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Race in True Believer
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 08:44:57 -0500
I am finding this entire discussion of race in "Make Lemonade" and
"True Believer" to be quite interesting, and I very much appreciate Linda Sue Park's recent comments on the issue.
When I first read "Make Lemonade" year ago, I assumed all the characters were white, for the very reasons Ms Park articulated: because race didn't seem to matter. But that didn't strike me as at all unusual at the time because this is true not only in "Make Lemonade" but in the vast majority of literature written by whites about whites in this nation. The race of the characters isn't mentioned, and that's all part of white privilege. Of course, race matters. But white people can afford either to ignore it or pretend that it doesn't.
This puts me in mind of a discussion our colleague Pat Enciso had several years ago with a group of 5th graders about the race issues that were brought up in the book "Maniac Magee." A white boy in the discussion group claimed: "Nobody notices my race. When I walk into a room, nobody notices I'm white," to which an African-American boy responded quietly, "Yeah, they do, boy."
In any case, what I find especially intriguing is that a book that aims to be raceless can engender so much discussion about race. I can understand young readers deciding the characters are whatever race they need them to be, for purposes of their own identity. If an Asian American teen wants to identify with LaVaughn, fine - she can be Asian.
What I find more difficult to understand are the adult readers who insist the characters are African American. "True Believer" even appeared recently in a Booklist bibliography of Black History books! Is this really based solely on something as superficial as one character's name? Or does it say something deeper about how we view race and class?
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Wed 11 Jul 2001 08:44:57 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 08:44:57 -0500
I am finding this entire discussion of race in "Make Lemonade" and
"True Believer" to be quite interesting, and I very much appreciate Linda Sue Park's recent comments on the issue.
When I first read "Make Lemonade" year ago, I assumed all the characters were white, for the very reasons Ms Park articulated: because race didn't seem to matter. But that didn't strike me as at all unusual at the time because this is true not only in "Make Lemonade" but in the vast majority of literature written by whites about whites in this nation. The race of the characters isn't mentioned, and that's all part of white privilege. Of course, race matters. But white people can afford either to ignore it or pretend that it doesn't.
This puts me in mind of a discussion our colleague Pat Enciso had several years ago with a group of 5th graders about the race issues that were brought up in the book "Maniac Magee." A white boy in the discussion group claimed: "Nobody notices my race. When I walk into a room, nobody notices I'm white," to which an African-American boy responded quietly, "Yeah, they do, boy."
In any case, what I find especially intriguing is that a book that aims to be raceless can engender so much discussion about race. I can understand young readers deciding the characters are whatever race they need them to be, for purposes of their own identity. If an Asian American teen wants to identify with LaVaughn, fine - she can be Asian.
What I find more difficult to understand are the adult readers who insist the characters are African American. "True Believer" even appeared recently in a Booklist bibliography of Black History books! Is this really based solely on something as superficial as one character's name? Or does it say something deeper about how we view race and class?
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Wed 11 Jul 2001 08:44:57 AM CDT
