an idea of what the “demographics” of our city look like, but the image they hold in their minds is essentially the demographics of the adults – the ones they see at the grocery store, or work. But I see the demographics of our students, which are much different, and realize the disconnect. It means that there must be more education for the public, to realize that changing demographics start at the school level.
The census, however flawed and necessary it may be, has triggered some great writing and thinking about race and how we define ourselves. From CNN we have two great essays: journalist and filmmaker Raquel Cepeda writes on being Latino and the stories her family has told of their mixed heritage, and author Walter Mosley brings us a poetic look at the 10,000 years of history that led to him.
A different exploration of heritage is being undertaken by two Native American Tribes on Long Island: they’re working with Stony Brook University to recreate their historical languages and hope to teach them to the next generation, bringing the languages back after 200 years of silence.
Zetta Elliott, author of Bird, takes a look at her Canadian origins, her interactions with Canadian publishers, and, of course, race in children’s books—particularly its exoticization, its otherness.
Spring is has reached New York! Here’s your weekly dose of links to ponder as you sit and bask in the sun.
Following up on last week’s links dealing with interracial writing in the speculative fiction community is Nisi Shawl, who hits home with a description of a panel on writing and racial identity at a recent convention: “Our fourth panelist had been raised as an American Indian and spent her life knowing absolutely that this was who and what she was. Then she discovered through genetic testing that her biological heritage is a mix European and Sub-Saharan African. No American Indian.” Fascinating stuff!
An article from Single Women Rule raises these issues as it discusses murals by a Latina artist that some people claim are demeaning to Black and Latina women. The artist’s agent is quoted as saying, “Sofia is Puerto Rican, maybe it would be a problem if the artist was White American, but she is Puerto Rican, from San Juan and lives in Bed-Stuy.” Does that make a difference?
Lastly, Engrish.com brings us some entertaining Chinese-to-English mistranslations:
As I general rule, I try to avoid eating furniture. Can anyone who reads Chinese give us a more accurate translation?
Creating works that perpetuate historically demeaning images and perceptions of black and Latina woman is doubly irresponsible when the offender is of black or Latina descent.
Black and Latina women suffer from a dearth of positive and inspiring images in the media. We can pretend like we are not influenced by media representations, but images like the one presented in this mural contribute to the damage of women’s self-esteem.
The artist appears to not understand the historical weight and context of displaying objectionable imagery in a very public and international space.
Jason Low said, on 3/22/2010 6:45:00 AM
Melissa, I agree. I feel the problem lies in the lack of historical research. Just because someone is of a certain ethnic background doesn’t make them a cultural expert on their race. If anything, being a person of color *should* make you more sensitive toward visual or written interpretations related to race and how they will be perceived.
Meanwhile, America Ferrera—the Latina star of Ugly Betty—gave an interview in which she talked about race and casting in Hollywood. The whole interview isn’t available online, but Jezebel has some highlights.
In Louisiana, a museum is opening in honor of a black football coach who spent his career facing segregation and racism, and the Times has a great story on his career and the development of the museum.
Across the Atlantic, France brings us an unusually subtle blackface debate: is white Gerard Depardieu playing a biracial character problematic? Is his makeup?
Lastly, Weird Universe brings us an image of not just interracial cooperation, but inter-species cooperation:
0 Comments on This Week in Diversity: Biases in a Weird Universe as of 1/1/1900
Gracias • Thanks by Pat Mora, illustrated by John Parra, has been awarded Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor!
Given by the Association for Library Services to Children, the Belpré Award and Honors are given to Latino/Latina authors and illustrators whose work celebrates the Latino experience. We’re very proud of the book, and we’re very pleased that the committee has recognized John Parra with an Honor for his outstanding illustration of Pat Mora’s poetic text.
Have a look at some of that stunning art:
Congratulations, John, and thank you, Belpré Committee!
1 Comments on Gracias • Thanks wins a Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor!, last added: 1/20/2010
Today we’re bringing you a guest post from authors Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton Josephson, authors of Armando and the Blue Tarp School. Their book tells the story of a young boy who spends his days picking through a trash heap in search of anything useable or sellable, until he is given a chance to learn when Señor David—a real-life volunteer—spreads a blue tarp on the ground and calls it a school. Now Armando and the Blue Tarp Schoolis also a musical! The authors are here to tell us how their book was transformed into a play, and to share their experiences watching the production. Take it away, Edith and Judith!
Watching our book Armando and the Blue Tarp School transformed into a children’s musical has been magical for us. The sneak preview took place on November 14, 2009, at David Lynch’s Responsibility fundraising gala. With fresh, earnest faces and clear, bright voices, four eighth graders and one tenth grader presented the show to a large crowd of Responsibility supporters. It was a smash hit!
The songs drew directly from our book, with clever additions: Flaco the rat wove the narrative between the songs, with comic interruptions by his flamboyant sidekick, Gordo the rat, who elicited laughs from the opening moment when she threw a tortilla scavenged from the dump into the air. In “We Are Pepenadores,” the actors sang about the flies, heat, and stench, and of working the dump all day as pepenadores, trash pickers. The poignant “Someday, Maybe,” a duet between Isabella and Armando, conveyed his deep longing to learn at Señor David’s school. In “We’re Going to Build a School,” staccato music and lyrics pulsated as the whole colonia, the neighborhood by the garbage dump, worked together to construct the school. The actors mimed hammering and sawing as they sang, “Bam, bam, bam, hit that nail, bam, bam, bam . . . saw, saw, suh-saw, saw.” In “Fuego!” their worried faces portrayed the urgency of the fire with their waving arms representing flames. In the jazzy, upbeat “Blue Tarp School,” the audience clapped along, and in the finale, everyone joined in singing the chorus with the actors.
Click below to listen to a clip from the duet “Someday, Maybe”
The versatile cast sang, acted, and moved on stage with palpable energy and enthusiasm. Two played guitar, including Gordo, who quipped, “How many rats do you know who can play the guitar?” Through many weeks of rehearsals, all the actors nailed their performances with extraordinary stage presence. They were, in a word, stupendous. They earned a spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the performance.
Here’s the story. Our Armando bookgrew into a musical by mistake! It all began with a wrong phone
0 Comments on Armando and the Blue Tarp School Hits the Stage! as of 1/1/1900
For the first time in its thirteen year history, the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Award recognized a work of nonfiction:¹ Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justiceby Phillip Hoose. It’s great to see children’s nonfiction getting more recognition, both because nonfiction can have just as much literary merit as fiction, and because kids need ways to explore and discover the world, past and present. And behind every great work of nonfiction is a true, and truly great, story. Without that truth, it’s not nonfiction. Nonfiction is more than just facts, but it needs facts.
But what if fact becomes fiction, or fiction is presented as fact?
That’s the issue at the heart of a recent censorship case: a school board in Miami who removed a book, Vamos a Cuba. There are two issues at play here: the article says the school board removed the book “because the book paints too rosy a picture of life in the communist nation,” but that the Court of Appeals deemed the removal okay because “the school board was seeking to remove the book because it contained substantial factual inaccuracies.”
Whatever the reasons the school board sought removal of the book, this story is revealing. To me, it’s clear that removing a book for a point of view with which the remover disagrees is censorship, but removing a nonfiction work because its facts aren’t really facts, or because it’s out of date (the book in question is eight busy years old), is just collection management. (A more clear-cut example: I really hope most encyclopedias referring to the Soviet Union as a current world power have been retired by now.) Some people would argue that any positive portrayal of life in a communist country is inaccurate; others would point out that in any country under any government there is a range of experiences. I found Peter Sis’s beautiful book The Wall problematic for the opposite reason—I thought its depiction of the West was overly perfect and unrealistic—but it is an accurate depiction of its author’s feelings and experiences, and I don’t think it should be banned.
So where should the line be drawn? Should book removal of nonfiction be different than that of fiction?
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¹ Before 1996, there were several iterations of a children’s book category, some of which recognized nonfiction. There was even a three-year period with a separate nonfiction award.
A friend of mine was on the subway near three middle school-aged kids—an Asian boy, a Latina, and a Middle Eastern girl wearing a hijab, the headscarf worn by many Muslim women.
The boy turned to the Middle Eastern girl and asked, “Why do you wear that thing on your head?”
The Latina interrupted. “It’s, like, her culture, don’t you know that?”
They proceeded to have a perfectly friendly discussion of the practicalities of wearing a hijab—for instance, that she can take it off at home, and therefore is able to brush her hair.
How about that—kids can talk openly about culture. They can ask questions.
Sometimes progress marches, and sometimes it takes the subway.
2 Comments on Overheard on the Subway, last added: 10/30/2009
Little snippets from the subway like this give us all encouragement, don’t they? Thank you for sharing!
Twitter Trackbacks for Overheard on the Subway « said, on 10/29/2009 6:15:00 PM
[...] Overheard on the Subway « the open book blog.leeandlow.com/2009/10/29/overheard-on-the-subway – view page – cached A friend of mine was on the subway near three middle school-aged kids—an Asian boy, a Latina, and a Middle Eastern girl wearing a hijab, the headscarf worn by many Muslim women. — From the page [...]
The first time I saw this ad, I was sitting on the couch with my roomate. “Oh my God,” she said, “I can’t believe how racist that sounded.”
However comprehensive and well-done the actual program may be, I can’t help thinking that this promo makes Latinos sound kind of like aliens in some 1950s horror flick coming to take over the country. Like they’re about to crawl in through the windows during Thanksgiving dinner or something.
BY THE YEAR 2050…
THE LATINO POPULATION…
WILL TRIPLE.
Why do they have to make it sound so scary? “It made it sound like an outtake from the grindhouse movie,” said Arturo Garcia, who reviewed the program in this week’s Addicted to Race podcast. “They’re coming, they’re in your neighborhoods.”
Now I know part of it is just the way media works, the way everything needs to be made into a story, with urgency and drama and all the rest. But I think promos like this can be damaging in a very real way. “Forget keeping up with the Joneses,” the voice-over says. “You better keep up with the Garcias.” And to me this implies that the intended audience for the promo is exclusively non-Latinos—or, in other words, the “majority” that’s going to become the “minority.” And it establishes a sort of us vs. them mentality. The majority vs. the minority. The Joneses vs. the Garcias. And worst of all, I think it makes people feel defensive and panicky, like the influx of Latino immigrants is something they have to prepare themselves for.
I know, I know, it’s just a promo. It’s only 30 seconds. But I do feel like the repetition of these ideas over and over makes people afraid, and makes it even harder to embrace the diverse mix of cultures that make up this country.
1 Comments on Latino in America: The Horror Movie?, last added: 10/28/2009
I agree! Sounds like “The Attack of the Latinos!” Me and my wife were thinking the same thing when saw the promos. I did not like the voice-over at all. Sounds like the movie trailer guy.. “In a world…..” but with a slight spanish accent. huh..Really.
Thanks CNN for scaring the hell out of the rest of the United States.
Now, before you think to yourself, “How many more of these random ‘holidays’ can there possibly be in one calendar year,” consider this: 1 in 4 crash fatalities in the US involves someone between the ages of 16 and 24. Nothing —not drugs, not sex, not rock n’ roll—kills more teens than driving, and the risk of a fatal crash goes up with each additional peer passenger in the car. This time of year the number of accidents goes up even higher because of things like homecoming. Take a look at these Teen Driving Safety Tips for ideas on raising safe young drivers.
In conjunction with National Teen Driver Safety week, we’re making our YA novel Alicia Afterimage available as a free e-book through Dec. 1 on Scribd. Author Lulu Delacre wrote Alicia Afterimage after her 16-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident in 2004. This is our first foray into the wild world of e-books so it’ll be interesting to see how people take to it. Read it, share it, let us know what you think!
You can also see some great video interview footage of Lulu Delacre here, where she talks in both English and Spanish about writing the book and teen grief, and reads some excerpts as well.
1 Comments on Teen Driver Safety Week & The Wild World of E-Books, last added: 10/22/2009
Twitter Trackbacks for Teen Driver Safety Week & T said, on 10/22/2009 3:57:00 PM
[...] Teen Driver Safety Week & The Wild World of E-Books « the open book blog.leeandlow.com/2009/10/22/teen-driver-safety-week-the-wild-world-of-e-books – view page – cached Now, before you think to yourself, “How many more of these random ‘holidays’ can there possibly be in one calendar year,” consider this: 1 in 4 crash fatalities in the US involves… (Read more)Now, before you think to yourself, “How many more of these random ‘holidays’ can there possibly be in one calendar year,” consider this: 1 in 4 crash fatalities in the US involves someone between the ages of 16 and 24. (Read less) — From the page [...]
We’ll start things out with the bad news: a justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. His justification? That any children the couple had might suffer discrimination. A quick history review: it was 1967 when the U.S. Supreme court ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia that race-based legal restrictions on marriage are unconstitutional. In other marriage-relate news, same-sex couples can still only get married in six states.
In Westchester, however, the Board of Legislators is working to desegregate several overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly affluent towns, including building homes for middle class families and marketing them to blacks and Latinos.
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¹ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning. Other versions of the acronym include LGBT, LGBTQQ (the second Q is Queer), and LGBTQQIA (Intersex and Asexual).
0 Comments on This Week in Diversity: A Loving Journey as of 10/17/2009 1:00:00 AM
0 Comments on This Week in Diversity: Arizona, the Supreme Court, and Crayons as of 1/1/1900
2 Comments on This Week in Diversity:, last added: 3/22/2010
Today we’re bringing you a guest post from authors Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton Josephson, authors of 
Your last comment, about the changing demographics of seniors vs. children, is very familiar to me!
In addition to being a writer of children’s books, I am on the school board of my local public school district. Many of our residents have an idea of what the “demographics” of our city look like, but the image they hold in their minds is essentially the demographics of the adults – the ones they see at the grocery store, or work. But I see the demographics of our students, which are much different, and realize the disconnect. It means that there must be more education for the public, to realize that changing demographics start at the school level.