From: park/dobbin <bdobbin>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 16:42:32 -0500

I would submit that race always matters because it is an inextricable part of one's identity, whether author, illustrator, editor, or reader. It is most often those in the majority race who have the luxury of believing that race 'doesn't matter.'

Marilyn Nelson's A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL is a particularly cogent example. Editor Andrea Davis Pinkney wanted a book for YA readers about Emmett Till and proposed to Marilyn Nelson that she write it. Perhaps there are white editors who might have experienced a similar impulse, but the fact remains that no such book was in existence for generations, and I believe this is a perfect example of how 'colorblindness' is not always a virtue.

Great literature is born out of countless motivating factors, and Pinkney's sense of the lack of such a book combined with Nelson's talent, hard work, and willingness to write it have given us lucky readers a book both essential and beautiful.

 Sue Park

~~~ Linda Sue Park http://www.lspark.com
~~~
Received on Wed 09 Mar 2005 03:42:32 PM CST