Race

Go Set a Watchman

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Mar 6, 2020 in American History, Race, What I've Been Reading | 0 comments

I wrote this a while ago, after reading Go Set a Watchman. It just seemed like something it might be worthwhile to share.

So Harper Lee, who wrote a book about white people and racism, wrote another book about white people and racism. I don’t know why we’re all so surprised.

Okay, yes, I do know. It’s a gut punch to know that Atticus, the kind, protective, wise, gentle father figure to white America, will smile and nod while listening to a speech so full of racist vile it makes his daughter vomit. It’s horrible to hear Atticus, our Atticus, declare the Warren Supreme Court and the NAACP his mortal enemies, to talk with gentle and genteel horror about black children sitting in his school and black voters taking over his government.

But it shouldn’t shock us, if we look back honestly at To Kill a Mockingbird.

We were all lulled into thinking that this is the definitive book about racism in America. And what does it tell us? That one man, armed with kindness, good manners, and legal training, can overcome racism in his small Southern town.

Except he can’t.

What does Atticus actually do in To Kill a Mockingbird? Remember? He doesn’t get Tom Robinson acquitted. He makes the jury take a little longer to decide. He makes them think about it. And he counts that as a victory.

We Need Diverse Books…and Let’s Not Stop There

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on May 17, 2019 in American History, Educators & Librarians, Race | 0 comments

Yes, yes, we need diverse books. We need books with black kids and brown kids, trans kids and gay kids, poor kids and not-so-poor kids, able-bodied kids and kids with disabilities. Kids of all kinds. I’m there, I promise.

But. But.

What happens next? What happens when the art is created and the words are written? What happens when we’ve created the books that act as mirrors (so every kid can see him/her/theirself reflected in the pages) and windows (so every kid can experience what life is like for people who don’t look or sound or pray like him/her/them?)

I’m a little worried about this part.

When I tried talking with the principal of our local elementary school about the fact that my daughter will have been there six years and will graduate without learning a thing about the Civil Rights movement or the Underground Railroad or the suffragettes or Native American tribes in our state, he pointed me toward the school and classroom libraries and encouraged me to channel my activism into getting diverse books on those shelves. Okay, good, I can do that.

But. Are the books getting taken down? Are they getting read? If they are read, are they getting discussed? Are kids finding ways to apply what they read to their own lives?

When I ran a before-school books and breakfast club and we read and talked about Wonder, my kid could relate the way Auggie was treated to unkindness a classmate was suffering. When we read Marvin Redpost: Is He a Girl? and talked about stereotypes, another mom told me that her second grade daughter quickly got adept at spotting them.

But that was because we talked. We discussed. We engaged.

What happens without that context? What happens if you read Freedom Summer without talking more about the civil rights movement and its heroism and struggles and triumphs and ongoing challenges? What happens if you leave young readers knowing that a town would rather fill its swimming pool with concrete than let brown and black and white kids swim together–and that’s all that those kids end up learning?

Yes, we need diverse books. We need diverse curriculum too. (And diverse teachers in our classrooms!) And once we have the books, we need to talk about them. Discuss, argue, praise, weep, think. Think hard.

Diverse books can’t save the world. Diverse readers just might.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

#WeNeedMoreThanDiverseBooks

Read More

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on May 3, 2019 in Children's Literature, Race | 0 comments

Amelie Zhao’s novel, Blood Heir, will be released after all. I’ve written enough about this topic–I’ll just say that, while I’m reserving final judgment until I read the book for myself, I’m glad I’ll be able to.

Final Thoughts

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Mar 28, 2019 in Children's Literature, Editing, Educators & Librarians, Race | 0 comments

Diversify publishing? Egads!

Okay, I promise this is my last post (for a while) about this issue–books (Blood Heir and A Place for Wolves) being cancelled pre-publication because of online outrage.

You know what the real solution is? Or rather, what the vast unspoken problem is? That publishing and its sister professions, reviewing and librarianship, are overwhelmingly white and female.

That’s what needs to change. We need writers of color, LGBQTetc. writers, immigrant writers–that’s a need that’s been talked about for a long time. But we also sorely, sorely need editors and reviewers and librarians (and teachers, let’s not forget teachers) who are not white and female and mostly middle class. We need publishing professionals who can bring a huge variety of experiences and backgrounds to the table, selecting and promoting books and authors who are similarly diverse.

But that’s a long term process. It takes time and effort and money. (Paid internships with housing stipends would be a start, publishers.) Far easier (but much less effective) to outsource the effort of diversifying literature to Twitter and then to ask authors to bear the financial brunt of it by pulling books and cancelling contracts.

#WeNeedADiversePublishingIndustry