CCBC-Net Archives
Fwd: Multicultural literature, minus some?
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 23:24:39 -0500
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com> Date: Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 7:09 PM Subject: Multicultural literature, minus some? To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu
Like so many others, I've been following this discussion with great interest. it is rich, thoughtful, and provocative indeed, and I've certainly gained from it. But although I'm glad, if only for the sake of convenience, that we seem more or less agreed on the term "multicultural," I wonder whether "all cultures are equally important, but some are more equally important than others."
In these twelve days of informed and passionate commentary, I have yet to see the words "Arab," "Arab-American," "Muslim," or even "Middle Eastern"
(except once, as an example of a silly error.) Of course we all write about what's important to us. But what threw me from the start was CCBC's statistical breakdown of books by cultural grouping, in Merri Lindgren's message of February 5. The four groupings, which have come up in other postings, are African/African-American, Native American, Latino/Latina, and Asian/Pacific and Asian/Pacific-American (which I assume includes everything from Iran to Kamchatka!)
But not a word about the Middle East/North Africa. So here's the first pitch for the Arab world. (Of course there are other, non-Arab countries and societies in the Middle East, but I'm dealing here with what I know best.)
Consider, please, these ironies. What is commonly designated as the Arab world stretches from Mauritania on the northwest corner of Africa to Iraq, from Syria to the Sudan. It's the cradle of ancient civilization, not to mention Western civilization. For decades the United States has been heavily embroiled in the countries of the Arab world. Wouldn't it be a good idea to promote knowledge and understanding of these societies, rather than ignorance?
And what about Arab-Americans? Is there such an ethnic community? It strikes me that one reason why even people who argue for cultural diversity seem to overlook the existence of Arab ethnic groups in this country is because the Arab immigrants have long been "new Americans" par excellence. Starting with Lebanese in the 1880s, they came to this country full of ambition, worked hard, caused no trouble, achieved outstandingly in just about every occupation and profession you can think of, In short, they have blended in so well that I bet most Americans have no idea how their lives are affected by Arabs active in, for instance, entertainment, manufacturing, finance, teaching, medicine, the food industry
(restaurants), scientific research, government, and on and on. Yet they also have kept, or revived, their Arab cultural identity--and in many cases they have paid for it dearly, especially since 9/11.
James Zogby, one of the most astute and measured spokespersons for Arab-Americans, recently wrote in a column about the movie "American Hustle" as follows:
"I will never forget my children coming home the Halloween after ABSCAM tellng me that they didn't want anyone at their suburban Washington school to know that they were of Arab descent. . . . because at that year's annual Halloween costume parade a number of their classmates had dressed up as "Arabs" complete with big noses, guns, knives, oil cans, and bags of money."
If children of any other ethnic group had experienced something like that, would it be tolerated--in supposedly polite society? That incident, of course, happened in Pre-Multicultural polite society; but slurs and open expression of racist prejudice have not disappeared.
At least the situation is getting better where children's literature is concerned. Before the 1990s, there were hardly any books for young people that presented Arab peoples in an accurate, fair, and positive light. Today the list of recommendable books (I focus especially on fiction about life today) is respectable--roughly 50 published since the 90s, compared with less than ten in the previous three decades. I like to credit a few courageous writers and publishers who recognized that the time had come, thereby opening the door to others. Few authors are Arabs or Arab-Americans, but that situation is slowly changing.
[And here I'll repeat my offer to send any interested person my up-dated list of recommended books--picture books and novels--about the contemporary Arab world, much more than the "roughly 50" mentioned above.. Just email me: elsa.marston_at_gmail.com.]
Thank you for taking note of my argument that if we're going to talk about
"multicultural," the discourse must include more than just the Big Four. Americans must know and care more about the Arab world--and its reflection on this continent.
Elsa Marston www.elsamarston.com
THE COMPASSIONATE WARRIOR; ABD EL-KADER OF ALGERIA (Wisdom Tales 2013) SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD AND OTHER STORIES ABOUT TEENS IN THE ARAB
WORLD (Indiana University Press 2008)
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 23:24:39 -0500
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com> Date: Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 7:09 PM Subject: Multicultural literature, minus some? To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu
Like so many others, I've been following this discussion with great interest. it is rich, thoughtful, and provocative indeed, and I've certainly gained from it. But although I'm glad, if only for the sake of convenience, that we seem more or less agreed on the term "multicultural," I wonder whether "all cultures are equally important, but some are more equally important than others."
In these twelve days of informed and passionate commentary, I have yet to see the words "Arab," "Arab-American," "Muslim," or even "Middle Eastern"
(except once, as an example of a silly error.) Of course we all write about what's important to us. But what threw me from the start was CCBC's statistical breakdown of books by cultural grouping, in Merri Lindgren's message of February 5. The four groupings, which have come up in other postings, are African/African-American, Native American, Latino/Latina, and Asian/Pacific and Asian/Pacific-American (which I assume includes everything from Iran to Kamchatka!)
But not a word about the Middle East/North Africa. So here's the first pitch for the Arab world. (Of course there are other, non-Arab countries and societies in the Middle East, but I'm dealing here with what I know best.)
Consider, please, these ironies. What is commonly designated as the Arab world stretches from Mauritania on the northwest corner of Africa to Iraq, from Syria to the Sudan. It's the cradle of ancient civilization, not to mention Western civilization. For decades the United States has been heavily embroiled in the countries of the Arab world. Wouldn't it be a good idea to promote knowledge and understanding of these societies, rather than ignorance?
And what about Arab-Americans? Is there such an ethnic community? It strikes me that one reason why even people who argue for cultural diversity seem to overlook the existence of Arab ethnic groups in this country is because the Arab immigrants have long been "new Americans" par excellence. Starting with Lebanese in the 1880s, they came to this country full of ambition, worked hard, caused no trouble, achieved outstandingly in just about every occupation and profession you can think of, In short, they have blended in so well that I bet most Americans have no idea how their lives are affected by Arabs active in, for instance, entertainment, manufacturing, finance, teaching, medicine, the food industry
(restaurants), scientific research, government, and on and on. Yet they also have kept, or revived, their Arab cultural identity--and in many cases they have paid for it dearly, especially since 9/11.
James Zogby, one of the most astute and measured spokespersons for Arab-Americans, recently wrote in a column about the movie "American Hustle" as follows:
"I will never forget my children coming home the Halloween after ABSCAM tellng me that they didn't want anyone at their suburban Washington school to know that they were of Arab descent. . . . because at that year's annual Halloween costume parade a number of their classmates had dressed up as "Arabs" complete with big noses, guns, knives, oil cans, and bags of money."
If children of any other ethnic group had experienced something like that, would it be tolerated--in supposedly polite society? That incident, of course, happened in Pre-Multicultural polite society; but slurs and open expression of racist prejudice have not disappeared.
At least the situation is getting better where children's literature is concerned. Before the 1990s, there were hardly any books for young people that presented Arab peoples in an accurate, fair, and positive light. Today the list of recommendable books (I focus especially on fiction about life today) is respectable--roughly 50 published since the 90s, compared with less than ten in the previous three decades. I like to credit a few courageous writers and publishers who recognized that the time had come, thereby opening the door to others. Few authors are Arabs or Arab-Americans, but that situation is slowly changing.
[And here I'll repeat my offer to send any interested person my up-dated list of recommended books--picture books and novels--about the contemporary Arab world, much more than the "roughly 50" mentioned above.. Just email me: elsa.marston_at_gmail.com.]
Thank you for taking note of my argument that if we're going to talk about
"multicultural," the discourse must include more than just the Big Four. Americans must know and care more about the Arab world--and its reflection on this continent.
Elsa Marston www.elsamarston.com
THE COMPASSIONATE WARRIOR; ABD EL-KADER OF ALGERIA (Wisdom Tales 2013) SANTA CLAUS IN BAGHDAD AND OTHER STORIES ABOUT TEENS IN THE ARAB
WORLD (Indiana University Press 2008)
---
You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu.
To post to the list, send message to: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To receive messages in digest format, send a message to...
ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu
...and include only this command in the body of the message:
set ccbc-net digest
CCBC-Net Archives
The 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.asp
To access the archives, go to:
http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net
and enter the following:
username: ccbc-net
password: Look4Posts
Received on Thu 13 Feb 2014 10:25:27 PM CST
