We talk about having books with non-white characters on our bookshelves so that non-white children can see themselves in books, to offer them "mirrors." At the same time, we tend to expect nonwhite children to be able to identify with contemporary and futuristic white characters in fictional texts, to find the similarities between themselves and the characters which make these texts "mirrors" as well. We do not expect them to read these books for "windows" that will help them understand white culture and perceptions.

Conversely, we tend to offer books with non-white characters to white readers without assuming that the white reader should or could or would see himself or herself in those characters. Instead we offer these  books  as a way for white children to "put themselves in their shoes",  as windows, not mirrors - subtly reinforcing them to adopt a positioning superior to the characters subjected to the reader's gaze. 

Similarly, we encourage not just whites, but non-whites to look at folklore and historical texts as windows, as a way of remembering and understanding something in the past, to understand things that happened, not to anyone like them, but to people (and cultures) who are dead - a point that Debbie makes eloquently. 

In my opinion, the debate about whether this or that text more accurately portrays the truth, or is a translation, or privileges one group's perspective over another ignores the most important issue surrounding the publication of more texts with realistic and relatable non-white characters. As several have already pointed out, while it is important to get the facts right and to honor distinctions that set cultures apart from one another, we need to offer more texts where non-whites are and should be perceived as mirrors, more contemporary stories and mysteries and fantasies and futuristic tales rather than more folklore and historical  texts. We need to offer readers books that encourage all children to see others simultaneously as unique individuals, people shaped by their culture, and people very like themselves, to see them as human equals, as living vibrant people rather than as objects set apart and preserved in textual artifacts as though they were in a museum under glass.

Claudia Pearson