My father was very active in the Civil Rights Movement.

[conuly]

There's a funny story my mother tells where my dad never got a ticket as a cabdriver in New Orleans because all the politicians and whatever had been elected on a civil rights platform, and when they saw his arrest record they let everything drop. My mother eventually figured this out for him.

So, you know, if I look at a book (as I often do when reviewing them online) and say "Great book, but out of a cast of 1000 odd characters there's only white folks", it's not because of my nieces that I pay attention (although I certainly keep them in mind when choosing books for them, because the last thing I want is for most of their books to only feature kids who look nothing like them), but because I was taught at a young age to pay some sort of attention to these things. I doubt I'm such a better person for it, although I try, but I can at least say I make the effort to notice, if nothing else, if there's a general lack of representation going on.

For Christmas, the nieces got new scooters. Evangeline's was from Radio Flyer and I, bored, picked up the catalog to flip through it today.

Wouldn't you know it - 61 children, and out of them all but three are white. And, as my mother said when she finished counting after I pointed this out to her, the three black kids (there are no Hispanics or Asians or god forbid Arabs in Toyland, remember!) aren't very dark-skinned either.

If ~20% of the US population is black, you would expect to see... um... 12 black kids. 3 is not 12. 3 is much less than 12. In the past, I've heard people commenting sardonically on how "activists" insist on "full proportional representation" in books and whatnot. Well, this is why. If you don't keep kicking and screaming and carrying on about having the pictures match reality, what happens is you don't even get those three kids in the little pamphlet. It'd be all white kids all over.

And it seems like a stupid thing to complain over, but it's such a little thing! How hard is it to get this stuff right?

Comments

[tenou-k.livejournal.com]

"Canada's largest non-white populations are First Nations and Metis, Chinese, East Asian, and Filipino, but you certainly wouldn't know it to look at most of the media here."

In the commercials for the Olympics I've been shuddering at for the last few months, we're treated to a bunch of ye olde white guys getting out of boats while the announcer tells us "We came to a land of ice and rock and made it our own."

Yeah, the one dark skinned guy in the ad doesn't really make up for completely erasing the First Nations from the cultural narrative of the Olympics and "Canadian" heritage.

Cringe cringe cringe.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Oh God, don't get me started on the Olympics. From using a logo that represents (with an insulting smiley face) an area nowhere near where the games are being held (because all First Nations are the same, and all their culture is fair game for white Canada to claim as their own when it's convenient), to the Cowichan sweaters debacle, to the ugly note that most of BC is unceded FN land, to the fact that a large number of the urban poor getting screwed over by this spending are Native...I can't say I'm really proud to have my province of residence playing host to this.

[conuly]

...

Now I want to get you started on the Olympics, actually.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

*snorts* You may not be able to tell, but I'm not exactly thrilled.

The whole thing feels like Canada trying to restore its worldwide reputation without actually addressing any of the issues that tarnished said reputation - and to play up the best parts of Vancouver while taking money out of the pocket of the worst parts. It's been a headache because the woman from whom I rent a room is a huge Olympics fan and will be attending the games, so I've been doing a lot of tongue-biting lately.