• Children's books are too white, says Laureate
    160 replies, posted
[QUOTE][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/jNnpbGb.png[/IMG] Books aimed at children and young adults are still too white and should include more characters from ethnic minorities, according to the Children's Laureate. Malorie Blackman said the landscape of children's literature did not reflect the cultural diversity of young people in the UK, an imbalance that may discourage ethnic minority children from reading, and from writing books themselves. Her comments gained immediate support from other authors. "Very, very few picture books are published in this country that feature children of colour," she told Reuters news agency. "We might have dogs, cats, rabbits, puppies, but when it comes to children, very few [featuring different ethnicities] are published." Ms Blackman, the author of the Noughts and Crosses series for young adults, said that when she began her writing career she was told white children would not want to read books featuring black characters. She said there was still not enough ethnic diversity among Britain's writers. "I can reel off 10 or 15 black and minority ethnic authors in the UK, but I should be able to reel off a hell of a lot more," she said. Quentin Blake, celebrated as the illustrator of Roald Dahl's books, said that Ms Blackman was "probably right", adding that he often included characters from ethnic minorities in his illustrations even when he wasn't prompted. "If I have a group of children I generally do some kind of mix," he said. "I became aware of that over time – one sort of learns things as you go along. It rather depends on what the story is. The book that you illustrate very often has an assortment of characters, but perhaps not the lead. "Two or three years ago I did David Walliams's first book, The Boy in the Dress, which was about an ordinary lower-middle-class white boy. I asked to do eight extra pages of drawings of the other children in the school, who were not characters in the book … there's a fair mixture there, I think." He added that children's writers should take responsibility for creating ethnic minority characters rather than leaving it up to the illustrators. "We need people to write those books," he said. "It's not really for me to make rules for writers and illustrators, but I think they will become aware of that. It has to spring naturally out of things. Maybe Malorie talking about it may make people a bit more aware, but you've got to write it properly; you can't do it on a quota system or something like that." Anthony Horowitz, the author and screenwriter who wrote the Alex Rider series of teenage spy novels, said the Children's Laureate was right to raise the issue, adding that she was a "brilliant champion for young adult fiction and for black readers and black writers". But he added: "Can writers like me help? I'm not sure. If I try to write a character from an ethnic background I will not be writing from my own experience and I may lay myself open to all sorts of accusations – tokenism, for example. Am I being patronising? And is it my job to tell a story or to help shape society? "We simply need to create more Malories – and I'm optimistic. Look at Steve McQueen, Idris Elba, Lennie James, Ben Okri. Ozwald Boateng and many others. In every area of culture and the media, there are black people making their mark." Last year, a study by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin found that of the 3,200 children's books published in the US in 2013, only 93 were about black people.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/childrens-books-are-too-white-says-laureate-9602505.html"]Source[/URL]
Write all the black children books you want. Just don't impose your view on other writers who don't put black children in their books.
My grandparents had a copy of Little Black Sambo. Pretty sure it was racist as fuck though. Probably not what she wants.
I think racial diversity should come organically and not because the author makes a conscientious choice about race.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;45395101]I think racial diversity should come organically and not because the author makes a conscientious choice about race.[/QUOTE] Creators generally have a "default" choice that they'll fall back on, and it needs to be challenged in order for it to grow. It won't happen if we simply sit around waiting for it to happen.
I haven't read many books that explicitly said what a characters ethnicity was
Honestly, who cares? I get that I'm a privileged white man and have been portrayed as the hero in everything ever and blah blah blah, but it's really dumb that people are forced to make their character as much of a minority as possible just to not receive criticism. To me, it's gotten to a point that it feels like... "Male character lead in a videogame? Devs are sexist pigs. Female character isn't black? Wow, how typically racist. Female character is black? She's still conformed to beauty stereotypes, so you're still a sexist pig. Female character is black and fat and unattractive? You disgusting person, you made them ugly on purpose. You must hate women and black people." I'm sorry for ranting, but I really just do not care. Promote acceptance without forcing it.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;45395101]I think racial diversity should come organically and not because the author makes a conscientious choice about race.[/QUOTE] How are you gonna solve the problem of unscientious choices about races in the books?
Everybody should just read Grug. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MErCCAl.jpg[/IMG]
The problem is that white people tend to be the ones writing, producing, marketing and selling the children's books. It's fine to throw out a pithy line like, "So long as you're not [I]forcing[/I] anyone to add ethnic characters, it's okay." but that's inherently self-undermining. There has to be some pressure in order to create change, not just a handy-dandy wishful thinking clause. Otherwise a lot of otherwise bad things in history just would have stopped because people went, "It's bad, and I wish it would stop." The bigger hidden problem is that, in solving it, you tend to still have white people writing, producing, marketing and selling the books. They don't grasp the ethnicity, or cultures and try to shoe horn in things to make themselves look racially sensitive and helpful, like naming the cute little girl Luqandashi or giving the little boy a big honking Arab turban and beard. The best way to solve this is to just treat the ethnic characters as if they're [I]fucking normal.[/I] Like call the little girl Alice or Susy, but make her black. Maybe give her frizzy hair, or dreadlocks. You are now 100% there. She doesn't need a fucked up ebonic speech pattern. She doesn't need to wear a tribal sari from a culture that's been disbanded for five hundred years. It's okay if she's ethnic and normal. Most ethnic people are. [B]Zach[/B]* Weinersmith, the guy who writes SMBC, does it best. His characters serve as vehicles for telling a joke, and sometimes gender tension might be necessary for the joke but for the most part it doesn't. He ends up with a tremendous array of ethnic characters and gender pairings that fit naturally with the words coming out of their mouths, when he could just as easily do what most webcomic writers do and have two Tycho&Gabe caliber talking heads acting as his story telling vehicles.
[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;45395362]The problem is that white people tend to be the ones writing, producing, marketing and selling the children's books. It's fine to throw out a pithy line like, "So long as you're not [I]forcing[/I] anyone to add ethnic characters, it's okay." but that's inherently self-undermining. There has to be some pressure in order to create change, not just a handy-dandy wishful thinking clause. Otherwise a lot of otherwise bad things in history just would have stopped because people went, "It's bad, and I wish it would stop." The bigger hidden problem is that, in solving it, you tend to still have white people writing, producing, marketing and selling the books. They don't grasp the ethnicity, or cultures and try to shoe horn in things to make themselves look racially sensitive and helpful, like naming the cute little girl Luqandashi or giving the little boy a big honking Arab turban and beard. The best way to solve this is to just treat the ethnic characters as if they're [I]fucking normal.[/I] Like call the little girl Alice or Susy, but make her black. Maybe give her frizzy hair, or dreadlocks. You are now 100% there. She doesn't need a fucked up ebonic speech pattern. She doesn't need to wear a tribal sari from a culture that's been disbanded for five hundred years. It's okay if she's ethnic and normal. Most ethnic people are. [B]Scott Weinersmith[/B], the guy who writes SMBC, does it best. His characters serve as vehicles for telling a joke, and sometimes gender tension might be necessary for the joke but for the most part it doesn't. He ends up with a tremendous array of ethnic characters and gender pairings that fit naturally with the words coming out of their mouths, when he could just as easily do what most webcomic writers do and have two Tycho&Gabe caliber talking heads acting as his story telling vehicles.[/QUOTE] Zach Weinersmith. His characters also cover various ranges of age, as well as physical attributes (balding, full head of hair, different hair colours, etc, etc) - they're mostly about the same build, however (probably easier to draw). Also species.
If I went to Asia and told them to stop putting so many Asians in their books would I be laughed at?
conditioning the youth to believe race-mixing is good keep pushing that agenda [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Trolling or dumb" - verynicelady))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;45395470]If I went to Asia and told them to stop putting so many Asians in their books would I be laughed at?[/QUOTE] ...what? [QUOTE=Dysplasia;45395486]conditioning the youth to believe race-mixing is good keep pushing that agenda[/QUOTE] Also what?
[QUOTE=cqbcat;45395101]I think racial diversity should come organically and not because the author makes a conscientious choice about race.[/QUOTE] But it doesn't. That's the problem.
[QUOTE=gerbe1;45395515]But it doesn't. That's the problem.[/QUOTE] Yes we should force things onto people if they don't actually want them.
[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;45395527]Yes we should force things onto people if they don't actually want them.[/QUOTE] The article specifically states that they aren't interested in forcing them, they're stating that minority characters in any kind of media are strongly lacking. Representation is important.
[QUOTE=Amiga OS;45395105]As long as they don't end up as "diverse" as british Math & Science test questions.[/QUOTE] I can totally relate to this. In our mathbooks, in 90% of the cases, the minority kid had the right answer.
[QUOTE=Glitchbunny;45395542]The article specifically states that they aren't interested in forcing them, they're stating that minority characters in any kind of media are strongly lacking. Representation is important.[/QUOTE] Wait so a minority group appears in a minority of works? Who would have guessed? They seem to be accurately represented as it is.
Books are too white? Use recycled, non-bleached paper then; think of the poor trees!
[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;45395556]Wait so a minority group appears in a minority of works? Who would have guessed? They seem to be accurately represented as it is.[/QUOTE] I'm not super keen in arguing with you on this as you seem to of made this account to spout toxic dribble, so I'll try and keep this short, but 14% of England's population is ethnic, number of UK citizens born outside the UK is rising rapidly, Western cultures views on these groups have slowly, but surely positively increased. But despite these events, British media is still falling behind on representation in all forms. And why? (Source: [url]http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20681551[/url]) The easiest answer for that is white people want to see white people in their media. More people happy = $. It's nothing to do with 'accuracy'.
[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;45395362][I]fucking normal.[/I].[/QUOTE] The issue is that it is hard to exactly define what 'normal' is, because there aren't any concrete guidelines to dictate normalcy. Also why not put 'Luqandashi' in a book? There are probably some black females who have this name. Are you afraid that children will read that name and develop prejudices against black children? [editline]15th July 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=VietnameseCat;45395470]If I went to Asia and told them to stop putting so many Asians in their books would I be laughed at?[/QUOTE] The dilemma is that in the UK or USA there is greater cultural diversity (Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos). With Asian countries you see less issues about ethnicity because they more often have to deal with neighboring countries (with similar cultures) immigrating in. But I can still see and agree with your point.
[QUOTE=Dysplasia;45395486]conditioning the youth to believe race-mixing is good keep pushing that agenda[/QUOTE] The fuck is your damage? Did "race-mixing" kill your dog or something? Even if "race-mixing" was a problem for health reasons, we are already advanced enough in medicine to make it a completely negligible issue. And besides those now-completely-negligible health reasons, why else shouldn't people go around ~mixing the races~? Sure, racists might not like it, but I just think that's all the more reason for interracial couples to form, really.
[QUOTE=Arctic-Zone;45395773]The fuck is your damage? Did "race-mixing" kill your dog or something? Even if "race-mixing" was a problem for health reasons, we are already advanced enough in medicine to make it a completely negligible issue. And besides those now-completely-negligible health reasons, why else shouldn't people go around ~mixing the races~? Sure, racists might not like it, but I just think that's all the more reason for interracial couples to form, really.[/QUOTE] Until we can find out why so many mixed race kids have allergies and other problems there should probably be some government mandate to limit interracial births, couples are fine and everything but the births should be limited. I don't believe it's in the best interests of the people to let something like this continue to escalate while we still know so little.
I kinda have to agree with vodkavia, characters should not be defined by their race and other factors, kids at that age won't pick up on it anyways, so what's the point. While there is a lack of black writers, that isn't the problem of publishers, its a problem that takes its roots with the uneven distribution of wealth in america anyways. Most writers are middle class or above middle class because it takes a lot of work for very little money to start writing, so unless they have some financial security people won't sit down and write the stories
[quote=Whoopi Goldberg]Well, when I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.[/quote]
90% of the books I read as a kid had either animals or anthropomorphic vehicles. The other 10% were Dr Suess books with people coloured every shade of the rainbow
[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;45395874]Until we can find out why so many mixed race kids have allergies and other problems there should probably be some government mandate to limit interracial births, couples are fine and everything but the births should be limited. I don't believe it's in the best interests of the people to let something like this continue to escalate while we still know so little.[/QUOTE] What the... I don't even... That's such a scummy thing to purpose. Government control is far worse than race-mixing... even if there was recorded health drawbacks... which I've never heard of.
Mixed race girls are usually the hottest. I'm okay with race mixing.
[QUOTE=Arctic Snow;45395068]Write all the black children books you want. Just don't impose your view on other writers who don't put black children in their books.[/QUOTE] She's not imposing anything, she's simply pointing out that children's literature isn't necessarily representative of the society they're from. [quote]Malorie Blackman said the landscape of children's literature did not reflect the cultural diversity of young people in the UK.[/quote] All she's doing is pointing out the disparity of representation, something which is especially important for young kids who look for role models in the media they consume.
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