CCBC-Net Archives

RE: A "no cost" way to support diversity at ALA, IRA and other conferences

From: jane_at_kidslikeus.org
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 20:52:59 -0700
Hi Karla, Christine, and all,
Same experience here. I toured the exhibits at IRA last year looking for transitional chapter books featuring Latino/a protagonists for 2nd/3rd grade readers. I was conducting a review at the time, and had only found two in print and thought (silly me) that that couldn't be all that was out there. No exhibitors had any, of course, but I took notes on the responses when I asked "Why not?" Here are a few:
 
“No one seems to be writing these."
"We’re not getting any submissions.”
"They have to be well-written." (I promise I did not make this up.)
"It has to have universal appeal."
"It can't just be about that." (meaning being Latino)
 
Some sales reps did try to be helpful, and a couple had some chapter books on hand for older readers. Most often the response was just “no” with no explanation or much regret. In a couple of cases, sales reps tried to find "anything close" and instead offered me picture books featuring Asian American and Middle Eastern characters, for example, as if any multicultural title in any format might do.
 
At the time, I can recall getting visibly angry with some of the responses, which didn't probably help much. To Christine's point, I think if we all get in the habit of doing this, there can be some collective impact if reps keep hearing the same themes over and over, and we leave without taking the catalog. I also think it takes practice -- I do this at conferences regularly now and I think I'm getting a little better each time at engaging some people in a tiny bit of critical discussion rather than just getting pissed off.  Moving forward, I'm planning to adopt the "Where's the Talent?" and "Stop and Make Eye Contact" strategies, too. Thanks, Christine.
Jane
 
 

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Received on Wed 05 Feb 2014 09:53:34 PM CST