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RE: Multicultural Literature, continued
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From: jane_at_kidslikeus.org
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 18:59:44 -0700
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 18:59:44 -0700
Hi Allie,
You might find Rudine Sims Bishop's terms helpful. She categorizes books as culturally specific (or culturally conscious), culturally generic, and culturally neutral. Culturally specific books include explicit cultural content (like NINO), culturally generic titles feature a particular cultural group but without much specific cultural content (e.g., PETER’S CHAIR), and culturally neutral books feature general diversity without a focus on a specific group (e.g., DREAMING UP!). In my opinion, there is room for all of these types of texts in a diverse collection. For example, it’s incredibly important that children of color can see themselves as experimenters, builders, and creators of architectural structures in DREAMING UP! (Thank you Lee & Low). But it’s also especially important to have many culturally specific books in a collection. There’s some evidence in the literature that when children only have access to culturally generic or culturally neutral books, they don’t necessarily recognize themselves in those texts. It’s more the specific, contemporary cultural content in books that triggers recognition of culturally relevant “mirrors.” I find that many teachers are more comfortable with culturally generic or neutral books because they see these books as somehow more inclusive of all children (and don't require the teacher to confront his/her own perceptions and biases) but these are not necessarily the books that are going help students connect to text and feel that they are truly included in this "reading club."
Jane
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Jane Fleming
Kids Like Us
Chicago, IL
_at_KLUBooks
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Multicultural Literature, continued
From: Allison Bruce <abruce@bankstreet.edu>
Date: Wed, February 05, 2014 5:14 pm
To: Debbie Reese <dreese.nambe@gmail.com>
Cc: CCBC-Net Network <ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu>
AllieI think we might be getting tripped up on the term "casual diversity"--there is nothing casual about the whitewashed state that subsumes most of the children's lit world. I think a lot of problems arise because we do not have adequate language to describe what we mean. Maybe you can help, Debbie -- is there a better term for what we're trying to describe? Because you're absolutely right: it's not enough just to use a different ink color. Characters of color are not simply darker versions of White people. And it's not enough to hand a Black girl who visits the library another slave narrative when she's already read a million of them.
I think there is a way to write (and draw) "multicultural" characters that are true to the culture from which they hail without transforming the plot into "once upon a time there was an Asian girl, the end." Grace Lin's LING & TING comes to mind--Chinese culture is incorporated seamlessly into the story, which is truly a story of sisterhood, individuality, and laughter. When I booktalk it to kids, I can say "Does anyone here have a sister? Can anyone here do magic tricks? Does anyone here like to eat dumplings?" rather than "Is anyone here Chinese?" I would argue that many of the books in Betsy's post are similar, in that characters are true to their culture but there's more to the plot than that (NINO WRESTLES THE WORLD leaps out as a great example as well). For anyone just catching up, here's Betsy's post: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2014/02/04/casual-diversity-and-the-childrens-book/This "casual diversity" thing is a big issue for a school librarian like me. I do a lot of booktalking directly to kids, and sometimes I find myself doing verbal backflips to avoid saying "This is a story about a Latino boy who's undocumented. And HERE'S a story about a Latino GIRL who's undocumented!" Obviously, the onus is on me to find books that tell a wide range of stories, and I take full responsibility for that--it's my job to find, purchase, and booktalk books that tell as full a range of human experiences as possible. But there's simply no denying that this is harder to accomplish when it comes to books that feature characters of color. And boy, do I heave a sigh of relief when I encounter books like THE LIVING, about which I can say "You like dystopia, right? I've got one for you..." OR "Hey, you're interested in racism and social justice, right? Would you consider reading a book about the end of the world that includes a lot of those themes?"There are countless stories in humanity--let's not hear the same ones over and over.You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: jane@kidslikeus.org.To post to the list, send message to...ccbc-net@lists.wisc.eduTo receive messages in digest format, send a message to...ccbc-net-request@lists.wisc.edu...and include only this command in the body of the message...set ccbc-net digestCCBC-Net ArchivesThe CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at...http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.aspTo access the archives, go to...http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net...and enter the following when prompted...username: ccbc-net
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username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Wed 05 Feb 2014 08:00:06 PM CST
