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conulywhich is mostly a plea to stop framing picture books with black kids ONLY about the (mostly historical) struggles of being black in America. While the numbers are every bit as bad as the writer says*, the topics of those diverse books which are published are not quite as dire as she portrays, thank goodness. But it's still a valuable point which should be taken to heart.
But, as always, it's not the article that interests me, it's the comments. Specifically, the contradictory ones. No, I don't know why I do this either.
They're the usual mix you expect to see in response to articles on this subject, aggrieved that people are suggesting we should write more books about non-white kids, but not willing to phrase it that bluntly. Several try to frame it as though the author is asking for black kids to only read books about black kids, and so on, but without actually saying that. It should go without saying that anybody who comes to that conclusion from reading this op-ed must have the reading comprehension of the average garden slug, and since any person who is capable of reading the NY Times and then writing a stylistically correct response in Standard English is, by definition, at least slightly more literate than a garden slug I assume they're all being amazingly disingenuous with their phrasing and they know it.
But what always surprises me, and I don't know why I'm still surprised, is the ones who seem to think that asking people to write more books about non-white characters is somehow tantamount to teaching racial bigotry.
I don't get the logic. If you think that race, rather than being one of the most important socio-political constructs in our society, is amazingly unimportant and that all enlightened people should just forget about it... then why do you care if we write books where the kids have dark skin instead of light skin? If you think that it's "stupid" or "insulting" to think kids might want to read books with characters that look like them... then what difference does it make if some white kids end up reading books with black characters? If you think that it's trivial and silly to care if even every single book in the world is about white people, then why are you commenting? Isn't it just as trivial and silly to care if every single book in the world isn't about white people?
These people need to all buy themselves dictionaries and look up the word "hypocrite", and then once they do they need to sit down and explain their thinking. Because, honestly, they always think they have an argument, and it doesn't make any damn sense.
* Sooner or later somebody will passive-aggressively ask if we really want a world where all media exactly matches real-world demographics. Don't bother. That is what I really want. That goal seems eminently reasonable to me, and all the snideness in the world can't change my mind.
But, as always, it's not the article that interests me, it's the comments. Specifically, the contradictory ones. No, I don't know why I do this either.
They're the usual mix you expect to see in response to articles on this subject, aggrieved that people are suggesting we should write more books about non-white kids, but not willing to phrase it that bluntly. Several try to frame it as though the author is asking for black kids to only read books about black kids, and so on, but without actually saying that. It should go without saying that anybody who comes to that conclusion from reading this op-ed must have the reading comprehension of the average garden slug, and since any person who is capable of reading the NY Times and then writing a stylistically correct response in Standard English is, by definition, at least slightly more literate than a garden slug I assume they're all being amazingly disingenuous with their phrasing and they know it.
But what always surprises me, and I don't know why I'm still surprised, is the ones who seem to think that asking people to write more books about non-white characters is somehow tantamount to teaching racial bigotry.
I don't get the logic. If you think that race, rather than being one of the most important socio-political constructs in our society, is amazingly unimportant and that all enlightened people should just forget about it... then why do you care if we write books where the kids have dark skin instead of light skin? If you think that it's "stupid" or "insulting" to think kids might want to read books with characters that look like them... then what difference does it make if some white kids end up reading books with black characters? If you think that it's trivial and silly to care if even every single book in the world is about white people, then why are you commenting? Isn't it just as trivial and silly to care if every single book in the world isn't about white people?
These people need to all buy themselves dictionaries and look up the word "hypocrite", and then once they do they need to sit down and explain their thinking. Because, honestly, they always think they have an argument, and it doesn't make any damn sense.
* Sooner or later somebody will passive-aggressively ask if we really want a world where all media exactly matches real-world demographics. Don't bother. That is what I really want. That goal seems eminently reasonable to me, and all the snideness in the world can't change my mind.
