Writing Across the Divide

Much discussion in the children’s literature world centers these days on the topic of diversity. Do those of us who are white, which is still the vast majority of us who are publishing, simply go on writing out of our accustomed white privilege without any thought to the changing world around us? Do we write out of a place where our skin, our culture, our way of being is the standard for “the way things are”? Do we go on assuming that if race or skin color isn't mentioned then a character must be white, because—certainly in books for young people—white is the norm?And then the next level to consider. If we’re white and decide to write about other cultures because books about other cultures are needed—or more interesting, somehow, or even more salable—do we have any chance of getting it right?The “getting it right” can be hard to do. I am reminded of a novel by a well-known Jewish author. A character had left a Jesuit seminary in order to be in a gay relationship, and this character’s deepest concern was that his partner hadn’t yet accepted Jesus Christ to be saved! Clearly the difference between Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism meant nothing to this author, and such a profound misunderstanding of the culture she was writing about discredited the book in my eyes.Even as I was reacting, though, I realized how impossible it would be for me to write about Judaism without making equally egregious mistakes. And by extension I am aware that I would be incapable of entering fully enough into any culture other than my own to write about it authentically. I believe that some writers can, but I know I cannot.When I was teaching in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts this kind of question came up often. My answer was that the writing should be judged, not the author. If a writer, through passionate involvement, deep research or other kind of immersion, can write with full understanding about another culture, why should anyone complain? And I still believe that.I am embarrassed, however, to remember my own suppressed irritation when one of my students who was clearly heterosexual chose to write about a lesbian relationship. What right does she have? I found myself thinking. What can she possibly know? (Though I never said it out loud, I’m glad to report.) And I reacted even though I have rarely written out of my own more personal understanding of relationships between women.I also remember, however, my wonder and admiration when the student got it right.All of which says only that the issue is a complex one, often muddied by emotion. And I’ll add that writers from other cultures—we have traditionally called them minority cultures and continue to do so even as their populations expand, sometimes beyond that of the “majority” culture around them—have a right to their resentment over being used to make “a good story,” however good that story may be.The transition from a publishing world totally dominated by white experience to a multi-cultural one has been rife with mistakes and defensiveness of all sides, my own included. Some years ago I heard a librarian in my own city, St. Paul, Minnesota, a city with a diverse school population, say, “If I pick up a picture book and see only white faces, I don’t buy it.” I was indignant, That’s unfair! I thought. I have no control over the faces in the illustrations in my books! But what else is “unfair” in this picture? I remember sitting with my beautiful two-year-old African-American foster daughter on my lap, reading her the same books I had read my own blond children, and suddenly realizing that not a single child on those pages looked anything like her! I had never before noticed that fundamental lack.That was more than forty years ago, though. Surely the problem is solved now. Isn’t it? What is your perception if you are white? Maybe even that these days people of color get all the publishing breaks?Take note of this: The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin recently reported that of the 3,200 children’s books published in 2013 only 93 were about black people. And other ethnic groups were even less represented.Setting my books aside to make room for those by and about people of color may be exactly the dose of “unfairness” our children’s book world needs.